Youth engagement in the GFMD process
The Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) has been the key government-led space shaping the global debate on migration and development, to which youth have been actively contributing since 2017 with the support of the consecutive GFMD Chairs. As the GFMD Steering Group-mandated body for the self-organised coordination of participation of children and youth in the Global Forum for Migration and Development, the Migration Youth and Children Platform (MYCP) has strived to ensure meaningful youth engagement in all GFMD activities.
The Migration Youth Forum is our flagship initiative and an official youth preparatory space to the GFMD Summits, implemented since 2018. This has been 2-3 days long virtual or in-person event, which have been very successful in:
– building the capacity of young people to advocate on issues of migration;
– giving youth a space to consult, help them consolidate their priorities, and amplify their voices;
– creating strong networks and collaborations across youth peers as well as relevant institutions from governments to UN and civil society;
– empowering young people to launch or scale their own initiatives.
MYCP has previously demonstrated the great potential impact of the Youth Innovation Award model – a global contest empowering young leaders to drive innovative solutions for migration challenges. The inaugural Youth Leadership and Innovation Award for Migration (YLIA) organised as part of youth engagement in the 2021 Global Forum for Migration and Development Summit, awarded cash prizes totaling $33,000 to three winning youth initiatives. These were chosen from nine finalists by a high-level jury during a pitching and awards ceremony during the GFMD summit itself. The programme was designed to both provide visibility as well as tangible support to young innovators.
The MYCP impact reports from the past GFMD Summits can be found here: 2018 , 2019, 2021.
The XIV GFMD Summit activities
We will be hosting the fourth Migration Youth Forum in Geneva and online as the official preparatory space for youth to consolidate and exchange priorities, recommendations, youth-led solutions and best practices. Our main bid is to deliver on a strong, inspirational and substantive youth presence at the 14th GFMD Summit. All in-person youth forum participants will form the GFMD Summit delegation.
The Youth Forum will be held on the 21st of January 2024, two days prior to the beginning of the GFMD Summit, in order to allow youth to dialogue together before participating in first the GFMD Mechanisms preparatory day and events, and then in the Summit, as has been designed in the past. The Youth Forum will be structured to parallel the roundtables held at the GFMD Summit, in order to directly translate collected inputs into the later government-led discussions.
We are also proud to host the 2nd Youth Innovation Award on Migration. Building on the success of the previous edition, the competition is an innovative, global contest empowering young leaders to drive innovative solutions for migration challenges. Winners are awarded a grant allowing them to expand their projects. They also receive substantive mentorship from our expert partners. Participation in the competition is not a prerequisite in joining the Youth Forum.
Youth engagement in the GFMD process does not start at the Summit. Since October 2022, we have been proactively gathering youth inputs to co-shape thematic background papers that will serve as guiding documents for government-led roundtable discussion. Learn more about our year-round activities here.
The 4th Migration Youth Forum
Location: Geneva, Switzerland and online
Date: 21 January 2024
Dates of capacity building workshops: online sessions throughout January 2024; exact dates to be confirmed
Dates of the GFMD Summit: 22-25 January 2024
Participants: Young people, including young migrants and refugees, representatives of civil society organisations led by or working for youth, researchers, entrepreneurs, young decision makers from national and local governments, professionals, volunteers, activists, leaders – all under the age of 31 and strongly committed to working with and for migrants in their communities. We aim for a balanced representation and an inclusive and diverse Forum when it comes to gender, age, socio-economic background, culture, ethnicity and geography.
Objectives: The Migration Youth Forum aims to provide a platform for young leaders, activists, and advocates to come together and discuss pressing issues related to migration, refugees, and displaced populations in preparation for their participation in the GFMD Summit. Specifically, it focuses on:
● Capacity building: Provide youth a space to consult and consolidate their priorities in order to effectively advocate on issues of migration
● Empowerment: Amplify young people’s voices at official decision-making processes and equipping them with the necessary skills to launch or scale their own initiatives
● Multi-stakeholder Collaboration: Create strong networks and synergies across youth peers as well as relevant institutions from governments to UN agencies and civil society
Eligibility criteria:
Age Range: Be between 18 and 30 years old (inclusive) at the time of participation at the Youth Forum and the GFMD Summit. No exceptions.
Country: youth from all countries are eligible to apply.
Thematic expertise: Youth Forum participants must have a track record of relevant leadership, research and/or community impact in the area of migration and development. Preference will be given to youth with lived experience of migration (migrants, IDPs, diaspora, refugees, asylum seekers etc).
Language: In order to meaningfully participate in all discussions and capacity building workshops, in-person participants should have at least an intermediate level of English (CEFR B2 level). Online participants should be conversant in either English, Spanish, French, and/or Arabic.
Commitment: Be able to fully commit to actively participate during the Youth Forum and/or GFMD Summit, as well as in any preparatory and post-event activities.
Application Process: Duly fill out the online application form and submit it before the deadline (September 30, 23:59 CET)
(For in-person attendees only) Ability to Travel: Be in a position to travel to the host country (Geneva, Switzerland). This includes having a valid passport, necessary travel documents, and possibly obtaining a visa if required. (Please note: MYCP will be supporting selected applicants in obtaining visas such as through providing them with official invitation letters, accommodation assistance, etc. but MYCP is not able to guarantee the issuance of visas to any applicant)
Application link: [APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED]
Deadline to apply: 30 September 2023 23:59 CET
Funding: We will provide scholarships for a limited number of in-person participants considering their socio-economic background. The scholarships will cover their trip to Geneva and stay for the duration of Migration Youth Forum and the GFMD Summit. We will also support exceptional candidates in raising funds for their participation if needed. To be considered for the scholarship or fundraising support, we kindly request you to duly fill out the designated section within the application form. If you’re not applying for the scholarship, you can still join as a self-funded participant or an online attendee.
To maintain the integrity of the scholarship selection process, we have established a rigorous evaluation procedure. This process has been designed to ensure that the scholarships are awarded to the most deserving applicants, taking into account a variety of factors including financial need, commitment to the forum’s and MYCP’s goals at the GFMD, the overall quality of the application, background of the participant, and the potential impact of the applicant’s future projects. In addition, we highly encourage applicants to explore alternative sources of funding such as through external grants or subsidies from various organisations. In this regard, MYCP has reached also out to its key partners in providing additional funding and sponsorship opportunities for youth to take part in the event.
Key partners: The Government of France, Global Forum on Migration and Development, International Organization for Migration, UNICEF, European Youth Foundation, Council of Europe,
The 2nd Youth Leadership and Innovation Award
This competition is an innovative way to focus the conversation around migration on concrete and practical solutions and serves as a starting point of future partnerships between youth and relevant GFMD stakeholders. It not only is in synergy with the goal of the GFMD of finding solutions to global pressing issues around migration and development, but also gives youth from all around the world the chance to contribute to this goal with their projects.
The 2024 Youth Leadership and Innovation Award for Migration invites youth under 31 to submit innovative existing solutions in the following areas:
- Climate Mobility
Projects aimed at addressing the challenges of climate mobility, promoting sustainable practices and resilience in regions experiencing climate-induced migration, and collaborating with local communities to ensure long-term environmental and social impact. Guiding questions:
- How does your project address the challenges of climate mobility, and what innovative solutions does it propose?
- In what ways does your initiative promote sustainable practices and resilience in regions experiencing climate-induced migration?
- Social, economic, and cultural contributions of diaspora
Initiatives that harness tools to leverage diaspora engagement and enhance their social, economic, and cultural contributions, including sustainable climate action. Guiding questions:
- How does your initiative harness digital tools to leverage diaspora engagement and enhance their social, economic, and cultural contributions?
- How does your initiative enhance diasporas’ contribution to development?
- Health & safety: migrants’ access to basic services.
Solutions that seek to address the challenges related to health and safety for migrants, specifically focusing on improving their access to basic services. Guiding questions:
- How does your project address the challenges related to health or safety for migrants?
- In what ways does your initiative aim to ensure that migrants have adequate access to essential services?
Objectives of YLIA
- Provide seed funding to escalate youth innovative initiatives working on climate mobility, diaspora contributions and access to services.
- Strengthen the capacities of young leaders, including young migrants, refugees and members of host communities.
- Elevate the voices of young leaders in global scenarios such as the Global Migration Forum on Development (GFMD).
With a steadfast commitment to empowering the next generation of change-makers, this Youth Leadership & Innovation Award for Migration is set to ignite a powerful movement that harnesses the potential of youth-led solutions and drives meaningful progress towards a more inclusive and sustainable future for all.
Activities
We will launch an open call for applications for the Youth Leadership & Innovation Award with three main categories: 1. Climate Mobility, 2. Social, economic, and cultural contributions of diaspora, and 3. Health & safety: migrants’ access to basic services.
Stage 1: After a selection process, we will select 6 to 9 finalists, each finalist will be paired with a mentor for a period of 6-8 weeks with the goal to improve, develop further and prepare their initiatives for the final pitch session. They will also receive online capacity-building workshops from our academic partner the Migration Working Group at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University.
Stage 2: Selected 6 to 9 finalists will participate in a pitching competition, where they will be able to present their solutions to a jury in an event that will be part of the GFMD official programme. The jury will select three winners who will receive unrestricted seed funding to support their initiatives (amount TBC) and further 1:1 mentoring to support their fundraising efforts and further development of their project following the Innovation Award journey. The nine finalists will be invited to the GFMD Youth Forum and the GFMD Summit in January 2024. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engage with all GFMD stakeholders, including governments, mayors, and representatives of the private sector and civil society.
Who can apply
→ Young people under 31 years of age and/or groups of people can apply, as long as one person is nominated as the primary applicant for the award. Only 1 person will be the main spokesperson for each initiative.
→ The project needs to be led by the youth or have a significant leadership component of young people
→ The project must touch upon one or more areas, answering the award questions mentioned above.
→ The project should have been implemented/tested with a concrete level of success or impact, AND have possibilities for replication and/or scaling on regional, national, or international level.
→ Primary users should be relevant actors around the issue of migration: migrants and diaspora themselves, governments and their services, employers, civil society organisations, and/or the host community.
Awards
The winners will receive mentorship sessions for their ideas/projects, seed funding, and the chance to participate at the Youth Forum for Migration (21 January) as well as the GFMD Summit in Geneva (22 to 25 January 2024).
Indicative Timeline:
August-October 2023 – Receiving applications; organisation of promotional activities
Late October 2023 – Preselection of 6 to 9 finalists (First round)
November 2023 – January 2024 – Mentoring of Initiatives
January 2024 – Pitching Competition. Participation at GFMD Youth Forum & GFMD Summit in Paris; Winners of the Innovation Award Announced
January – April 2024: Mentoring of winning initiatives
Application process:
[APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED]
Key Partners: The Government of France, Global Forum on Migration and Development, International Organization for Migration, UNICEF, Migration Working Group at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University,
