13th Forum Of The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award To Be Held In Ghana

Ghana will host The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Foundation's 13th forum from 31st October – 3rd November.

The triennial Forum will bring together international leaders to plan the future growth of the Award worldwide.

The theme  for the event is  “Shaping the future; shaping our world.”

Some topics to be discussed at the forum include challenges affecting young people today and how the development of 'universal skills'  such as resilience, confidence and communication can help young people to be ready for the world.

The award aims at helping young individuals between the ages of 14 to 24 year old to challenge themselves and acquire universal skills that will serve them and their communities.

The 2018 forum officially begins with an Opening Plenary on November 1, where delegates will be addressed by President of the Republic of Ghana H. E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, HRH Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, who is also Chairman of The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Foundation and The Rt. Hon. Lord Boateng, International Trustee and Chair of the Award's International Council.

Throughout the four-day event, delegates will visits award units across Accra, where they will speak to participants about their award experiences.

Also, the event will run multiple workshops covering topics such as safeguarding and employability as well as the award's latest research.

Delegates will also hear from a panel of experts across various fields relating to youth development and education, including the Varkey Foundation's Muni Issifu, Juan Visser from Cambridge Assessment International and Dr Susanne Schweizer from UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.

John May, Secretary-General of The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Foundation, outlining the importance of the event explained that young people across the world face numerous challenges hence the event offers young people an opportunity to make a difference.

“Today's young people face a complex array of challenges; many unseen by previous generations. This year's theme: Shaping the future, shaping our world summarises the tremendous opportunity that young people around the world offer to our global society; we believe young people are passionate,value-driven and they want to make a difference in the world.”

“As a leading proponent in non-formal education, The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award can help young people to find their purpose, passion and place in the world. Forum 2018 will focus on how we can better enable young people to do so and also how we can reach more young people so that every 14-24 year old has the opportunity to participate.”

Mr. May continues: “Forum 2018 marks the first time that the Award's International Association has come together in West Africa. We are very much looking forward to visiting young Ghanaian Award participants and hearing about the inspirational activities they are undertaking.”

Peter A. Anum, Executive Director of The Head of State Award Scheme for Ghana, highlighted the importance of empowering young people in Ghana adding that it key to addressing issues of unemployment in the country.

“We are excited to host Forum 2018 as we focus on how we prepare young people for the future by shaping them, considering the challenges young people face in the socio economic space of our country, key to this is employment. This is also an important moment for us to build on HOSA's 50 years of success and demonstrate our commitment to the growth and development of young people in Ghana.”

The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award is a global non-formal education framework which

challenges young people to discover their potential and find their purpose, passion and place in the

world.
There are currently 1.3 million young people completing their unique programme, via hundreds of thousands of youth-focused partners and operators, including schools, youth organisations,

examination boards and youth offender institutions.

Since its launch over 60 years ago, millions of young people have participated and received Awards,

with millions more benefiting from its impact in communities around the world.