Reimagining Development: Youth Perspectives for a Better World

Reimagining Development: Youth Perspectives for a Better World

A virtual dialogue series towards the Economy of Francesco

I. Background and Objectives

A wave of discussions around the economy and society are occurring as the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts. A reimagining of economic, societal, and environmental relationships are taking center stage as the cries of the earth and the poor grow louder. The idea of development is in need of a paradigm shift, and this is clearly recognized today in the face of greater challenges.

Reimagining Development: Youth Perspectives for a Better World is a virtual dialogue series bringing together up to 36 young people from international faith-based networks and organizations, seeking to contribute to discourse and actions for a paradigm shift in development. Participants from different regions will be invited in order to draw out more holistic and adequate responses and insights.

The primary objectives are:

1. To understand from a faith-based youth perspective, and through the framework of the SDGs, how COVID-19 is impacting the economy, society, and environment regionally and globally.
2. To help redefine prevailing definitions and measures of development, acknowledging the need to integrate factors concerning social wellbeing and environmental health.
3. To promote collaboration among youth in faith-based organizations and networks towards building a more just and sustainable world.
4. To contribute a set of recommendations and commitments to the Economy of Francesco that can be communicated and shared globally.

The broader intended outcome of this series is to kickstart relationship-building among young people, so that they can work together beyond the sessions towards longer-term actions.

II. Program

This series will have three parts that build upon one another:

• Part 1: Setting the context (Aug 28) will focus on building context around the Economy of Francesco, and beginning initial discussions. All participants are expected to attend.

           Time： 28 August 2020 | 2:00 PM GMT + 2 

• Part 2: Digging deeper (Sep 11), the three proponents (Ecojesuit, Living Laudato Si’, and Don Bosco Green Alliance) will organize three separate dialogues within their immediate networks. For instance, Ecojesuit will have a dialogue among representatives from the Jesuit Conferences.
• Part 3: Weaving a common thread (Sep 25) will again convene all participants for a final round of sharing and discussion.

Agenda of the 1st session:

Details on part 2 and 3 will be updated once confirmed.

III. About the Organizers

Ecojesuit is the global ecology network of Jesuits and partners, seeking collaborations for integral ecology. The network facilitates dialogue and engagements to reconcile with God, with one another, and with Creation, addressing the broad call for action of Laudato Si’ and the urgency for a just global transformation in care for the Earth and the most vulnerable. This involves Jesuit social, educational, and pastoral institutes, collaborations with other religious congregations, the Church, the scientific community, faith-based organizations and movements, civil society, Indigenous peoples, and those seeking the common good.

The Don Bosco Green Alliance is an international collective of young people from Salesian Family institutions & organizations that contribute to global environmental action, thought and policy. The Alliance especially focuses on creating the next generation of environmental citizens and leaders to ensure a planet that is safe for all life on Earth. We also focus on engagement with youth regarding these environmental issues, as they will be the generation most highly affected by the climate crisis and other environmental issues.

Living Laudato Si’ Philippines is an inter-faith Catholic lay-initiated movement calling on Philippine financial institutions to divest from coal plants and other environmentally harmful activities. The movement is anchored towards its mandate to promote sustainable development and counter environmental degradation. It is a mirror of Pope Francis’ visions to save the earth through the strength of collective action, calling on all to divest for sustainability and invest in our Common Home.

IV. About the Economy of Francesco

The Economy of Francesco is a global gathering of young people, entrepreneurs, and economists from November 19 to 21 in Assisi, Italy. It was called for by Pope Francis in 2019 through a public letter of invitation, in which he hopes to promote “…a process of global change. One in which not only believers but all men and women of good will, beyond differences of creed and nationality, can participate, inspired by an ideal of fraternity attentive above all to the poor and excluded.”