Darcy Small reports from the Y20 Summit in Argentina, Part 2

22 Aug 2018

Co-op Scholar Darcy Small (PHV14) 2018, Delegate to Y20 Cordoba, Argentina

 

So, at 3am this morning the summit ended after we finally agreed on the position of all youth on the policy recommendations paper. You can find that online here: http://youth20.org/pdfs/PolicyRP.pdf. As an engineer, this was a super new, interesting and challenging experience for me. I was quite involved in the sustainability taskforce, and I learnt a lot from working with closely with young people from so many different countries. Making inclusive, actionable recommendations that are impactful on both a local and global scale is pretty tough!

 

The recommendations, however, were just one outcome of the summit. We’ve spent the last week developing social innovation projects, participating in joint advocacy sessions and learning from all the other amazing delegates and special guests.Of course, because it’s Argentina, there’s also been a lot of wine, barbeques and dancing!

 

It’s been a really rewarding experience, and it’s always nice when you meet people that are doing really well in their field, but also down to earth. Everyone has a lot of respect for each other. We come from very different backgrounds (including the guy that studies solar panels!) and this means that everyone’s been able to contribute in their own way. There’s definitely a space for engineers at these events, because a technical and practical background can really help when discussing the details of how policy might actually play out.