(Originally published on 11/27/2015)

Youth development is a critical aspect of China’s long-term development agenda. To facilitate and support youth involvement in the United Nations (UN) System, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a strategic partnership agreement with Global Leader Education for a one year pilot program that aims to deepen youth understanding of international affairs and to ensure inclusive and equitable access to quality education and promote learning opportunities for all.

For this partnership, Global Leader Education will sponsor the position of an in-house UNDP Youth Outreach Coordinator. This Coordinator will attend Model United Nation (MUN) conferences nation-wide to represent the UNDP perspective and also provide technical as well as academic support to the case studies used in these conferences.

Furthermore, the Coordinator will act as a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) campaigner and travel to high schools close to the MUN conferences and present the latest SDG and UN-related topics to the entire school. In addition, remote or disadvantaged regions will be visited to empower marginalized youths. These activities will focus on providing inclusive and equitable access to international educational opportunities for all.

This partnership sees UNDP further cultivate its new role as a development partner rather than a donor in China, growing its relationships with government, the private sector, academia and civil society to increasingly provide expert technical and policy assistance to the country’s development process.

This partnership also comes in a pivotal year for campaign and implementation of Sustainable Development Goals that will shape our future for the next 15 years and beyond.