Youth and United Nations Global Alliance has reached its 10^th Birthday.

YUNGA was formed through a partnership of UN organizations, civil society, private foundations, youth organizations and government, which includes the Scout and Guide Associations that have a membership of over 60 million.

The partnership has empowered children and youth in over 100 countries to take action in their communities on environmental and social issues and current initiatives are orientated to empower young people, especially girls, in the realization of the SDGs. YUNGA uses a system of “franchise” where activity and education modules can be selected and modified by national partners to develop context specific programmes that are relevant for their countries.

To celebrate 10 years of YUNGA and meet growing demand we are using lessons learned to  optimize existing products and introduce additional initiatives that have been requested, these include:

1. UN Youth Award for the SDGs, were youth are recognized for their efforts in self- development and undertaking SDG related projects in their communities. This is being discussed with Youth 2030 team under the Youth Envoy of the UNSG.
2. Under UNESCO’s Education 2030 for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) initiative, we are developing guidance on how formal and non-formal education and capacity building can be optimized in agriculture and food system to improve sustainable behavior change both in consumption and production as well as how to get young people engaged back into food and agriculture.
3. In addition to our existing “tribes” we are piloting new Youth Ambassadors (University Level), Champions (Secondary schools) and Change Makers (Primary schools) programmes. In addition we have also started a new YUNGA kinder garden initiative.
4. New mechanisms are being developed to improve regional collaboration and exchange of resources and experience between YUNGA countries.
5. Introduction of new IT tools for improved interaction between YUNGA networks.
6. Strengthen the technical series of resources for agricultural schools, vocational systems and non-formal education forums, this will be in coordination with relevant technical divisions.
7. New Challenge Badges planned for 2021: gender (SDG5), biodiversity 2^nd edition (SDG 15), UN decade on ecosystem restoration and possibly sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11).

Find out more here: www.fao.org/yunga/resources/en/