Background

In August 2025, the Asia-Pacific Regional Youth Dialogue, part of the International Forum We, the Youth (IFWY), brought together young leaders from across the region to deliberate on six themes:

• Environmental Sustainability,
• Economic Transformation,
• Social Justice and Equality,
• Technological Innovations and Ethical Considerations,
• Peace and Cooperation,
• Collective Action and Solidarity.

These themes capture the urgent priorities of youth globally and reflect the challenges and opportunities young people identify as essential for shaping a more inclusive and sustainable future.

These priorities also echo with the commitments made more than a decade ago in the Colombo Declaration on Youth (2014), a landmark global document adopted by governments and youth representatives from over 160 countries at the World Conference on Youth in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Declaration emphasized meaningful youth participation in areas such as employment, food security, education, health, gender equality, environment, peace, governance, and youth rights.

For the cooperative movement, both the six themes of IFWY and the priorities of the Colombo Declaration resonate strongly. Cooperatives across Asia-Pacific are already active in sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, financial inclusion, women’s empowerment, peacebuilding, and social justice. By revisiting these themes through a cooperative lens, young people can connect global aspirations with practical cooperative solutions, and at the same time, position youth cooperatives as important actors in international youth processes.

Objective

The Youth Committee of ICA-AP will organize a Talk Show on Cooperatives and the Six Themes of Transformation. The program seeks to:

• Provide a platform for young cooperative leaders to exchange experiences and ideas linked to the six themes.
• Highlight how cooperatives are contributing to global youth priorities and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Produce a concise set of youth-driven cooperative recommendations that can be shared within ICA-AP and at the global level.

Format

The talk show will run for 90 minutes in a podcast-style format, designed to be interactive and conversational. The moderator will guide the discussion by posing questions inspired by the Colombo Declaration and IFWY themes. Youth panellists will respond with their reflections, followed by success stories from cooperatives that illustrate practical contributions under each theme.

The dialogue will unfold across four clusters:

• Food Security and Employment
• Education, Health, and Gender Equality
• Environment, Peace, and Solidarity
• Youth Rights and Participation

Each cluster will feature a short Q&A with a youth speaker and a success story, showing how cooperatives are translating commitments into action. Towards the end, participants will be invited to share 30-second reflections, inspired by the IFWY “speakers list” method, to capture diverse youth voices. The key insights will be synthesized into a Youth Cooperative Review Note.

Expected Outcomes

The Youth Talk Show will provide a platform for cooperative leaders to share insights that help shape the ICYC’s direction for the next four years (2026–2029). Guided by the Colombo Declaration and IFWY themes, the session will generate practical recommendations and priorities for youth engagement, innovation, and cooperation. The key takeaways will be captured in a Youth Cooperative Review Note to inform ICYC’s future action plan.