United Nations Environment Programme
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UNEP Event
Voices for Change: Driving Advocacy through Eco-spiritualities
17 February 2024
Nairobi/Hybrid, Kenya
- Overview
- Session Outcomes
Faith Working Group of the Children and Youth Major Group to UNEP (CYMG to UNEP) and the Faith for Earth Youth Council are teaming up to ensure that young faith actors are effectively engaged throughout the consultative process and reflected in the GYD.
“Voices for Change” is offered as a technical event to unite young faith actors in the margins of the highest-level decision-making body on the environment, enabling face-to-face dialogue to further integrate the voices of faith actors into the GYD, including promoting long-term collaboration with the Faith for Earth Coalition and GYMG to UNEP by advocating for change on a global scale.
Voices of Change will also be offered as an event in commemoration of World Interfaith Harmony Week (1-7 February 2024).
Covening ‘Faith for Earth Youth’ to cultivate commitments and publish Voices for Change in support of the Global Youth Declaration on Environment 2024
Two online preparatory sessions and one in-person session was held on 17 February 2024 at the United Nations Environment Programme by the Faith for Earth Youth Council and Faith Working Group, CYMG to establish a shared set of priorities by (and for) ‘interfaith youth’. These priorities and commitments were presented to the CYMG Secretariat and successfully integrated into the Global Youth Declaration on Environment 2024.
Four commitments were made with the aim of promoting inter-generational equity and inclusive engagement of the youth, in line with the Action Plan:
- Actively engage with faith leaders, institutions, organisations, and networks to enhance the role of the youth in promoting the role of values, culture, and spirituality in protecting the environment;
- Encourage faith actors, including leadership, core institutions to prioritise commitments and actions for the preservation of our natural world across their assets and networks;
- Be Voices for Change in our homes, institutions, and communities aiming to lead by example; and
- Leverage UNEP, CYMG to UNEP, and other platforms to build the capacity of ‘Faith for Earth Youth’ to engage in policy-making and policy-influencing spaces.
Interreligious dialogue was key in ensuring effective participation and raising the ambition of the Council. Laying a foundation upon which progress is expected from faith actors (by the youth) was needed. This effort was necessary for understanding the needs of the youth, and their level of experience critical in the implementation of the Action Plan.
Actively participating in CYMG-organised consultations was equally important in integrating voices of faith in the official group representing youth to the UN Environment Assembly. The aim is to mainstream faith youth participation at within the CYMG, with the Faith Working Group as an institutional mechanism in ensuring the same.
To encourage young faith actors to integrate sustainable practices rooted in their faith traditions, fostering tangible impacts locally and contributing to the broader goals
At the global level, Faith for Earth Youth Council and Faith Working Group, CYMG are committed to facilitating peer-to-peer sharing of good practice. Participation at the GYEA established the Youth Council as the premier interfaith mechanism for engagement.
Watch the recording:
