The 2020 RCE Youth SDG Challenge ‘Youth for the Goals’ is an exciting and unique youth-led initiative focused on delivering the SDGs at a local level. This year, the Challenge will be focusing on SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG 15: Life on Land. Projects are welcome from any RCEs interested in participating.

Conceived by Asia-Pacific youth leaders at RCE Greater Western Sydney (Australia) and RCE Yogyakarta (Indonesia), the Challenge uses a peer-to-peer learning model coupled with virtual mentoring support to empower and enable youth leaders to engage with each other and to deliver grassroots projects that matter to them and their communities.

The Challenge invites young people to get empowered and engaged in their local communities and RCE networks. Youth are invited to either create their own or build on an existing project, with support from their RCE or an organisation, that will make a difference for them, their community, and the planet. Projects could include creating a video documentary, youth camps, leadership programme, school workshops, clean-up events, art installations and more - the choice is yours as long as it is in line with the Challenge theme (SDG 11, 12 and/or 15, underpinned by SDG 4). Projects must be led by a youth lead (35 years or younger), can be run by an individual or team (team doesn’t have to be youth exclusively) who are committed to the project from February – October 2020.

To date, the challenge has engaged directly with over 19,000 youth and delivered 39 individual sustainability youth-led projects across nine countries. In 2018, the focus was on SDGs 13 and 14, whilst in 2019, it was SDGs 1, 6 and 10 – all underpinned by SDG 4.

Find out more and download the flyer here.

To participate, submit an expression of interest here. The deadline is 31 January, 2020.