REFLECTIONS FROM THE IUCN GLOBAL YOUTH SUMMIT
From April 5-16th, the Y4N team listened, learned and led at the IUCN One Nature, One Future Global Youth Summit. After ten full days of webinars and workshops, networking and more, we left the Summit feeling hopeful and inspired by the ambitious and holistic action that youth are leading, both on the ground and at decision-making tables around the world. As often happens when we leave events like this, we also left with some big questions: why are youth events separated from decision-making spaces? How can we shift these gathering spaces from conversation to action? How can we ensure that young people are compensated for their labour and knowledge that helps to shape meaningful and constructive events?
These juxtapositions motivate us to continue being creative, continue expanding our ways of knowing, and continue activating as a community.
How are you feeling after the Summit? What were your biggest takeaways?
As we reflect on our time at the IUCN Global Youth Summit, we share gratitude with the Summit team for creating a space for youth to put the nature conversation front and centre, for holding space for connection, collaboration and community building, and for providing us space to share about what we at Y4N know best - justice, cross-sector connections, and Nature-based Solutions. We share gratitude with the 400+ participants who joined our three session. Thank you for bringing your curiosity and your energy, and for sharing with us so openly and with such enthusiasm! And of course, we share gratitude with our Y4N team members who worked so diligently to put our sessions together. Thank you to Sarah, Gaby, Marina, Emma, and Julia for leading our sessions, to Esteban, Vania, and Ala for your flawless delivery, and to Sebastien, Badriyeh, Joshua and Emily for all your support behind the scenes (it takes teamwork to make the dream work!)!
Couldn’t join our sessions? You’re in luck! Grab yourself a tea and have a seat - we have put together recaps and reflections from our session, including summaries, key takeaways and our favourite quotes! Let’s dive in:
