Towards the start of Summer, I got accepted into UNOSD’s (United Nations Office For Sustainable Development) annual youth camp on SDGs. The camp is cohosted with the UNPOG (United Nations Project Office on Governance) and Korea Environment Corporation. The forum first took place in Seoul and then carried on in Incheon S. Korea for 4 days.  A group of 47 enthusiastic youths (out of 300 or so applicants!), all interested in SDGs met to discuss and learn. The energy in the meet-up rooms was on a whole new level. The discussions were very engaging, going by the quality of participants; graduate students, experts and young leaders alike, at the guidance of UN experts. We looked at how we ought to maximize Frontier technologies (while addressing the dangers they pose) for public service delivery to realize the 2030 Agenda; how to tackle climate change; how to promote decent work and economic growth, and few more topics within the framework of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

I must say the cake’s icing was in the quality of personal interactions I had with fellow participants, particularly my group members. They were a smart, driven and open minded lot. Their stories and take on the myriad daily discussions shaved off my ignorance and added to my existing knowledge. Bottom-line, I learnt much more than I had anticipated, acquired new invaluable friends and made long lasting  memories that I’ll one day look back to and murk, ‘I made the most out of my youth!’

PS: We had an inter-group project contest that tasked us to come up with creative ways to implement the SDGs. After toiling away for weeks we eventually won. And that was great.