16th Russian-German Youth Forum in Berlin (archive event)

From May 16 to 18, 2019 the 16th Russian-German Youth Forum was held in Berlin bringing together 40 representatives of youth public organizations from Russia and Germany. The main purpose of the event was the development of effective Russian-German youth cooperation and the activation of interaction between representatives of youth organizations in Russia and Germany through the discussion of the current agenda in areas of international relations, youth policy and youth work. The focus topic of the forum in 2019 was sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

On May 16 as a part of the official opening of the forum the Chairman of the National Youth Council of Russia Grigory Petushkov and the Deputy Chairman of the Federal Youth Circle of Germany Hetav Tek spoke to participants. After the opening of the forum the UN Youth Delegate from Germany Rebecca Freitag and SDG Youth Envoys of Russia Alexei Britanov, Maria Shishkanova and Ekaterina Novikova made a presentation of the Sustainable Development Goals for participants and told how SDG youth programs were being implemented at the international, national, regional and local levels. During the day at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs forum participants met with Dirk Wiese, the coordinator for intersocietal cooperation with Russia, Central Asia and the Eastern Partnership countries. Participants also discussed the current agenda for cooperation between Russia and Germany in the youth field. At the end of the day participants visited youth organizations of Berlin and got acquainted with their work (Lernort “7/jung” learning site, “Princess Gardens” (“Prinzessinnengärten”), “Cotton candy ties” (“Zuckerwattekrawatten”)), and also presented activities of their organizations.

On May 17 forum participants visited the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Germany and met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in Germany Sergey Yuryevich Nechaev. In the afternoon of those day as a part of the educational block “SDGs and sustainable development in work with youth” participants in practice got acquainted with interactive methods of working with youth on the topic of sustainable development.

On May 18 participants met with Thomas Hoffmann, the Executive Director of the German-Russian Youth Exchange Foundation, and Dina Sokolova, the Head of the Russian Coordination Bureau for Youth Exchanges with Germany. They also got acquainted with activities and projects of the Foundation and the Russian Coordination Bureau. The work of the forum continued within the framework of thematic workshops topics of which were related to the SDGs (SDG 4 “Quality education”, SDG 11 “Sustainable cities and towns”, SDG 13 “Combating climate change”, SDG 16 “Peace, justice and effective institutions”). Participants developed recommendations for youth organizations and project ideas for each of areas. After summing up results of the forum participants visited Treptow Park and laid flowers at the Soviet war memorial “Warrior – Liberator”.

The forum was held within the framework of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany in the field of youth cooperation dated December 21, 2004.

Participants 

The forum was attended by 40 people. They were representatives of youth public organizations in Russia and Germany.