The University on Youth and Development is an activity jointly organised by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, the Spanish Government (INJUVE), the European Youth Forum (YFJ), the Spanish Youth Council (CJE) and other international youth organisations.
Since its first edition in 2000, the University takes place once a year bringing together representatives of youth organisations and youth movements from all over the world who gather in the CEULAJ (Euro-Latin-American Youth Centre) to discuss, train and be trained as well as to take political action around the main issues on the global agenda.
In 2012 the University on Youth and Development will be gathering for the 13th time and therefore renewed hopes and aspirations, objectives and challenges are launched to the partners to reinforce this as the space and home of Global Youth Work and of the Global Youth Movement.
Main Goals
- To create a political space where youth can act upon and acknowledge the role they play in Global Development.
- To initiate and encourage a debate aimed at defining the role youth play in elaborating development policies and in co-operation for development initiatives.
- To facilitate a process aimed at defining and implementing projects within the field of youth.
Date and length of the Activities
The University will be held from the 16th to 23rd September 2012. The main arrival day for participants to the University is the 16th of September and the Departure day is the 23rd. Activities are therefore foreseen to have the length of 6 days starting on the 17th and closing on the 22nd of September. Partners should also consider the weekend 15th to 16th for preparatory meetings and preparatory work.
Partners’ Preparatory Meetings
Two partners’ preparatory meeting are also foreseen for 1st June 2012 and for the 14th September 2012. Both Meetings will be held at the CEULAJ, selected partners are expected to be available to attend the full duration of these meetings.
Joint Theme 2012
In response to the issues and challenges facing young people worldwide, the core partners of the University on Youth and Development have agreed on “Youth Rights” as the main priority for the Network of Universities on Youth and Global Citizenship for period 2012-2015 and “Youth Rights” as the Joint theme for the 13th University on Youth and Development.
The partners set out their commitment to engage with youth organisations and other nongovernmental organisations, national governments and international institutions to facilitate and support the debate and cooperation aimed to promote youth development. The University will aim at reinforcing and debate the regional instruments for youth rights and right based approach to youth policies, such as the African Youth Charter and the Iberoamerican Convention on Youth Rights. With this, we expect to focus on the rights young people should enjoy regarding the improvement of their well-being, health, full and decent employment, access to education, both formal and non formal, as well as their full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms and effective participation in the society, without any forms of discrimination.
The Joint programme but also the training activities, seminars and discussions that partners will bring to the University are encouraged to be a contribution to this debate.
Deadline for submitting a proposal for an activity
The enclosed form proposing an activity to be held at the 12th University on Youth and Development should be returned to the North-South Centre by email, by 17th February 2012 to http://nsc.youthandgobalisation@coe.int.
Main Criteria for the activities:
- organised by youth and youth serving organisations and having young people as target group (age between 18 -35);
- have a theme and aims that constitute a relevant contribution to the aims of the University, (activities related to capacity building and youth empowerment)
- have a Global or Interregional (i.e. Euro-Mediterranean, Afro-Asian, Euro-African, etc) scope, both in terms of the participants and the content. The University partners will particularly value activities involving Asian participants.
- involve a maximum of 25 participants;
- seek gender balance in terms of the participants
- commitment of the partner towards the Joint Programme of the University
Activities organised in partnership between various organisations and resulting in partnerships and co-operation processes are highly encouraged. The University itself is result of these kinds of synergies.
What is covered?
- Board and lodging for the duration of the activities (arrival day 16th September, departure day 23rd September 2012)
- Rooms and facilities for the activities
- Basic equipment
- Interpretation: English, French and Spanish for plenary(ies) of the Joint Programme.
Partners’ Commitments and Responsibilities towards the University
The University on Youth and Development is organised around the principle of economy of scale which reduces the overall cost by doing things together. This principle also means that all partners are asked to contribute for the collective costs of the University respective to the asymmetric financial capacities of each of the partners and relative to the size of the activities.
A minimum contribution of 500€ and a maximum of 3000€ is the foreseen contribution from each of the activity’s partner.
Each partner is equally responsible for the travel cost of the participants involved in its respective activity (close travel terminals: Airport of Malaga-AGP and the train station of Antequera -Santa Ana). Partners are expected to build together the University and its Programme and to actively take part in the preparatory process and meetings, contributing to such things as: proposing and mobilising guest speakers and resource persons to the joint moments; organising or coorganising joint activities; proposing volunteers; contributing to the evaluation and to the media and press coverage etc. This commitments will be discussed in detail in the partners’ meeting.
A main criteria for selection of the activities is the clear commitment of the partner to the joint programme of the University and the expected mobilization of the respective participants to this joint programme.
Unicology: Over the last years the partners of the University on Youth and Development have developed and encouraged inspirational practices in order to build a socially and environmentally sustainable activity. This is also expected in the 2012 UYD (ex: non-paper policy, low energy consumption, using recycled and recycling materials, using fair trade goods, using environmentally friendly means of transport etc).
Network of Universities on Youth and Global Citizenship: The University on Youth and Development – Spain, the University of Participation and Citizenship – Uruguay, and African University on Youth and Development – Cape Verde have been providing an exceptional space for young people and youth organisations around the world to meet, debate, build their capacity and cooperate on youth policy related issues. The educational model developed in these Universities has been enhanced by its various partners and largely inspired by the Global Education Guidelines, systematised by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe and by the new framework provided by Council of Europe Recommendation on education for global interdependence and solidarity (CM/Rec(2011)4, Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 5 May 2011).
Committed to further strengthen the interregional and global youth cooperation and the impacts of its activities, the partners engaged in this network decided to develop a coherent and articulated system for the Universities on Youth and Global Citizenship, outlined in this concept note.
The establishment of this Network is expected to bring added value to the political support and funding of the Universities as well as to strengthen the impact of the work of the Universities and its partners in youth development.
For further information visit: http://www.uyd.me
