Call for Ideas — Papers & Digital Media on Multilateralism, Sustainability, and Climate Change
A Multi Stakeholder Collaboration Project between Geneva Model United Nations (GIMUN), the University of Trento, and the ITU’s World Summit of Information Society (WSIS)
This call aims at collecting submissions of ideas in a creative format on particular themes, outlined below. Primarily targeted at university students, this initiative aims to achieve the following purposes:
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Provide young people a platform to exchange their thoughts on important societal challenges today: How to approach them, understand them, and resolve them.
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Inspire young people to express their ideas in an effective and creative manner, fully utilizing their talents, and their resources, especially information and communication technologies (ICTs).
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Explore new ways that ICTs can be used to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It may cover any of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and WSIS Action Lines, i.e. goals connecting the SDGs to information and communication technologies. While submitters can choose any of the Action Lines, these are of particular interest to the call: 1 (the role of governments & stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development), 6 (enabling environment), 7(ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life), and 11 (international and regional cooperation).
Themes
Participants can submit content on one of the themes below:
Sustainability and Climate Change
Sustainability has been a persistent issue on the global political agenda for the past three decades. Of particular interest have been concerns around climate.-related changes including rising sea and temperature levels, the frequency of extreme weather conditions, as well as changes in biodiversity. In response to these issues, a range of youth campaigns and movements have been launched towards raising awareness and accelerating action for enabling sustainability and reducing climate risks.
Multilateralism in a Digital Era
Young people today live in an era characterised by critical issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and rising inequalities. These are global multi-stakeholder challenges that concern nations, populations, and cultures across the globe. Multilateral approaches can help bridge these challenges through concerted collaborative efforts.
Submissions should present potential solutions, ideas, or examples of already successful projects to current challenges in the field. These challenges may cover any of the UN Sustainable Development Goals or WSIS Action Lines as related to information and communication technologies.
Submission Formats
Submissions can be made under the following digital formats:
| Written articles | Series of images/graphical designs | Short videos | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Size | 1 page OR 800-1200 words | 720x540 or 1024x768 | Video submissions must be 1 minute 15 seconds |
| Format | PNG/JPEG | URL |
Prizes
3 prizes including internships at UN agencies will be awarded to winning entries (more information to follow).
The best papers will additionally be published in a dedicated section of our website and then be shared through the WSIS Forum’s social media accounts. Post-event, the results from this work will feed into a summary post (participants will have the option to be named) towards considering youth voices in the forum’s future work.
1-2 winning submissions will be used for a live event at the WSIS Forum May 30th to June 3rd (a hybrid event; in-person attendance is optional). As part of the event, students will be able to further develop 1 idea for future implementation. Post-event the developed idea will be pitched to relevant stakeholders for potential implementation.
Criteria & Judging Board
Submissions will be judged on the basis of:
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Insight
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Originality
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Creativity
Entries will be judged by the representatives of the participating organisations.
Deadlines & submission
Ideas should be submitted through this Google Form.
Timeline
Submission by: May 1st 2022 (11.59 PM)
Notification, Results, and Awards: May 30th – June 3rd
Live event: May 30th – June 3rd
Submissions are invited from youth participants, which includes school pupils and current or recent students across degree types and levels.
About — Organizers
WSIS Forum
The WSIS Forum. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum represents the world's largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community. This year, it is scheduled to be held starting on 15 March with the final week that will be held on 30 May – 3 June 2022. The WSIS Forum, co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD, in close collaboration with all WSIS Action Line Facilitators/Co-Facilitators, has proven to be an efficient mechanism for coordination of multi-stakeholder implementation activities, information exchange, creation of knowledge, sharing of best practices and continues to provide assistance in developing multi-stakeholder and public/private partnerships to advance development goals.
This will be held as part of the ICTs & Youth Track.
The WSIS ICTs and Youth track aim to achieve a threefold purpose: Firstly, raising awareness about the selected ICT-related issues and challenges among the global youth communities and beyond. Secondly, to create a space for youth to network both amongst them and encourage partnerships between different stakeholders, including corporate firms, academia, and youth communities around the world. Finally, to empower youth communities worldwide regardless of gender, or ethnic traits, so that they are better equipped in the implementation of sustainability and change, whilst promoting the indispensable role of ICTs in shaping the information society to better serve all stakeholders.
GIMUN
Geneva International Model United Nations (GIMUN) is a non-governmental organization with special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations based in Geneva. Run entirely by students, its aim is to promote the ideals and principles of the United Nations by giving students the chance to participate in educational events.
Part of Popædia, a project inside of GIMUN aimed to bridge intercultural understanding and provide educational content in a manner that adheres
University of Trento
The School of International Studies is promoting the event as part of their module on “People, Politics, and the Planet” and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie funded project DIGI-EMP.
