Equal Playing Field’s inaugural Youth Leadership Summit will take place from the 15th – 19th November 2021.
The first of its kind event will see close to 100 young men and women from seven centers across the country, including National Capital District (NCD), get together to share ideas and knowledge on youth related topics.
The week-long event will be physically hosted in Port Moresby for 30 youths, while the other centers will be virtually connected. These are Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB), East New Britain, East Sepik, Southern Highlands, Milne Bay, Morobe and Hela.
According to Youth Leadership Summit donor and sponsor United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), this arrangement was made following assessment of the risks large gathering would have posed on the participants in terms of Covid-19.
Equal Playing Field’s Chief Executive Officer, Jacqui Joseph, said the idea of going regional was to create an equal chance for the youths from the outside centers.
With the measure not allowing gathering of more than 20 people, the summit host has taken it on board to see the event through and at the same time complying with the provided measures.
Joseph, further reiterated that even though running the regional summit may not fully capture the main aim of the summit to create an interprovincial network amongst the youths but the organisers have other options to link all the youths together.
Joseph said this summit aims to create an avenue for the young men and women to get together and share ideas, information and discuss how they should strengthen their programs.
With the theme, ‘Strongim yut, Strongim nasen’ EPF aims to give an opportunity to the youth to learn and build themselves up instead of waiting for free handouts from agencies, donors and governments.
Joseph said they (youth) have the resources and skills and all they need is training to help them realise their potential to do more using what they have. “The youth have the potential to advocate on sensitive issues within their communities, issues that matter to them like gender-based violence and climate change.
The 2021 Youth Leadership Summit is funded by the European Union and the United Nations through the Spotlight Initiative.