World Conference on Youth 2014

The World Conference on Youth 2014 was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka earlier this year in May and was one of the largest congregation of youth leaders after Rio+20. Its cross cutting theme was "mainstreaming youth in the Post 2015 development agenda." It was a huge honour to be invited to attend this path breaking summit. It was also a great feeling to be the youngest delegate at this conference.

The conference was hosted by the Government of Sri Lanka who made wonderful arrangements for all the delegates. It was one of the most well represented youth conferences which included representation from marginalized backgrounds as well.

Through intense negotiations, the conference produced a joint outcome document between states and youth called the Colombo Outcome Plan.

There were representatives from all major youth constituencies and we had detailed discussions on how to strengthen youth voices in the post 2015 agenda.

My interview was featured on the official blog of the World Conference on Youth with the title "A one-on-one with the Global Coordinator for Children and Youth at UNEP, Kehkashan Basu."

In response to a question on my objectives for attending this summit I replied "After Rio+20, I think this conference is the largest congregation of youth in the world. It is going to provide a great platform for us to put forward a statement which can have a defining impact on the post 2015 discussions. It can also provide great feedback which will assist in the discussions that the major groups have at the upcoming UNEA and High Level Political Forum sessions."

It was also a huge privilege for us when Green Hope UAE was chosen to conduct a parallel event at this conference. Our event was titled "Youth Impact on Sustainable Consumption and Future Justice" and it was a great success. Several international youth leaders were on the panel and shared their experiences and visions on the subject.

I was also privileged to speak at a press conference alongwith the Sri Lanka Deputy Minister of Education. I spoke on the importance of Education for sustainable development.

- by Kehkashan Basu