RCE Belarus and its associated partners - Belarusian State Pedagogical University and ESD Association, supported by the Ministry of Education in Belarus, joined the UN75 campaign on “Building the Future We Want”, aiming to engage young people in a dialogue about future perspectives and to empower them to take actions nationwide.  

At the kick-off meeting of the UN Youth Campaign, the UN Resident Coordinator in Belarus, Vice-Minister of Education and BSPU Rector affirmed their commitment to support young people in their local initiatives towards SDGs localisation, and signed a UN Youth Campaign Action Plan covering the period April-December 2020. After the signing ceremony, the UN Resident Coordinator in Belarus, Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecki, addressed the meeting participants and drew their attention to the issues of the climate crisis, growing inequality, protracted conflicts, migration and population displacement, rapid changes in demography and technologies that require effective cooperation between countries, sectors and generations. A special emphasis in the speech of the UN Resident Coordinator in Belarus was placed on the essence of the UN-75 initiative, which is to stimulate dialogue with citizens around the world on the issues of the desired future, threats to this future, and tools and actions needed for global collaboration to overcome these threats.  

Along with the Action Plan, the educators from RCE Belarus, ESD Association and BSPU will launch a media festival 'Youth Voices for Sustainable Development' and an online research project 'Sustainable Development Goals: Think and Act!', provide pedagogical support to the local educational institutions in organising a row of public discussions: 'The Future We Want: Our Ideas and Actions', and a series of local youth initiatives 'Leaving No One Behind'. It is planned to present the best practices of the Campaign at the Special Forum within the III International Symposium in Minsk 'Education for Sustainable Development for All Generations – the Social Agreement' in December 2020. 

(Photo credits: RCE Belarus)