In the recently adopted Pact for the Future, Heads of State and Government committed to strengthening "meaningful youth participation at the national and international level" including at the United Nations.
At UNGSC, both in Brindisi, Italy and Valencia, Spain, we are proud to continuously engage young people across our Services.
This coming UN Day, 24 October 2024, we will celebrate the second edition of the Robotics Competition in Valencia. With 63 high schools already registered to participate, this activity advances STEM learning and capacity building. Efforts are underway to launch the competition in Brindisi in the spring of 2025, on the occasion of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers!
Youth participation at UNGSC takes many forms. From the Model UN events which we regularly host at our facilities, to immersive learning and mentoring opportunities, as with the Learning by Experience Programme. Notably, this past year, students in this Programme joined UNGSC officials to visit a field mission (the UN Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK) where they witnessed firsthand the realities of the UN's work on the ground. Building on the success of that visit, another field mission visit is being planned to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in the Spring of 2025.
These endeavors involve youth in all aspects, including planning. For example, graduates from the University of Salento's Master's Course in International Cooperation and Peacekeeping will contribute to promoting many of these initiatives, as part of the UNGSC Liaison Office shadowing programme.
Learn more about how UNGSC connects youth from our host communities with the work of the UN in the articles "Brindisi and UNGSC: A Destiny Intertwined" and "Building Community in Valencia around the Values of the United Nations" in our 30th anniversary publication Of Service: Stories of Solutions and Impact 1994-2024 (p.66-71).
