UNOSDP's 13th Youth Leadership Programme

The YLP consists of four camps each year in which youth aged 18-25 who are currently working on SDP projects across the developing world come together to receive training and guidance in the best practices in the field of SDP.

This programme not only contributes to the personal development of youth by helping participants develop their leadership skills in SDP, but it contributes to overall community development.

By providing an opportunity to develop and exercise their leadership skills, the youth participants can strengthen a community’s capacity to build on its strengths and respond to pressing community needs.

Utilising the power of sport and play, the YLP will help youth gain practical leadership skills to inspire and invoke change.

Youth will create this change by:

• Enhancing the quality of SDP programmes in their organisation
• Increasing the number of organisations in the community that are aware of how sport and play can contribute to development and peace
• Increasing the number of people in the community that are participating in SDP programmes

Using participatory facilitation techniques, each YLP will favour an experiential approach to learning. This methodology gives youth a chance to reflect on the lesson at hand, to connect their learning to real-life situations, and return home to apply their knowledge to their communities.

Youth will not only be active participants in their own development, but they will also support the growth and development of youth from other countries. Through numerous partner organisation presentations, leadership tasks, play-based activities and group discussions, youth will learn to maximize the transformative power of sport and play.

The YLP will encourage youth to:

• Reflect on their own perspective and approaches to development
• Explore different strategies of using sport as a tool to inspire change in a variety of development areas, including most notably the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs);
• Identify and problem-solve barriers to implementing SDP programmes in their communities
• Share strategies, approaches and best practices in SDP
• Learn to advocate for SDP
• Create standards to guide the development and implementation SDP programmes