27
AIESEC Declaration on Sustainable Development Goals In December 2015, AIESEC’s young global leaders and representatives from 126 countries and territories gathered at the United Nations Headquarters to promote and drive youth participation in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Taking into account: The desire of AIESEC’s global membership and strategic partners to embrace the Sustainable Development Goals;
AIESEC Youth Action Summit The AIESEC Youth Action Summit was held between the 9th and the 11th of December 2015 in the UN headquarters in New York with the goal of calling the youth to focus on the impact post 2015-agenda. The participants took a deeper look into the state of the world as well as the impact of the Millennium Development Goals, and they became able to grasp the potential of the Sustainable Development Goals and role that each stakeholder plays in it, especially young people. The participants were: More than 120 AIESEC country directors and volunteers ensuring the support of the organization towards the Goals, Youth ministries and UN representatives supporting the organizations and general youth for making the world a better place, Business leaders providing the knowledge and resources for the projects which support the Global Goals Academic leaders pointing out the importance of higher education in empowering youth Civil Society Representatives co-creating meaningful partnerships and collaborate for positive impact.
The Conference in a nutshell: The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals are an ambitious
a better world. On September 25th, 2015, 193 world leaders committed to 17 goals keeping these three fragments of a world vision in mind. With about 1.8 billion young people composing the world’s population, it is evident how huge a role the youth can opt to play in achieving this. Young people are critical positive agents of change. Movements in human history have witnessed that when young people take to a cause, protests and energy is elevated. Activism steps up when young people readily catalyse them. However, the world’s youth population is not entirely hale enough to take up the initiative to contribute It started with the information and education about the Sustainable Development Goals and the clarity of basing our actions around what the world needs. The delegates understood the present and the current state of the world and came up with trends shaping it, statistics, potential dangers and solutions. Speakers included the United Nations Deputy-Secretary General Jan Eliasson and Envoy on Youth, Mr. Ahmad Alhendawi who highlighted the central role of young people to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, noting that next General’s Envoy on Youth will be launching a Global Youth Partnership
for SDGs for young people to take action and showcase best practices. Furthermore, Mitchell Toomey from United Nations Millennium Campaign, Nora Wu Global Capital Leader of PWC, Christopher Ian Morris Head of NGO and Civil Society Center of ADB, Douglas Ranan of UN Habitat, Henrik Sundström, Vice President, Group Sustainability Affairs of Electrolux, Sergio Fernandez de Cordova CEO of PVBLIC, Philip Chlotier from Barret Values Centre, who all approached the challenges and opportunities of the current global context, and provided key elements on how to engage youth, private sector and the public sectors to achieve the sustainable development goals. Finally several workshops were held to shape the above described challenges into collaborative projects among different sectors of society business, government, civil society, and youth with the focus on the needs of the world and the Sustainable Development Goals. Finally, the delegates looked into how to implement projects, partnerships and new initiatives regionally, nationally and locally. The Media were there publicizing the outcomes and strategizing on how to engage the public in a way that generates ownership of them and the Sustainable Development Goals. At the end, AIESEC launched its commitment and contribution towards the Sustainable Development Goals - a commitment of young people to make the Global Goals happen.
AIESEC’s goal to engage and develop every young person in the world - a milestone towards achieving its organizational mission and vision of Peace and Fulfillment of Humankind's Potential; AIESEC’s 2020 ambition to shape its operations around the needs of the world, increase its reach and scale up positive impact in communities around the globe by mobilizing more young leaders through its global volunteer and internship programs; AIESEC hereby declares to embrace and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by mobilizing and developing young leaders who create awareness, foster engagement and take action to implement these goals. 1. Create Awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals AIESEC commits to create awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals among its members, partners, collaborators and young people worldwide, to engage the global community in achieving these goals. 2. Foster Engagement around the Sustainable Development Goals AIESEC commits to gather and amplify youth opinion on issues that matter to them, and facilitate global and local discussions that generate actionable ideas on young people’s contribution to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. 3. Take Action on the Sustainable Development Goals AIESEC commits to align its global volunteer and internship programs with the Sustainable Development Goals to contribute to achieving the m; and to mobilize its members and young people around the world to take action to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Developmen t.
declaration of AIESEC’s commitment looked like. th
December 11 2015, United Nations Headquarters, New York City, New York