EFIL participated in the Eastern Europe Regional Youth Advocacy Workshop and was represented by Stefan Ubiparipović (AFS Serbia), member of the European Pool of Representatives. The workshop was held in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, from 3-6 May 2016 and it gathered 35 young leaders from Eastern European countries including Poland, Georgia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, FYR of Macedonia, Armenia, Moldova, Romania and many others.
The event was jointly organised by the UN Secretary-General’s Initiative on Education – Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) and Youth Peer Education Network Moldova (Y-PEER) as well as supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
One of the conclusions of the event is that advocacy for the newly adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals is very desirable in Eastern Europe. Despite differences between the countries represented, young participants once again proved that intercultural dialogue and learning can be the bridge towards the creation of advocacy strategies for the fulfilment of the UN SDGs until 2030.
During the workshop, youth leaders drafted specific advocacy strategies and were divided in several groups, each one was focused on a different problem such as improving of quality of education in schools, health care, climate change and equality. Furthermore, participants developed project proposals out of their advocacy strategies and learned about implementation and different approaches in order to ease their tasks in the future.
Nevertheless, people of Moldova proved themselves as being great hosts and they succeeded to show both the beauties of the country and the capital Chisinau as well as to bring closer the Moldovan culture in spite of a short time. The organisers provided the participants, during the International Evening, a chance to get familiar with the food and dances of the participating countries.
This was a very useful experience for EFIL as well as for the organisers and this only motivates us more to advocate for better formal and non-formal Global Citizenship Education opportunities and to reemphasize and underline the importance of good quality exchange programmes nurturing the intercultural dialogue and learning.
For more information: Stefan.ubiparipovic1@gmail.com