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ducation

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nstitutional

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that the process raises awareness of specific regional

issues and that delegates learn how to build consensus

in their discussions.

The commission sessions include group discussions,

lectures by international water experts and field trips at

local water-related facilities. Delegates learn the process

of building consensus and creating their own declara-

tions as youth parliamentarians representing their

designated countries. The sessions enable them to freely

express their interests in regional water improvement,

and they are given responsibilities for leading follow-up

actions when they go back to their countries.

Previous participants are already vigorously active

in running regular web-based meetings and publishing

youth journals containing the results of their water

discussions. In addition, some APYPW delegates will

take part in the 7th World Water Forum in 2015,

leading the way in making the voice of youth heard

and becoming independent opinion makers on the

international stage. For example, a speaker from the

first APYPW has expanded his role and was selected

as one of three youth delegates by the World Water

Council in 2012.

In two years, APYPW has boosted regional youth in

continuing their follow-up actions. It is expected to

further expand its scope over the next year, to include

cooperation with other international youth activi-

ties leading up to the World Water Forum in 2015,

the target year of the SDG. Mutual cooperation with

the World Youth Parliament for Water (WYPW) and

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Youth Forum will

closely link to the activities of the APYPW through

different formats of cooperative work, such as regular

simulating congressional action, young delegates of each country

will gain awareness of global and regional water problems and

grapple with them. In addition, the APYPW will provide the youths

with an opportunity to experience the processes of the 7th World

Water Forum, to be held in Daegu Gyeongbuk, Korea in 2015.

The 100 APYPW youths are selected through an application

process. They then choose their area of interest from a selection of

key issues on global water challenges such as:

• climate change and water storage/disasters

• integrated water resources management/ecosystems and rivers

• cities and urbanization/sanitation, wastewater and reuse

• green growth/science and technology

• food and agriculture/energy

• right to water and Sanitation/Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) and sustainable development goals (SDGs)

• governance/policy, legislation and institution/transboundary

cooperation

• education and capacity building/culture and indigenous

solutions.

Among the participants of the second APYPW, the four most

popular courses were:

1. Climate change and water storage/disasters

2. Integrated water resource management/ecosystems and rivers

3. Cities and urbanization/sanitation, wastewater and reuse

4. Governance/policy, legislation and institution/transboundary

cooperation.

With their agendas already selected, participants discuss the main

issues during the week of APYPW. They are split up into four

commissions, each composed of different paired country dele-

gates, to discuss the four issues. In addition to presenting the

issues related to the commission theme, delegates present the

water issues of their designated country in pairs. This ensures

APYPW country delegates present the water issues of their designated countries and

learn how to build consensus

Sessions include group discussions where APYPW delegates freely

express their interests in regional water improvement

Image: Korea Water Forum