On 22 and 23 of February, in the framework of the MED 2050 project, Plan Bleu organised in Alexandria (Egypt), in collaboration with the Anna Lindh Foundation and the Direction interministérielle à la Méditerranée (DiMed, France), a workshop which reunited thirty young people from the East Mediterranean region. The goal of this workshop was to involve young people from this region in the MED 2050 foresight exercise, and to pursue a collective reflection on the possible evolutions of the Mediterranean by 2050.
The workshop brought together thirty young people aged 20 to 30, from different professional backgrounds (journalists, students, engineers, marine biologists, etc.) and representing five countries: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) and Syria. Conducted in a format that facilitated the appropriation of the exercise by young people, the workshop elicited numerous reactions from the participants on the scenarios being developed. It thus allowed for a diversification of points of view with the objective of co-construction, with the sharing of concrete examples based on the plurality of lived experiences and the confrontation of alternative ideas for a desirable future in the Mediterranean.
« Thank you very much for giving us the chance to participate in this amazing and fruitful workshop! We were really inspired and impressed by the way your team has facilitated the workshop, and we enjoyed every single second there ».
The workshop was a great success and all participants expressed their willingness to be involved in the continuation of the project.
The workshop was organized by Khadidja Amine, in charge of sustainable development and foresight, and animated by Lina Tode, Deputy Director of Plan Bleu, and Aloïs Aguettant, intern-assistant in prospective. Plan Bleu would like to warmly thank the Anna Lindh Foundation, and even more its Director Josep Ferré, May Helmy, Haitham Samy, Hoda Omera and Ramadan Nagy for their unfailing support in the organization of this workshop in Alexandria, as well as the DiMed and the RAED for the success of this collaboration, as well as each of the participants for their valuable contributions and their remarkable involvement.
A detailed report on the workshop will soon be available on the MED 2050 web platform.
By organizing this workshop, Plan Bleu is in line with the direction desired by UNEP/MAP (Mediterranean Action Plan), namely the promotion of youth involvement in projects implemented under the Barcelona Convention system. Specifically in the Antalya Declaration, Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention have committed themselves to intensify their efforts towards meaningful participation of youth in decision-making within the MAP-Barcelona Convention system. As a follow-up to this declaration, UNEP/MAP published a guide, the Young Person’s Guide to the Mediterranean Action Plan and the Barcelona Convention, which objective is to familiarize young people with the MAP-Barcelona Convention system. Plan Bleu, by organizing events such as the one in Alexandria, aknoweldges the essential role that the Youth have to play in the construction of a truly sustainable future in the Mediterranean.
🔗 To learn more on MED 2050: https://med2050.org/fr
