Youth Empowerment: SpeakActChange platform at the Global South-South Development EXPO 2017

From 27 to 30 November 2017, the Global South-South Development Expo 2017 took place in Antalya, Turkey.

The topics of this Expo was “South-South Cooperation in the Era of Economic, Social and Environmental Transformation: Road to the 40th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA+40)”.

Ana Mosiashvili, Fellow at the International Institute for Youth Development PETRI – Sofia, Y-PEER Focal Point from Georgia and Steering Committee member of YouAct (European Youth Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights) attended the EXPO.  Ana took part in the Third Regional Networking Forum for the Arab States, Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) “Scaling up Southern Development Solutions through Advanced Youth Leadership”. She delivered the speech on the topic of examples of successful homegrown solutions from the global south on empowering of youth through volunteerism and she talked about Y-PEER and how Y‑PEER empowers young people in 57 countries across Europe, the Arab States, CIS and Asia-Pacific countries through volunteerism and peer education methods.

SpeakActChange was presented during the exhibition as a new online advocacy platform for young people. Stickers with the logo and the address of the platform were distributed among participants.

During the plenary session on youth empowerment and the launch of Youth Leadership Initiative, Ana talked about the importance of youth empowerment and the need to consider young people not just as beneficiaries but also partners and actors. She presented PETRI – Sofia and Y-PEER as good examples of youth-adult partnership and encouraged participants to support youth-adult partnerships in their work.

Launched in 2008, the Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo) is an annual global event organized by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) in its capacity as the General Assembly-mandated global and United Nations system-wide coordinator and facilitator for South-South cooperation, with full UN system-wide support and participation of all UN specialized agencies and programmes as well as strong support and partnership of other inter-governmental organizations and entities of the South.