Danube Watch 2/2017 - Youth for Water and Climate – the role and potential of youth

In the run up to the Paris Climate Conference (COP 21) in 2015 young people from more than 20 countries decided to start a global initiative by issuing a White Paper. The paper contained over 50 recommendations, based on consultations from more than 20 countries around the world.

What is #YWC?
The White Paper was presented to delegates from several countries during the 11th Conference of Youth (COY 11), just a few days before COP21. The paper focuses on four key areas in which young people feel they can do something to address environmental issues: water and agriculture, water and health, water related risks, and sharing water resources.

ICPDR, along with several other organisations, government officials and the President of COP21, whole-heartedly endorsed this new initiative by signing a Declaration of Support.

Involving young people in youth forums, parliaments and other such innovative activities has always been an integral part of ICPDR’s philosophy towards raising awareness for a cleaner and more sustainable Danube. Its delegates were therefore more than happy to pledge support to the aspirations of these young people.

The Global Water Partnership (GWP) then helped to make this new “global partnership for youth” more accessible to other young people by creating a dedicated web portal entitled Youth for Water and Climate – #YWC.

Two years on from the conference and a number of lessons have been learned that prove that young people do indeed have a great deal to contribute to the global effort to create a more climate resilient planet. Young people have a greater ability to change things than they are often given credit for and partners at all levels have expressed great enthusiasm for the initiative.

Based on this growing momentum, #YWC’s ambition is to further empower young people so that they can fully realise their potential and become leaders in addressing the challenges of sustainable management of water resources and climate change in a changing world.

Objectives
#YWC aims to help and encourage young people to develop viable concepts and proposals for projects that will contribute to achieving the fulfilment of global sustainable development goals (SDGs) and climate agendas. To accomplish this, a three-pillar approach has been adapted. Support will be provided to develop viable project proposals that take into account the challenges faced by young people.

Advice and assistance regarding fundraising and the promotion of projects will also be made available. This will be done by harnessing the resources available from a vast network of global partners, utilising different financial mechanisms, and facilitating the exchange of experiences between young people facing similar issues around the world.

#YWC in the CEE
The Summer School in Warsaw saw the founding of a new European regional YWC community. Inspired by interesting lectures about integrated water management and real-life case studies, young specialists from Central Eastern Europe decided to make the different aspects of their water knowledge more visible. Through the freshly established Youth Water Community for Central and Eastern Europe (YWCCEE), 23 young water specialists from various different backgrounds have come together to focus on water issues covering 13 countries.

Jelena Krstajic, one of the school’s participants, speaks enthusiastically about the new initiative: “This has been one of the best networking experiences of my youth career to date. In fact, it was so good that it resulted in an initiative by all of the school participants to create a new youth network. We have decided to actively encourage and support young people in CEE to become more actively involved in project proposals and their implementation, and also create a visible policy for development.”

Jelena was sponsored in her position as an ICPDR intern by GWP CEE to attend the Summer School in Warsaw and explains: “There was a task to set up a project in which young people would take the lead. While setting up the project, the students realised that there is no youth organisation targeting water issues in Central and Eastern Europe, so the idea of YWCCEE was born. Whilst YWC is a global initiative, YWCCEE focuses specifically on this region.

The project has now been submitted for approval and while approval is still pending, interest in it is steadily growing. Called “Fishme, Ishme”, the main objective of the project is the removal of plastic waste from the Ishme River in Albania.

YWCCEE has a board made up of regional representatives with three representatives for each region. There are three regions in total and eight of the regional representatives make up the organisational board. This will make tracking of the initiative’s developments easier. From the eight representatives, Jelena was chosen to become the first President of YWCCEE. She will hold this post for one year before handing it over to the Vice president who is yet to be elected.

Jelena Krstajic is a former ICPDR intern and PhD Student in Hydrogeology at the University of Belgrade. She is the first President of YWCCEE

We invite all young professionals and students to visit our Facebook page @ www.facebook.com/ ywccee/ for more details and contacts, and to join our #TOGETHER we can make a difference motto