The project is based on a partnership of 3 EU-based NGOs (Bulgaria, Italy, Romania), 1 higher education institution (China), 1 Africa-based ;NGp (Ghana) and 1 South Asia-based NGO (Nepal). Its overall objective is to foster EU-China, EU-African and EU-Asia youth cooperation (as well as trilateral cooperation between the EU, China and Africa) in the sphere of sustainable rural development and poverty reduction, with a view to assisting young people and relevant civil society groups in EU, African and Asian countries in building their civic leadership and community development capacity. The project's specific objectives are to improve the capacity of youth leaders in EU, African and Asian countries to organise and empower rural communities as they promote sustainable rural development; to improve these youth leaders' capacity to partake in relevant policy debates; to assist them in applying their skills in practice at the community level; and to raise awareness on sustainable rural development and to promote the EU's sustainable developmental strategy across Africa, China and Asia in general.The focus Is on rural areas and youth; the overarching therhe is sustainable rural development. Activities will directly involve 18 youth leaders, 12 youth workers, and 10 experts. They will take place in, or indirectly affect: Dobrlch, Kranevo and Dobrudja region (Bulgaria), Procida and Campania region (Italy), Bucharest and Muntenia region (Romania), Jinan and Shandong Province (China), Tarnale and the Northern region (Ghana) and Kathmandu (Nepal). The project's main activities and outputs are:1. Training of Youth Leaders in skills for rural leadership and sustainable development: 2 thematic trainings for the youth leaders (18 mobilized youth leaders in each training) will improve their knowledge on sustainable development, their leadership and community capacity building skills, and their intercultural communication skills;2. Youth Think Tank for sustainable rural development: 3 transnational working groups of youth leaders will develop 3 Youth Ideas Papers containing recommendations for policy changes;3. Demonstration event and pilot micro actions: youth leaders and youth workers will organize a July Morning Youth Festival and 6 micro actions, working directly with local communities.More generally, the project will:• foster youth civic engagement and active citizenship;• raise awareness on sustainable development and poverty reduction and promote the EU's sustainable development agenda among a wider young audience in Europe, Africa and Asia;• create a sustainable and expandable transnational network of NGOs and youth-related organizations from Europe, Africa and Asia;• in the long run foster EU-China, EU-African, and EU-Asian youth cooperation, as well as trilateral youth cooperation between the EU, China and Africa.The project includes exploitation-of-results activities (demonstration events, micro actions). In addition, it should havea tangible multiplier effect and sustainable impact as the trained and empowered youth leaders continue to work withlocal rural communities. Project results will be disseminated through specially designed activities (e.g. pressconference, press releases, website) and through dissemination embedded into the project's key youth events (e.g. aGreen Living Information Tent at the youth festival).