The Global Education Youth Award: Recognising Youth-Led Initiatives

Written by Lailah Moosa – Communications Officer

The Global Education Network Europe (GENE) has launched the fifth round of the Global Education Youth Award, which seeks to highlight innovative and high-quality youth-led initiatives. For the first time, the award has a specific focus on youth leadership, recognising projects that encourage young people to engage critically with global challenges and to act for a more just and sustainable world.

At the heart of the award is the European Declaration on Global Education to 2050. This declaration frames Global Education as an approach that opens young people’s eyes, hearts and minds to the realities of the world at both local and global levels. Through this learning process, young people are empowered to reflect on their roles as active citizens and to contribute to social and climate justice, peace, solidarity, equity, equality, planetary sustainability and international understanding.

Eligible initiatives must be thematically connected to Global Education, address issues such as human rights, solidarity, sustainability and global-local challenges, and be created by and for young people in non-formal education contexts. Projects are expected to be innovative, action-oriented and designed to achieve meaningful change through youth leadership and engagement. Applicants are invited to share the story of their initiative, explain the motivation behind it, and demonstrate how it facilitates transformative learning.

The purpose of the award is twofold. First, it offers recognition to youth-led initiatives that are ongoing or recently completed and that foster transformative education across Europe. Second, it provides a platform to collect and share innovative practices with policymakers, with the aim of improving Global Education and youth policy more broadly.

By shining a spotlight on youth-led initiatives, GENE not only acknowledges the contributions of young people but also supports learning across Europe, ensuring that the values of equity, solidarity and sustainability are carried forward into future education policies.