With the slogan “Youths are the torch-bearer of change”, Nepal Youth Council has been actively working in youth-focused areas for the last eight years. Like in previous years, Nepal Youth Council is organizing National Youth Conference 2019 on International Youth Day with a slogan “Youth Entrepreneurship for Prosperous Nation: SDGs in Equal Inclusion” going side by side with the UN theme for International Youth Day 2019 “Transforming Education” bringing one male and one female participant from all 77 districts of Nepal in the capital. The major thematic areas of the conference are Tourism (Visit Nepal 2020), 50/50 (Gender Equality), Sustainable Development Goals (3, 4, 5, 8, 13, and 16), Youth Leadership, and Youth Entrepreneurship. The conference is commencing on 12 August (International Youth Day 2019) and the conference ends on 15 August 2019.
The conference will house 204 participants out of which 154 participants are representing 154 local governments (2 each from 77 districts) and 50 participants are representing various communities including minorities, disabled, LGBTIQ+, etc. The conference ensures inclusion and female participation of over 50% in participants and speakers. Like all previous editions of the conference, the participants of this conference must fall under the age group of 18 to 30 and must be progressive and optimistic youths either residing, studying, or working in the local government they intend to represent. To be eligible for participation, the participants were recommended by the local government representative stating that the youth fulfills the basic criteria.
The selection process has ended and all 204 representatives have been selected. The participants under the leadership of province coordinator are releasing a media declaration stating the objectives of participation in the conference and are submitting the press release to the Chief Minister before arriving the capital.
In the conference, all provinces are also displaying their culture, art, tourism, food, and lifestyle depicting materials in the stall allocated to them. The stall is available for all four days of the conference and the participants are compulsorily bringing materials that promote their local uniqueness on a national platform. The sessions on the first day of the conference is being followed by Youth Cultural and Networking Night where the participants will be wearing their local and unique cultural dress and will be engaging in cross-cultural sessions.
Unlike other conferences where participants are engaged within the conference only, National Youth Conference 2019 aims to engage the participants after the conference as well. For this purpose, Nepal Youth Council in partnership with Nabil Bank is providing seed fund to carry out a local project in all 77 districts of the country. On World Tourism Day (27 September), the project intends to recognize one of the cultural or natural heritage sites in each district for carrying out a sanitation program with the active involvement of at least 100 youths. The project aims to promote Inbound & Outbound Tourism and play a role in the success of Visit Nepal 2020. The project will strictly be carried out with the active involvement of the local government.
Nepal Youth Council has been actively working from last eight years in the areas of Youth Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Youth for Environment, Youth for ICT, Personality Development, and Sustainable Development Goals with an aim of bringing youths in the mainstream of local, social, and economic in all seven provinces of the country. The National Youth Conference 2019 is the seventh conference contributing to this progressive and optimistic aim.
