From 27 to 30 November 2017, the Global South-South Development Expo 2017 is taking place in Antalya, Turkey.

The theme of this Expo is “South-South Cooperation in the Era of Economic, Social and Environmental Transformation: Road to the 40th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA+40)”.

Ana Mosiashvili, Fellow at the International Institue for Youth Development PETRI – Sofia, Y-PEER Focal Point from Georgia and Steering Committee member of YouAct (European Youth Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights) has attended the EXPO.  Ana took part in the Third Regional Networking Forum For the Arab States, Europe, and CIS “Scaling up Southern Development Solutions Through Advanced Youth Leadership”. She has delivered the speech on the topic of examples of successful homegrown solutions from the global south on empowering of youth through volunteerism and she talked about Y-PEER and how Y-PEER empowers young people in around 55 countries across Europe, Arab States, CIS and Asia-pacific countries through volunteerism and peer education methods. 

Speak Act Change was presented during the exhibition as a new advocacy platform for young people. Stickers with the logo and the address of the platform were distributed among participants.

During the plenary session on youth empowerment and launch of Youth Leadership Initiative, Ana talked about the importance of youth empowerment and the need to consider young people not just as beneficiaries but also partners and actors. She has brought PETRI-Sofia and Y-PEER as a good example of youth-adult partnership and encouraged participants to support youth-adult partnerships in their work.

Launched in 2008, the Global South-South Development Expo (GSSD Expo) is an annual global event organized by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) in its capacity as the General Assembly-mandated global and United Nations system-wide coordinator and facilitator for South-South cooperation, with full UN system-wide support and participation of all UN specialized agencies and programmes as well as strong support and partnership of other inter-governmental organizations and entities of the South.