Meet ILC Asia’s newly selected participants of the Global Land Forum Youth!

Eleven (11) young people from ILC Asia membership are set to fly to Amman, Jordan, to participate in the Global Land Forum Youth (GLFY) 2022. The two-day event provides opportunities for young people to exchange ideas, strengthen a global network, and build together an agenda to address the main challenges they face in accessing land and protecting their territories around the world, with a special focus on Jordan.

The candidates will be part of a cohort of 100 young, motivated, and proactive individuals from across the globe wishing to build the ILC youth movement and find common ground between land rights and youth activism.

Rural youth are often excluded from institutions that provide access to financial services, denying them credit, savings, and insurance. Skill development opportunities, education, or resources such as land are scarcely accessible.

While there is the notion that the youth are typically averse to rural livelihoods and covet exciting opportunities in the urban areas, there is a significant youth population wishing to continue working and engaging in land-related activities in Asia. ILC Asia members believe that access to land for rural youth needs to be secured in order to alleviate poverty and unemployment. By giving meaningful participation to rural youth in decision-making roles, change can happen at the local and national levels.

At GLFY 2022, ILC is bringing together its youth movement to exchange ideas on the following umbrella issues:

1. Youth building sustainable livelihoods and dignified life in rural areas
2. Youth leading the way towards a more peaceful sustainable world

The event will feature a variety of activities like thematic debates, interactive sessions and training sessions. Participants in the GLFY will be able to attend the ILC Global Land Forum (GLF) 2022, a triennial event that brings together ILC members, partners and the broader land community to advance understanding of the complex linkages between land, food systems, poverty, inequality and democracy - and to plan joint actions towards people-centred land governance. The event dates are yet to be confirmed, but will most likely take place in May 2022.

Why Jordan?

Jordan boasts one of the youngest populations in the world, with those under 30 making up more than 70% of its population. Recognising the critical role young people have, the first-ever GLF Youth will be held back to back ILC’s flagship event, the Global Land Forum, and will bring together youth from Jordan and around the world to present their vision of the future to the GLF delegates and wider land community.

The following are the six participants from Asia selected at the Regional Preparatory Meeting in December 2021.

The following are the 2021-22 cohort of ILC Future Leaders Fellowship, a year-long programme for young activists and change-makers who are making the difference within peoples’ organisations in the ILC network and in the land rights space. Together they will join the Global Land Forum Youth 2022 in Jordan to bring the voices of young activists into ILC governance and activities.