Baku hosted the First Global Forum on Youth Policy
On October 28-30, 2014 in Baku the First Global Forum on Youth Policy was held, jointly organized by the Government of Azerbaijan, the UN Development Programme, the Office of the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The forum was held under the chairmanship of Azerbaijan at the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
The main objective of the forum was to attract attention to the youth policy pursued in various countries, bring together the world's experts in the youth policy, analyze existing practices, and set standards of the state youth policy.
705 government representatives, experts, heads of youth organizations and active young people from 165 countries took part in the forum. Among the participants there were representatives of governmental and non-governmental youth organizations, youth policy experts, media representatives, UN agencies and other organizational entities (UNDP, UNESCO, Council of Europe).
At the Forum opening ceremony a letter of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev addressed to the participants was sounded, and a video application of the United Nations Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon was demonstrated. It should be noted that on the next day, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev took part in the Forum with detailed information about Azerbaijan's state youth policy, and spoke about the success achieved and the next targets. In his speech, Mr. President has particularly highlighted that Azerbaijan has its own model of youth policy despite the fact that it is a young independent state.
During three business days of the event, the discussions have been held in the following 4 plenary and 24 thematic sessions:
Plenary sessions
- "Achievements and challenges for the last 20 years after the adoption of the World Programme of Action for Youth"
- "The key elements of the modern youth policy"
- "Guidelines for the elaboration of youth policy"
- "Efforts of young people in the fight against Ebola" (in videoconference format)
1st day (13 thematic sessions)
"Education", "Employment and Entrepreneurship", "Urbanization and Housing", "Health", "Participation", "Volunteerism", "Leisure", "Gender Equality", "Justice", "Peace and Security", " Social Inclusion"," Information and Communication Technologies ","Environment "
2nd day (6 thematic session)
"Legal frameworks of building youth policy", "The importance of statistics and information in building youth policy", "Making youth policy transversal & cross-sectoral", "Strategies for youth and stakeholders’ participation in the development and implementation of youth policy",
"Political commitments and mobilization of resources", and "Building monitoring and evaluation systems.
On the 3rd day 5 regional sessions dedicated to the future development of youth policy in the next 10 years were held.
Along with the right to participate in the plenary meetings and sessions on different topics, the government officials have discussed the opportunities of future cooperation in a number of bilateral meetings. At the same time, within the framework of the event the Forum partners organized an exhibition dedicated to the youth policy implemented at the international, regional and local (country-wide) level. Photos and videos presented in the exhibition have attracted the attention of both young people and youth policy experts.
At the end of the first Global Forum, the "Baku Commitment to Youth Policies" document was adopted. Although the document was advisory in nature, it was the first conceptual document adopted on a global scale in the field of youth policy.
