The 5th Global Youth Summit: the youth’s space to address the problems of today.

by Reena Mapanao, INK

SM Care and Global Peace Foundation are inviting the Filipino youth to take part in the 5th Global Youth Summit, themed “Achieving 2030 Sustainable Development Goals through Youth Collaboration, Leadership and Innovation”. The event will be held at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on March 3, 2017.

Over 15,000 attendees from the Philippines and abroad are expected to come and discuss how to tackle five of the most critical Sustainable Development Goals identified by United Nations (UN).

Based on a recent survey, the top five most relevant issues to young Filipinos are quality education (78%), no poverty (54%), decent job and economic growth (51%), climate action (49%), and zero hunger (43%). Coincidentally, these are also what UN’s Sustainable Development Goals aims to achieve.

Professional and charismatic speakers from government and non-government, and business sectors will expound these topics and enlighten the audience through their talks.

This Global Youth Summit 2017 is also hosting a competition entitled #GlobalYouth4SDGs. It aims to encourage the youth to be involved by sharing the best ideas that they have to help the communities that are greatly affected by these problems. They may choose from one of the five issues to solve and make a proposal on how they plan to execute it. 1 million pesos cash prize will be divided to the top 5 winners of the chosen issues to help them carry out their winning proposal. This contest is open to all youth ages 14 to 35 years of age and should be in a group with 3 to 5 members. Act fast and submit your proposal on or before the extended deadline of January 31, 2017, 11:59 PM (PHT).