The Baha’i International Community’s four-month “Youth Can Move the World” workshop series concluded last week, with an event exploring approaches to social change. 

Taking place during the United Nations’ High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, the event drew dozens of diplomats, UN officials, and civil society representatives. It concluded a multi-part exploration of the role that young people can play in transforming the multilateral system. 

“This series focused on the unique contributions that youth can make in fostering movement among all populations and age groups toward a better and brighter future,” said Liliane Nkunzimana, a Representative of the Baha’i International Community (BIC) and co-organizer of the series. 

Each of the series’ four sessions included background materials prepared on a chosen theme, including: transforming leadership in the UN system (thought piece, case study), effective models of communication and interaction (thought piece, case study), building a compelling vision of the future (thought piece, case study), and approaches to social change (thought piece, case study). 

Participatory by design, each session devoted significant time to small-group discussion, in addition to comments by featured speakers. Short videos were produced to share attendees’ reflections from the first and middle two sessions, with another currently under development. A summary document distilling key points from discussions across the series was also produced. 

Co-organizing the series with the BIC was the Global Futures Forum and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Youth (SDSN Youth). 

“There is a generational multiplier effect. Everything we do right or wrong will multiply across generations,” noted Nudhara Yusuf, Facilitator of the Global Governance Innovation Network at the Stimson Center and one of the event’s co-organizers. “Our goal is to make sure we do right in our own generation.”

“Whenever something is dying, something else is being born,” observed Brighton Mukupa Kaoma, Global Director of SDSN Youth, another organizer of the series. “This is what we see today. Systems are dying, but youth are helping replace them with other realities.”

The series built on a similar initiative the BIC organized last year. “Following that first effort, there was great interest from member states and other stakeholders in following a line of inquiry month after month,” Nkunzimana noted. “Many appreciate the value of a sustained process that allows conversations to unfold and develop over time.” 

The four sessions drew representatives from a dozen Permanent Missions to the United Nations, as both speakers and attendees, representing countries as distinct as Portugal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Korea.

Insights and input from the series will inform a statement the BIC is developing on the role of young people in facilitating the advancement of society, to be released in conjunction with the 2024 Summit of the Future.