17 years old Mamta and 16 years old Vinita stand outside their home in the village of Berhabad, in Jamua block of Giridih. Mamta has participated in a UNICEF supported programme to empower girls with self defence and confidence to build skills for independent decision making.
(26 August 2019) UNICEF is launching a new annual conference: Leading Minds for Children and Young People, with an inaugural event on 7-9 November 2019 in Florence, Italy, hosted by the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. This year, the conference will focus on mental health.
Each year, this conference will convene a deep dive into a theme of emerging and essential importance to children and young people. UNICEF Innocenti takes the lead in organizing the conference, in consultation with other relevant parties within UNICEF and externally. The conference is by invitation only, but findings, conclusions and decisions will be made widely available on various channels.
Convening has long been a powerful pathway for UNICEF to promote children’s rights and causes. The 1990 World Summit for Children, the 2002 UN General Assembly on World Fit for Children, and more recently the Generation Unlimited launch and convening in September 2018 in Washington D.C. are three examples of the organization’s ability to bring together knowledge brokers, influencers, policy makers, private sector, civil society and young people around key challenges and solutions for children.
We aim to end the conference with a bold but achievable global ambition for children, with a set of partners committed to taking it forward. The conference will leverage shared value partnerships with donors, the private sector, government and young people themselves, to set strategic goals and funding priorities.
For more information please write to us at: LeadingMinds@unicef.org. More details will become available on this site in the comming weeks.