The Russian-German Youth Forum has been held annually since 2003 within the framework of the partnership of the National Youth Council of Russia and the German Federal Youth Council, in accordance with the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany in the field of youth cooperation of December 21, 2004.
The mission of the forum is creating a platform for effective communication and interaction between youth public organizations in Russia and Germany.
The XVI Russian-German Youth Forum was held in Berlin from May 16 to 18, 2019 and brought together 40 representatives of youth public organizations in Russia and Germany.
The main goal of the XVI Forum was the development of effective Russian-German youth cooperation and the intensification of interaction between the representatives of youth organizations in Russia and Germany through the discussion of the current agenda in the field of international relations, youth policy and youth work. The focus topic of the forum in 2019 was sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
On May 16 as part of the official opening of the forum the Chairman of the National Youth Council of Russia Grigory Petushkov and the Deputy Chairman of the German Federal Youth Council Hetav Teck spoke to the participants. After the opening of the forum UN Youth Delegate from Germany Rebecca Freitag and SDG Youth Ambassadors in Russia Alexey Britanov, Maria Shishkanova and Ekaterina Novikova made a presentation of the Sustainable Development Goals for the participants and told how youth programs on the SDGs are being implemented at the international, national, regional and local levels. Continuing the day at the German Federal Foreign Office the forum participants met with the coordinator for intersocietal cooperation with Russia, Central Asia and the Eastern Partnership countries Dirk Wiese, and discussed the current agenda for cooperation between Russia and Germany in the youth area. At the end of the day the participants visited youth organizations in Berlin and got acquainted with their work (Lernort "7/jung", "Prinzessinnengärten", "Zuckerwattekrawatten"), and also presented the activities of their organizations.
On May 17 the forum participants visited the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Germany and met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Germany Sergei Nechaev. In the second half of this day as part of the educational block "SDGs and sustainable development in working with youth" the participants got acquainted with interactive methods of youth work on the topic of sustainable development.
On May 18 the participants met with the Executive Director of the Foundation for German-Russian Youth Exchange Thomas Hoffmann and the Head of the Russian Coordination Bureau for Youth Cooperation with Germany Dina Sokolova and got acquainted with the activities and projects of the Foundation and the Russian Coordination Bureau. The work of the forum continued within the framework of thematic workshops, their topics were related to the SDGs (SDG 4 "Quality Education", SDG 11 "Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements", SDG 13 "Combating Climate Change", SDG 16 "Peace, Justice and Effective Institutions"). The participants developed recommendations for youth organizations and project ideas for each area.
After summing up the forum the participants visited Treptower Park and laid flowers at the Soviet war memorial "Warrior – Liberator".
