Announcing the YPARD visionaries for Strategic Planning Meeting 2018

From the 5th to 8th March 2018 the regional coordinators, national representatives, steering committee members and some members of YPARD from all over the world will hold the 2018 YPARD Strategic Planning Meeting.

This meeting will be held at the hosting institution of the European Coordination Unit of YPARD:  the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CULS), Czech Republic.

About the Strategic Planning Meeting

Discussions at the Strategic Planning Meeting are to inform the 2018-2021 business plan which will guide the growth of the network in the next four years. The previous strategic plan for the just past four years focused on transiting the network from ‘start-up’ phase to an established organization.

But the new plan that will be birthed at this year’s meeting will concentrate on the professionalization of the organization. By this plan we envision a network with a structure which is effective, efficient, driven by the members and sustainably financed: A stronger and more unified YPARD network.  

The meeting will augment YPARD’s stance as a community-led organization which thrives on collective action. The contributions from participating members will drive the development of YPARD’s new strategic plan and series of concept notes for fundraising. 

Meet the visionaries

To ensure that the forthcoming plan is based on the experiences of the diverse youth leaders in YPARD, applications were requested from the entire international YPARD community. Out of a total of thirty-five applications submitted, participants of the meeting were selected uniformly across the globe- in proportion to regional distribution.

Equally important, the selection process was gender sensitive as well. Though these participants are going to be funded, an opportunity of self-funding was given to some others. Also, since the meeting will be in Europe, some additional European national representatives are included on the roll.

The criteria for selection included applicants’ passion, motivation and desire to contribute to and benefit their community; consideration of YPARD’s key priorities; readiness to engage in fundraising with YPARD; demonstrated engagement with YPARD; and the strength of applicants’ proposal. 

Consequently, after a highly competitive selection process, the panel settled on the following eight out of the thirty-five strong applicants:

• Aimé Kazika and Paul Zaake for YPARD Africa;
• Jim Leandro Cano and Nikita Bhusal for YPARD Asia;
• Sunil Abeyasekera, Astghik Sahakyan and Cristina Conea for YPARD Europe and
• Daniela Rivas for YPARD Latin America.

Congratulations, Guys!

We say a big thank you to the many who took the time to respond to our call for applications and to contribute great ideas which will eventually inform our business plan for 2018-2021.

If not for limited resources, it would have been awesome to select each applicant since each one shared great insights. We are very grateful to you and still look forward to opportunities to engage with you while we advance the cause of the network.