IPBES youth workshop 2024

Information to all applicants:

The nomination deadline is now closed. We are currently in the process of reviewing all 232 nominations and will soon begin the selection process. All candidates will be informed of the results via email in due course.

The IPBES youth workshop 2024 will be an in-person meeting and be held back-to-back with IPBES 11 in Windhoek, Namibia on 6 to 9 December 2024. 

The youth workshop will bring together 25 participants, including five participants from each of the UN regions (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Europe and others). 

An open call for nominations of participants, including selection criteria, will be issued. Selection of participants will be conducted by the capacity-building task force management committee. Support for participation in the youth workshop will be provided to all 25 selected candidates. 

Selection criteria for participants:

• Be between 18-30 years of age;
• Be actively engaged in relevant work on biodiversity and ecosystem services, including in work relevant to the three ongoing IPBES assessments (nexus, transformative change, business and biodiversity, monitoring and spatial planning and connectivity assessments);
• Be nominated by a government or an organization/network with a letter of recommendation in support of the nomination;
• Be committed to participate in person in the youth workshop.  Participants are expected to actively contribute to the workshop and to report on its outcome and on the work of IPBES to their home institutions and other relevant organizations. Participants are also encouraged to initiate capacity-building activities for youth;
• Have very good speaking, reading and writing skills in English as the workshop will be held in English; and 
• Have demonstrated ability to respectfully interact with people from other disciplines and work effectively and efficiently in a multicultural team.

Application and nomination process

The application process consists of two steps:

1. Online application by the candidates: Candidates are invited to complete the application form through the dedicated web portal at: https://www.ipbes.net/youth-workshop-2024/application (to access this page you will need to log in with your IPBES website login credentials). Candidates not yet registered on the IPBES website will need to do so at https://ipbes.net/user/register. Please note that the application form is in English only;
2. Online nomination process: The nominating government, organization or institution indicated by the candidate will receive an email with a link to the nomination form and will be invited to approve and submit the nomination in the web portal. 

Interested candidates are requested to fill out their application form by 9 September 2024. Nominators are invited to approve the application by 23 September 2024.

1. Online application by the candidates:

As part of the online application, candidates will have to submit a letter of motivation stating:

• A brief introduction to the candidate’s past and ongoing engagement in topics related to biodiversity and ecosystem services within and outside the nominating organization and the candidate’s motivation for this involvement;
• The candidate’s relevant network (organizations, individuals etc.) and expertise of potential interest to other participants in the youth workshop;
• A short and personal description of the reasons for the candidates to apply for the workshop, of the contributions they can make, and of the ways they and their organization/network could benefit from the workshop, both personally and professionally; and
• Any information that demonstrates abilities expected from successful candidates as listed above.

2. Online nomination process by governments, organizations and networks (nominators)

Youth organizations and networks engaged in work on biodiversity and ecosystem services can nominate a member of their organization or network  with the qualifications set out above (in section “Selection criteria for participants”) to participate in the youth workshop. Youth organizations and networks can nominate more than one candidate from their own organization/network, but only one candidate per UN region can be nominated (i.e., a maximum of 5 candidates per nominating organization). Governments are invited to nominate candidates representing youth organizations or networks in their region, but are encouraged to do so in close dialgoue with the respective youth organizations and networks to avoid double/conflicting nominations. 

Nominators have to provide a nomination letter for each candidate. This letter has to be signed by the national focal point or head of the candidate’s youth organization, and should state specific reasons why the candidate is being nominated and address the following points:

• Brief information on the work of the candidate’s organization/network in supporting engagement of younger generations in biodiversity and ecosystem services related topics;
• The candidate’s role and contributions (past and ongoing) in its youth organization/network; 
• How the candidate’s youth organization/network will benefit from its participation in the youth workshop; and
• How the nominator will facilitate and support the successful applicant in sharing their experience from the IPBES youth workshop within the organization/network.

The selection process

Suitable candidates are selected by the management committee of the IPBES capacity-building task force, based on the above-mentioned criteria with a view to achieving disciplinary, gender and geographic balance. All candidates will be notified of the results via email by the technical support unit on capacity-building.

Support for participation

Support for travel, meals, and accommodation will be provided to all participants by the Governments of Finland, Norway and the UK, as well as by Future Earth.

Questions and further information

Please contact the IPBES technical support unit at [email protected] if you have any questions.