Participants at the fourth edition of 'Arab- European Young Leaders Forum’ held in Doha.
The fourth edition of 'Arab- European Young Leaders Forum’ (AEYLF) held in cooperation with the League of Arab States and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Austria, opened here yesterday. The forum, being hosted for the first time in Qatar, aims at promoting leadership skills among youth.
“The forum aims to deepen the communication between the emerging leaders. It serves as a platform for the exchange of views on common issues and challenges. The forum will be held for another four days to strengthen the cooperation and the mutual dialogue between the Arab-European Leaders,” said Khalil Raihani, Youth Affairs Adviser at the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
He further highlighted the objectives of the forum at the opening session by saying: “Young leaders should contribute to the development of common knowledge and increase awareness of concepts and practices of youth leadership empowerment, in order to achieve sustainable development and intercultural dialogue in youth.” The programme will be structured on three thematic workshops. The first one is based on ‘Youth in intercultural dialogue and non-formal education’, the second is under the title ‘Youth economic empowerment’ and the third workshop is based on ‘Future economic livelihoods and youth and sustainable development protecting the environment’.
“The forum itself is about leadership in changing times, to have young Europeans and Arabs working together at the problems of today and tomorrow. The recommendation that these young people will come up with, will be followed up at a higher political level,” Willy Kempel, Austrian Ambassador to Qatar, told The Peninsula.
AEYLF was founded in 2009 in order to understand the emerging leaders of respective regions. The forum held its first session in Vienna (2009) which was hosted by the Opec Fund for international Development (OFID), in cooperation with the League of Arab states and the Austrian Foreign Ministry, under the overarching theme of “Responsible Leadership”.
The second AEYLF was held in Cairo 2012, and hosted by the League of Arab states and the thematic focus was put on the role of “Media and civil society”.
The third AEYLF was held in Vienna 2014. King Abdullah bin Aziz International Center for Dialogue between followers of cultures and civilisations hosted the agenda of the third session of the forum under the title of “Social partnership as a tool to promote diversity, possibilities and challenges”.
