10th UNESCO Youth Summit

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Written By Nora Wilhelm

It was an honour to be selected as the Swiss representative to the 10th UNESCO Youth Summit, which took place in Paris in October 2017. Over 60 young leaders from all over the world were invited to discuss the challenges and opportunities of youth engagement with UNESCO, with a vision for change led by the youth for the youth.

We explored options for UNESCO to engage with youth as partners in co-shaping and co-delivering UNESCO's work to take youth engagement beyond mere consultation. Further, we developed recommendations on how UNESCO could support young change-makers in their work and help scale outstanding youth-led actions.

Whilst it was a mixed experience as far as meaningful youth participation goes, I left the Summit with new friends for life, and a lot of hope for the future.

More information: https://en.unesco.org/10th-unesco-youth-forum/nora_wilhelm

Nora Wilhelm

Nora Wilhelm is a social innovator, entrepreneur and researcher dedicated to a world where people and planet can thrive. A changemaker since her teens, she has a background in youth engagement and active citizenship. She presided the European Youth Parliament Switzerland from 2014-2016 and organised an International Session of the EYP in Laax (GR), under the Patronage of then Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter. In 2017, she co-founded collaboratio helvetica, an initiative that catalyses systemic change towards the Agenda 2030 in Switzerland by cultivating a cross-sectoral innovation ecosystem, building the needed capacity, open knowledge sharing, and empowering systems change leaders. She was amongst others recognised for her outstanding contribution by Forbes (30 under 30), UNEP, UNESCO and the Swiss government, and spoke at events such as the Conference of Swiss Development Cooperation, the Swiss Conference of city mayors, TEDx and on global stages next to high level changemakers such as Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. She holds a BA in International Affairs from the University of St. Gallen and a MSt in Social Innovation from the University of Cambridge. In 2023, she co-founded the well • change atelier to make art-based processes and tools to cultivate connection, creativity, and well-being available to more people.

https://www.norawilhelm.org
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