Nepal Youth Council (NYC) in association with UNDP and multiple partners hosted a three-day National Youth Conference on 12-14 August. The theme of the conference for the International Youth Day 2018 was: “Safe Space for Youth” which created a safe and secure platform for youth that offered them space to express views and engage in key discussions and related activities across diverse platforms. In total, 204 participants attended the conference out of which 154 youths (one female and one male from 77 districts) participated in the conference. Additionally, 50 youths from the Provinces (gender balanced) were selected from among the differently-abled, dalits, diverse ethnic groups and LGBTQI.
The main objectives of the National Youth Conference 2018 were to examine the status of agriculture, tourism and IT development in Nepal, to engage youths in the economic development of the country, explore innovative ideas for creating sustainable domestic employment opportunities for promoting youth leadership and innovation and mobilising the youths for partnering with the federal, provincial and local governments to influence national and local policies and plans on youth and development for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a focus on SDG 5 pertaining to Gender Equality.
The three-day event included various sessions on SDGs overview and localization, panel discussion on youth in agriculture, tourism and entrepreneurship, youth talk shows on youth & SDGs leadership connection and announcement of awards of 7 innovative ideas for the first youth led action plans.
