Young, Brave, Digital: The Power of Networked Youth Leaders in Online Activism
Breakout Session at the Global Digital Development Forum 2021
Speakers
Tsega Belachew, Technical Advisor, Youth Economic Opportunities at IREX; Khaled Hijab, Founder/Executive Director at Tech Tribes; Daniel Nwaeze, Global Coordinator, UNESCO-led MIL Alliance Youth Committee; Ephrem Woldeyesus, Youth Engagement Atlas Corps Fellow, YouthPower2: Learning and Evaluation; Fabiola Morales Ortíz, Training and Network Specialist at IREX
About the Session
The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed an unprecedented transformation to the way we work, collaborate with others, and mobilize groups for social impact, accelerating an ongoing shift to ‘online change-making’ (i.e., technology-enabled engagement, leadership, and activism). Drawing on IREX’s recent research initiative that analyzes the power of youth-led networks in addressing societal challenges, this session will delve into insights from the paper to guide participants in an engaging discussion about the opportunities and challenges for youth-led digital networks to advance social impact at scale. A diverse panel of youth and practitioners from around the world will share their approaches for leveraging digital networks to lead in addressing social issues and engage the audience in the following learning questions:1) How are youth leaders leveraging digital networks to catalyze social change? 2) How might digital networks foster more inclusion so that youth, women, and other marginalized groups can be equal partners in development? 3) What are critical methods, skills, and tools needed for these approaches to be impactful in an increasingly digital world?