This past December, GOYN convened its Opportunity Youth Leaders, Community Partners, Funders and Team from across the world, at the 3rd Annual GOYN Global Convening at the Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. Over the course of four days, GOYN global and community partners, Opportunity Youth leaders, funders, and global allies shared their unique learnings and perspectives on groundbreaking work to scale youth economic opportunities with Opportunity Youth voice at the center.
Over 300 attendees, representing over 20 countries and communities joined us in-person and via Zoom, with simultaneous language interpretation in English, French, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish for this event.
More than 50 young leaders traveled from across the world to gather in community to center youth voice and leadership at the GOYN convening. For many of them, this was their first time traveling out of their local communities to participate at a global platform – they shared that this experience was a transformational moment and experience in their youth journey.
“..Young women from my community have never had the opportunity to step out and engage in activities internationally – I knew that if I participated at this convening, other parents would see me as an example and will support their daughters in their endeavors to get ahead in life..”
– Komal Songare, GOYN Barwani
“My message to the youth today, is to never give up, always have hope and fight for what you want”
-Amal Mohamed
Days 1 and 2 of the convening were designed to invite close-in GOYN partners to share best practices and learnings from local efforts to build a collaborative infrastructure with youth perspective and partnership at the center of local strategy and pathways. These close-in learning days also featured a global unveiling and socialization of the emerging GOYN Equitable Livelihoods Framework. The framework – a product of conversations with GOYN global, local, OY, and ecosystem partners and allies – will help guide the GOYN as we further interrogate the intersections of economic opportunity, employment, and equity in co-designing appropriate place-based solutions and innovations that address youth unemployment.
Days 3 and 4 invited a more global audience to learn about the power of a place-based approach as OY leaders and Bogota collaborative partners shared how they are working across sectors to support a whole community approach focused on shifting local systems to facilitate OY access to equitable economic and livelihood opportunities.
Check out more GOYN convening highlights and youth reflections on our Youtube Channel below:
