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Arab States Region: Meaningful youth engagement in action
All 17 members from the Arab States Region of UNESCO鈥檚 SDG4 Youth & Student Network, a flagship of the SDG4 Inter-Agency Secretariat (IAS), were invited by UNESCO鈥檚 Multisectoral Regional Office in the Arab States in Beirut to participate in the Fifth Arab Regional Meeting on Education 2030 (ARMED V) that was held 1-2 November 2023, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Sixteen members participated online, and a member of the network鈥檚 Executive Committee, Ms. Nadj Alfadl, was able to attend in person. This regional meeting is organized in partnership between UNESCO Multi-Sectoral Regional Office for the Arab States, ICESCO, UNESCO Office for the Gulf States and Yemen in Doha, the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS), the Regional Center for Quality and Excellence in Education in Saudi Arabia, and the Regional Center for Educational Planning In UAE, the Saudi National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, and ALECSO.
During the Regional Meeting, Ms. Najd Alfadl, an Executive Committee member of the network delivered a remarkable speech that underscored the value of the collaboration between education decision-makers and the youth to advocate for change, as well as providing capacity-building opportunities to empower the youth as advocates and leaders for systemic change:
鈥淭oday is a great example of an opportunity for intervention to bridge the gap between the aspirations and ambitions of youth. Your actions will shape both our present and our future.鈥
Fellow Executive Committee member, Yasmein Abdelghany, resonated Alfadl鈥檚 ideas and added:
鈥淎s the world is currently reimagining and reinventing educational practices that respond to local and global needs, we need an inclusive and participatory, whole-of-society, mechanism with youth at the heart of this process.
For this to happen, my only recommendation for multilateral organizations and different stakeholders is to lead by example by effectively engaging them in all the parts of education decision-making 鈥 local, national, and regional 鈥 and shaping and delivering education to make sure our education systems respond to learners needs.鈥
Following the meeting, youth and students provided inputs to the UNESCO Arab Region鈥檚 2024-2025 Education 2030 Roadmap which underscores the region鈥檚 commitment to involve young education leaders in upcoming meetings, listen to their ideas on policies, and include them during implementation stages.
"I recommend integrating people with disabilities into the education agenda and taking their educational needs into consideration. For example, the people with disabilities in Yemen are far from modern education methodologies, and my recommendation is to intensify donor efforts to support the transformation of education for people with disabilities in Yemen."
My area of work is future skill development and job security within the education space, which I believe is largely ignored when discussing young people's education. Young people do not have the adequate support or resources to be able to create economic opportunity for themselves and reach their full potential. It is important to create educational curriculums that are economically beneficial for our youth. We need to involve them more and ensure that their feedback is applied, especially in these cases.
Eliane El Haber: "The lack of data in this region of the world (not generalizing, of course) and the lack of structured systems to monitor and evaluate the improvements leave us in so many cases dealing with uncertainties, uninformed decisions, and blocked roads with donors. Thus, it is important for us to find our way out of this and make sure we have the data we need and the monitoring systems that will help us evaluate the work, measure impact, and therefore be able to negotiate funding with donors.
I also recommend intergenerational dialogue and cooperation. Youth are not here to take the whole table; they want to be part of the process through which they work hand in hand with seniors to reshape their present and future. And while mentioning intergenerational dialogue and cooperation is not a first, I believe it is incredibly important, and it's time to dig deeper to understand the roots and why this doesn't happen organically. From where I see it, it's a combination of education and societal norms that shaped a society where young people rarely have real discussions that include criticism and analysis with adults, whether in their homes or their schools, and that needs to change."
"Responsive climate action and green education must be a top priority for the National Development Initiatives (NDIs) of the twenty-two Arab League States. Stakeholders and international agencies should pay more attention to differences in the political climate of the Member States.
Also, giving a loud and clear voice to women and young girls, minorities, and underprivileged groups 鈥 this can be done by creating opportunities for economic growth and allocating more funds for young people to lead on their community projects and make a real change on ground."
"Some suggestions would be to raise the quality of infrastructure for educational facilities, schools; to increase efforts in involving young people in decision-making bodies related to education policies at all local and global levels; to emphasize the importance of youth vision and the role they youth play in making future plans for education; and to advocate for allocation of funding to address key educational issues within schools."
"Consider customizing programs to align with cultural norms and values and to establish youth-friendly platforms, both digital and within communities, to encourage open discussions on Transforming Education.
It also helps to collaborate with existing youth-led organizations to leverage their expertise and grassroots connections, and to Implement peer education programs within schools, enabling trained youth to function as educators especially on pressing issues such as climate change and more taboo issues such as sexual/reproductive health and rights. It is also important to advocate for dedicated funding to address key educational issues within schools."
