December 9, 2021

Today, the world has the largest youth population in history; the same is true for Central Asia. The role of young people in climate action and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is becoming more important than ever before, where an increasing number of examples from all over the world shows that youth is driven to take actions for change. Indeed, among multiple scenarios - one of the solutions is to unite and mobilise mission-driven young people. Just as diverse the youth population is – so diverse can be the solutions youth provides, so-called “the pieces of the puzzle”.  Yet, it is important to provide a timely and relevant hand to youth to accelerate their diverse, bold and ambitious actions towards sustainability and development. This could be done via

1. empowerment of young people,
2. youth involvement in research, to link science and policy-making,
3. through incentives to support innovative ideas and green startups – that way building youth leadership capacities to prepare them both for their current and future responsibilities, building the bridges among generations at all scales.

December 9,2021 the Kazakh-German University (DKU) together with the Central Asia Youth for Water (CAY4W) Network organized the youth session - a pre-conference event of “The Silk Road of Knowledge: Science meets Green Policy” International Conference. The youth session took the opportunity to highlight the young leaders from the Central Asian region and their contribution to climate and water action in Central Asia through multiple levels: global, regional, national. This event gave opportunity to showcase ambitious initiatives, using the approach of - by youth, with youth, for youth; as well as to highlight the significance of cooperation among the youth-led networks and organizations taking actions towards a sustainable and peaceful future of the region. During the event young leaders had an opportunity to enhance their knowledge on a variety of topics, also take part in interactive activities and discussions in a format of the World Cafe.

As an important outcome of this youth session was a draft of the Youth Statement towards the upcoming 9th World Water Forum (WWF) in Dakar, Senegal in 2022.