IYC Green Conference: Moving Beyond Sustainability
The International Youth Council (IYC) exists to support youth-led projects that advance sustainable development internationally, and to create a community of youth leaders
worldwide.
The International Youth Council provides leadership training with an entrepreneurial spirit.The sharing of best practices, workshops, and training programs which deliver management skills will create and enable a new generation of capable organisational leaders. International Youth Council reached another milestone where the Sri Lankan Chapter organized International Youth Council Green Conference in Sri Lanka.
This event took place in MIMT Thulhiriya which gathered 50 youth delegates from Sri Lanka and from other countries such as Germany, Jordan, Oman, Nepal and United States of America.Leadership for the conference was provided by IDEAS for US (Intellectual Decisions on Environmental Awareness Solutions) who works as a youth led sustainability movement dedicated to youth related development in USA. This energetic workshop which comprised of 13 hours training, event using lectures, break-out sessions, multimedia presentations, workshops and networking.
Environmental Sustainability and develop global partnerships’ and on the theme of ‘On the Road to Youth Engagement: Moving Beyond the sustainability. Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy was the official event partner for this conference. Honorable Minister of Environment and Renewable Energy of Sri Lanka attended as chief guest to the conference.
Speaking at the event Minister of Environment & Renewable Energy Susil Premajayanthabelieves that this conference is timely organized youth conference as every country has environment related issues coming up with development activities. He further said that rapid development affects the environment where we need to control the usage of natural resources.
So beyond sustainability is very important and it should be our vision individually. The Conference was led by Mr. Sadham Zarjahan, Chairperson of IYC Sri Lanka Chapter who was Sri Lankan Youth Ambassador for United Nations Youth Assembly which was held in New York.
The conference consisted of educational training on The Five Pillars of Sustainability: Food, Water, Energy, Waste, and Ecology, as well as an exploration of the solutions we have implemented to address issues in these sub-fields of sustainability, as well as host an interactive workshop with the conference participants and local stakeholders to identify a local environmental issue in Sri Lanka and design an action project to address that issue to be implemented one month from the conference. All the delegates from Sri Lanka, Germany, Oman, Jordan & Nepal came up with new projects based on the five pillars of Sustainability.
“It was specially good experience in Sri Lanka, me and every participant achieve fruitful knowledge through this conference, development topic the main and important necessity has enable to focused on the conference which is very necessary in 21st century”. Said SrujanAdhikari youth activists from Nepal.
“This is my first time in the South Asia especially in Sri Lanka. It was great meeting all the Sri Lankans delegates and knowing how friendly they are”. Said Sarah Varouqa from Jordan “Sri Lanka is a blessed country with its great nature and amazing scenery. All the delegates were friendly and similar to me as a middle eastern in terms of values. They are more conservative”said Rua Sameera from Jordan.
“I feel that this is a good workshop. This workshop showed on how to work on long term plans to solve environment crisis. I met lot of local and foreign friends so I really enjoyed the program”. Chirantha Jayasena.
The trainings of the workshop was carried out by IDEAS for US with two key speakers Christopher Stampar, Sebastian Church who joined from United States of America. “The IYC 2013 Green Conference was designed to both introduce the concepts of environmental sustainability and result in the design of action projects that address global challenges through local solutions”“said the Director of International out Reach, Christopher Stamper USA.Recognized as a leader in environmental action by the Obama Administration, key efforts on its mission is to leave the World a better place have been personally acknowledged. IDEAS For Us is a youth led sustainability movement dedicated to taking action for a sustainable future. Which continue to expand the scope and develop solutions by educating, engaging and empowering youth around the World to take immediate action, specializing in bringing stakeholders to the table to develop solutions to the energy, water, food, waste and ecological issues facing humanity in the 21st century.
All the delegates will return back to their countries in implementing action oriented projects in their respective countries which we hope that their initiatives will help in achieving goals for sustainability.