The RCE Youth SDG Challenge ‘Youth for the Goals’ 2020 series launched this month, with 19 youth-led sustainability projects focusing on SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG 15: Life on Land. Led by the RCE Asia-Pacific Regional Youth Leaders (RCE Greater Western Sydney) via the global RCE network, projects for this year’s challenge include poster and design competitions, tree planting, justice forums, waste management solutions and more, all targeting youth at the grassroots level. All projects are underpinned by SDG 4/ESD.

On 1-2 February, 2020, UNU-IAS and RCE Hyogo-Kobe held a Japanese RCE Youth Meeting in Kobe, Japan. Twenty-five youth members from seven Japanese RCEs, Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan (MOEJ), and UNU-IAS attended the meeting over the two days, whilst some other members from each RCE also joined the field visit and workshop on the second day.

The 2019 Asia-Pacific SDG Challenge 'Youth for the Goals' aimed to inspire and mobilise on-the-ground projects led by youth, centred around social sustainability (SDGs 1, 6 and 10).

Collectively it achieved an engagement of nearly 8,000 youth participants across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

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.

Between 19-21 August, 2019, RCE Minna organised the 2nd Edition of the 'Green Fingers Programme: An Environmental Summer School for Children', at the RCE Minna Resource Centre, bringing together 17 children from various schools in Minna aged between four to eight years old.

Last month saw the first UN Youth Climate Summit ever held, which took place on 21 September, 2019 in New York, and brought together more than 700 young activists from around the world calling for urgent action on the climate crisis.

RCE Ogun recently partnered with the Hebron Startup Lab of Covenant University, Nigeria to conduct a four-day training on 'Digital Skills for Sustainable Wealth Creation', which was held from 30 September to 3 October, 2019.

Representatives from RCE Belarus recently participated in the online game 'Sustainable Development Goals: Think and Act', held in Belarus оn 25 September, 2019 on the UN's Global Day of Action (#Act4SDGs).

The 2019 ‘River Angel’ youth water protection program, jointly organised by RCE Hangzhou and the Alibaba Foundation, formally kicked off at Hangzhou Xuejun Elementary School on 5 September, 2019.