[2022] 6th Sustainable Development Goals Youth Summer Camp

Tuesday, 16 August 2022 - 10:00am to Friday, 19 August 2022 - 5:00pm

Description

Since the adoption of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015 at the United Nations General Assembly, UN Member States have taken voluntary actions to achieve this transformative agenda. However, the rate of global progress is not keeping pace with the aspirations of the member states, and societies are still confronted with daunting challenges such as climate change, inequalities, environmental degradation, energy crises, lack of public services, and most recently, COVID-19 pandemic that has drastically impacted societies at all levels. To address these problems, it is imperative for all stakeholders to take immediate action and accelerate initiatives. At this decade of action, one stakeholder – ‘Youth’ is of primary importance in forging leadership, ideas, momentum, and hope to facilitate change and build constructive solutions.

According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, young people hold the key to creative solutions, and as digital natives, they can drive innovation and accelerate progress. Young people are essential partners for development as they amplify outreach and multiply impact. Thus, youth actively striving to further advance their knowledge, skills and mindsets for sustainable development is vital to the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the Decade of Action.

Acknowledging the role of youth in sustainable development, organizations and governments alike have established strategies to raise youth’s awareness and capacity for the SDGs. For instance, “Youth 2030: The United Nations Youth Strategy” was launched in 2018 by the UN Secretary-General to enlarge the youth’s participation in peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development. It also seeks to strengthen the UN’s capacity to engage young people and learn from their innovative views, insights, and ideas in more ‘coordinated, coherent, and holistic manner’ . The UN also has a youth network, Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Youth, for conducting peer-learning programmes to improve youth engagement and knowledge. With more opportunities to pioneer innovative solutions to address the world's biggest challenges, young people can be a major driving force for the implementation of the SDGs.

In this context, UNOSD has developed the capacities of youth on Sustainable Development since the office’s inception a decade ago. With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, UNOSD began organizing the SDGs Youth Summer Camps annually to empower youth leaders to think critically and get engaged in implementing the SDGs. Since its first summer camp in 2017, UNOSD trained nearly 200 youth thus far.

 

Dates/Formality*

The 6th SDGs Youth Summer Camp will be held In-Person at the Yonsei University International Campus, Incheon, Republic of Korea from Tuesday, 16 August to Friday, 19 August 2022.

 

Official Documents

Syllabus (updated as of 15 August 2022)

Speaker biography (updated as of 15 August 2022)

 

Learning Materials

Learning Brief (updated as of 17 August 2022)

Our Common Agenda (updated as of 17 August 2022)

Foundational Primer on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (updated as of 17 August 2022)

The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design (updated as of 17 August 2022)

 

Benefits

  • No registration fee
  • Those who successfully complete the programme will receive a certificate of participation.
  • Accommodation and meals will be provided (*participants will be responsible for covering their own transportation to and from the venue).

 

Objectives

The objectives of the SDGs Summer Camp will include but are not limited to the following:

  • Build and enhance knowledge of the youth on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals;
  • Foster youth leadership skills, with design-thinking, critical-thinking, and engagement through dialogues and exercises on SDG implementation specifically on SDG-4 (Quality Education), SDG-15 (Life on Land), and SDG-17 (Partnerships for the Goals);
  • Provide opportunities for networking among youth; and
  • Expand the host institution’s partnership with youth leaders for the SDGs.

 

Methodologies and Structure

The 6th SDGs Youth Summer Camp will be held at the Yonsei University International Campus located in Incheon, Republic of Korea. This will be the first in-person summer camp ever since the COVID-19 outbreak. This year’s summer camp will focus on SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 15 (Life on Land), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) which are selected from thematic areas of the 2022 High-Level Political Forum. The programme will use a Design Thinking methodology which is a user-centric approach in developing accelerated solutions. Through the methodology, the participants will be able to learn how to contribute to the progress for achieving the SDGs by understanding the problems from other’s point of view (understand and empathize), redefining the problems (reframe) and creating innovative solutions (ideate, prototype, and test) to address challenges. The design thinking approach allows participants to utilize empathy, systems-thinking, and critical-thinking skills to develop skills in ideation, creative thinking, collaboration, negotiation, evaluation, advocacy, and leadership.

The organizers will invite experts and practitioners from international organizations, academia and government sector to share their insights on achieving the SDGs and facilitate productive dialogues with the participants. The programme will mainly be facilitated by professors and the teaching assistants from Design Factory Korea of Yonsei University who are highly specialized in teaching and applying design thinking methodology into practice. Their knowledge, skills, and experiences will ensure overall quality of the summer camp and motivate the participants to be fully engaged. The sessions will include group works to allow much interaction among the participants and host an open platform to share creative ideas on how to design and apply practical approaches to the SDGs implementation.

 

Expected Outcomes

After the Summer Camp, the participants will be able to:

  • Communicate on the role of youth in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;
  • Gain knowledge on SDG-4, 15, and 17 and its interlinkages with other SDGs;
  • Understand design thinking methodology as a tool to accelerate effective SDGs implementation; and
  • Apply design thinking to the development of prototype solutions to advance the SDGs.

 

Agenda

Day 1 (16 August 2022)

Opening and Welcome Remarks 

Moderator: Ms. Chaela Shin, Associate Research and Policy Development Expert, UNOSD

Speakers:  

  • Mr. Chun Kyoo Park, Head of Office, UNOSD
  • Mr. Hyun Soo Cho, Director, Green Transition Policy Division, Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea
  • Mr. Hyun Sik Yoon, Director General, Global Cooperation Department, Korea Environment Corporation

Session 1: Overview of SDGs and the Theme for the Summer Camp

Session 2: Invited Lecture on SDG 15 - Life on Land

Session 3: Invited Lecture on SDG 4 - Quality Education

  • Mr. Tae Kim, Strategist, Impact Strategy and Partnership Development, Enuma

Session 4 & 5: Design Thinking Phase 1: Empathize

  • Ms. Soowhan Lee, Coach, Design Factory Korea
  • Professor Hyunkyung Lee, UIC, Yonsei University

 

Day 2 (17 August 2022)

Session 1: Invited Lecture on SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goal

Session 2: Design Thinking Phase 2: Define

  • Professor Hyunkyung Lee, UIC, Yonsei University
  • Professor Jae-yun Ho, UIC, Yonsei University

Session 3: Invited Lecture from K-eco

Session 4: Design Thinking Phase 2: Define

  • Professor Hyunkyung Lee, UIC, Yonsei University
  • Professor Jae-yun Ho, UIC, Yonsei University

Session 5, 6 & 7: Design Thinking Phase 3: Ideate & Mid-Pitch

  • Ms. Soowhan Lee, Coach, Design Factory Korea
  • Professor Hyunkyung Lee, UIC, Yonsei University
  • Professor Jae-yun Ho, UIC, Yonsei University

 

Day 3 (18 August 2022)

Session 1: Design Thinking Phase 4: Prototyping Solutions

  • Professor Keeheon Lee, UIC, Yonsei University

Session 2 & 3: Design Thinking Phase 4: Prototyping Solutions

  • Professor Keeheon Lee, UIC, Yonsei University
  • Ms. Soowhan Lee, Coach, Design Factory Korea

Session 4: Group Testing Discussions

  • Design Factory Korea & Yonsei University

 

Day 4 (19 August 2022)

Session 1: Finalizing Group Presentation

  • Design Factory Korea & Yonsei University

Session 2: Final Group Presentations

Closing Remarks

  • Ms. Yujeong Kim, Senior Sustainable Development Officer, UNOSD
  • Ms. Helen J. S. Kim, UIC Dean and DFK Director, Yonsei University

 

Organizers

This event will be organized by UNOSD, the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea, Design Factory Korea of Yonsei University, and the Korean Environment Corporation (K-eco).