In the framework of the 15th University on Youth and Development, from the 21st till the 28th of September YES and IUSY gathered European organizations in Mollina and took the chance of this event for a week of training, learning and political debates.
The University on Youth and Development is a space aim at taking affirmative action in Global Youth Cooperation. It is jointly organised by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, the Spanish Government (INJUVE), the European Youth Forum (YFJ), the Spanish Youth Council (CJE) and other international youth organisations. Since its first edition in 2000, the University takes place once a year bringing together representatives of youth organisations and youth movements from all over the world who gather in the CEULAJ (Euro-Latin-American Youth Centre) to discuss, train and be trained as well as to take political action around the main issues on the global agenda.
The topic of this year’s edition was “Youth Opportunities” and IUSY/YES participated in the programme with a training activity titled: “Advocating our space in the post-2015 agenda: our future, our say” Following the 2012 Summit Rio+20 and the new focus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) IUSY and YES believe that our organizations should play a greater role in following up the Post-2015 agenda. While we consider sustainability goals and a higher focus on environmental protection as well as climate change to be crucial and essential for human well being, our organizations should also be strong and advocate in this process that this should not lead to reduced, lowered or fading efforts to eradicate poverty completely.
The group developed a deeper understanding on youth advocacy in the global agenda and were provided with tools and practices to be more influential when putting forward their political demands. At the same time – in the context of the University and in connection to other partner organizations – the group developed a better understanding of their belonging to a wider global youth movement, beyond their political affiliation. They also developed a proposal for a global campaign in the framework of the post-2015 agenda.
This activity was jointly organized by the Young European Socialists (YES) and the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) with the support of the Progressive Alliance (PA)