The World Bank’s vision for its Environment Strategy is that it will lead to an effective approach for achieving environmental sustainability that leads to sustainable development in developing and emerging countries.

As part of the World Bank’s stakeholder consultation, in preparation for the drafting the strategy, WOSM was invited to co-host the youth consultation from the World Bank’s office in Brussels. The discussion took place in 7 cities (Addis Ababa, Brussels, Cairo, Chisinau, Georgetown, Nairobi, Washington DC) via videoconference and Scouts were present in all locations, but Washington DC. Other participants included, Guides, members of school environment clubs, some government youth departments, the European Youth Forum, British Council, local Youth NGOs as well as university students.

Helping to raise Scouting’s profile; Jaakko Weuro from the European Policy Support Group moderated the discussion. The debate was a lively one focusing on a number of issues including improving the visibility of environment issues and the need for better education, the need to work more at the grassroots level as well as a number of country specific issues.

Scouting focused its impact reminding that global youth movement such as WOSM are bottom up organisations and therefore in order to reach the grass root level – which is the main aim of international organisations such as the World Bank, there is a need to take into account the realities and the possibilities of communities, also in the funding process and the expected outcomes

This initial consultation process will continue online with stakeholders able to continue to send in their comments. A summary of the February 3rd consultation, the full debate as well as photos of the consultation will be available on the World Bank website within the next week.

For more information see: www.worldbank.org/environmentconsultations and click on the consultations calendar. If you would like to input into the consultation click on the share your thoughts icon. Both icons can be located on the top right of the webpage.