Regional Conference of Youth (R-COY)

BACKGROUND

YOUNGO as the official children and youth constituency of UNFCCC runs various formats of Conference of Youth (COY) to empower youth and formally bring their voices to the UNFCCC processes to shape the intergovernmental climate change policies.

Global COY (GCOY) is the biggest and most substantial youth conference related to the multilateral UN climate processes. It is the official gathering of YOUNGO members, and all interested youth and it happens a couple of days before the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) at the same location. GCOY serves as a space for capacity building and policy training, in order to prepare young people for their participation at COP. GCOY also brings together all collected inputs, which will feed directly into the climate negotiations via the official youth policy paper.

Regional COYs (RCOY) and Local COYs (LCOY) are organized prior to the GCOY across the world, in order to localize the climate conversation and gather more inputs from the ground. RCOYs and LCOYs discuss and develop respective outputs, which feed into national and regional climate policy making as well into GCOY and consequently into the climate negotiations.

co-organized with

Objective

Based on the main objectives of YOUNGO-UNFCCC (Policy Document; Capacity Building; Skill-building Workshops; and Cultural Exchange).

Capacity building of the youth from the MENA region regarding international climate policies and climate change /energy issues
Exchanges on best practices on youth engagement in the region and networking possibilities – organize the support for global actions such as „Fridays for Future“ in the region
Raise the voice of the youth from the MENA region and integrate it in the international climate policy decision making
Learn about YOUNGO and the possibility for the participants to engage
Develop cooperation in the MENA region and include the participation of vulnerable/isolated people in the region (women, local communities, youth living in conflict areas…)

PARTICIPATION

Minimum of 150 youth participants representing the region, as well as 30 speakers and facilitators including High level VVIP speakers (two COPs in MENA in a raw EGYPT – UAE) encouraging youth involvement and participation is essential.

OUTCOMES

In order to strive for universal accessibility, true inclusion and diversity, All inputs are feed into the final policy document to be submitted to Global COY in order to be formulated among other R-COYs policy papers and to be delivered to the COP president and the Executive secretary of UNFCCC.