Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Deadline: Ongoing
The UNCTAD Youth Forum 2025 will take place in Geneva, Switzerland, bringing together young leaders from around the world to discuss global trade, development, and economic challenges. This prestigious platform enables youth to engage directly with policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, and civil society leaders. The event fosters dialogue on issues like sustainability, economic growth, trade innovation, and global cooperation, ensuring young voices contribute to shaping the future of international trade and development.
Benefits
- International Exposure: Engage with global leaders, policymakers, and fellow youth change-makers.
- Networking Opportunities: Build valuable connections with professionals and peers from different regions.
- Skill Development: Participate in workshops, panel discussions, and collaborative projects that enhance leadership, communication, and policy knowledge.
- Policy Influence: Present innovative ideas to decision-makers and contribute to real-world solutions for trade and development challenges.
- Travel Support: In some cases, selected participants may receive partial or full funding to cover travel and accommodation.
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Eligibility Criteria
UNCTAD will pre-select forum participants, who should meet the following criteria:
- Be between the ages of 18 and 30.
- Be able to speak and understand English.
- Have experience (from studies or work) in the areas of UNCTAD’s work/focus. Evidence of
projects related to trade and development (academic and professional) will be considered as
experience in the field. - Have submitted the application to participate with a supporting video
- Have met the above criteria and have been selected for participation by having received a
registration link to the Youth Forum.
Application Process and Documents Required
Click here and fill in the online application form. Please ensure that you:
- Create a short video (of maximum duration of two minutes and in mp4 format only) explaining
your motivation for wanting to participate in the UNCTAD Youth Forum. Creativity and
originality are encouraged. Upload the video to either YouTube or Vimeo as explained below:
To YouTube:
- Sign into your YouTube account.
- Click on Upload at the top of the page.
- Select the video you would like to upload.
- Click Publish to finish uploading. Set the video privacy setting to Unlisted.
- Click Done to finish the upload and click Share to privately share your video. For more
guidance, please click here.
To Vimeo: - Sign into your Vimeo account.
- Click the “Upload Video” button which is located on the home page of the site;
- Once you click the upload link, you will be taken to the upload page;
- Click the “Choose a File to Upload” button which will launch an upload dialog box.
- Choose the file that you want to upload and then click on “Select”. For more guidance,
please click here.
- Fully complete the online application form, including the URL of your video and send it.
Selection criteria
The UNCTAD Youth Forum is designed for youth participants from around the world. The selection
criteria will be based on principles of equitable geographical representation, balanced gender
distribution, diversity of backgrounds (e.g. age, areas of studies and additional experience), and the
quality of the supporting material attached to the applications, (e.g. profile and originality in the video).
A selection committee from UNCTAD will review the applications and select the participants for the
Youth Forum. An announcement will be made on social media once the selection process has been
finalized. Once the selection process is complete, successful candidates will receive a link for official registration to the Forum. We encourage early applications, especially for those who may require additional time to apply for a visa to enter Switzerland.
Funding
Participants are expected to identify their own sources of funding for participation.
Conditions to Participate
Full-time attendance at the Forum by the selected participants is encouraged. Participants should be committed to investing time in preparing for and actively participating in the Youth Forum.
