Visit Students from Bonn University at UNCCD
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11 July 2018
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Story
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Youth
On Thursday the 5th July 2018, the UNCCD Secretariat, represented by its Capacity Building Marketplace (CBM) hosted students from the University of Bonn, completing the Masters in Agricultural and Food Economics (AFECO).
During this visit the students and their accompany Professor, Jan Börner were exposed to a three and half intense and inspiring session of formal presentations, and informal talks and conversations on many subjects, ranging from the role of youth in the UNCCD process, to the importance of land in achieving the Sustainable Developments Goals. They also met with several officials of the UNCCD working in various fields from top management, all the way to young people of their ages doing internships at the Secretariat.
The students were given a concise yet comprehensive introduction to the CBM by consultant Daniel Gonzalez Carmena, where he inter alia underlined the many opportunities that the Marketplace offers daily, and its key role in supporting capacity building to facilitate the implementation of the UNCCD. Another highlight was a presentation by Dimitrios Karatassios, an intern working with the CBM. He related his personal experiences, and why such an internship was useful to young professionals. He also emphasis that an internship at the CBM allows incumbents to get involved in very exciting projects.
This visit afforded the students an opportunity to get an appreciation and some great insights into the work of UNESCO– UNEVOC and its very interesting TVET programmes. The students all then took a quiz on Sustainable Development and the UNCCD process. This quiz designed by the CBM gave them the chance to test their knowledge on these subjects. The top three performers were awarded special prizes. Following this, interviews were conducted with two of the students and their professor, who gave their impressions on the exercise and shared their opinion about the importance of youth engagement in land and Sustainable Development issues. The visit ended with all students and their professor being given UNCCD packages and the taking of a group photo.
This visit was organized and coordinated by Dr. Richard A. Byron-Cox, Head of the CBM, who assures that these types of activities which help create awareness and provide a channel for sharing of experiences with the youth in universities and schools will continue.
