Unlock The Future Coalition
What is the Coaltion?
In September 2021, the UN Foundation brought together some of the biggest youth-led and youth-focused organisations to launch the Unlock the Future coalition. The Award is a founding member of this Coalition.
At a virtual event held during high-level week at the opening of the 76th UN General Assembly, the leaders of these organisations announced the Unlock Declaration. In it, they set out their intention to join forces to build a high-ambition coalition with and for all young people and future generations.
Now, we are working finding ways to fulfil these promises, whilst embracing our shared principles of diversity, representation, impact, and accountability.
As a first step, we designed the Big Brainstorm to incubate and launch a series of youth-led Action Groups, which will be the engines driving our work. Find out more here.
What is the Big Brainstorm?
The Big Brainstorm is an opportunity for young thinkers and activists to design their future. Supported by the United Nations Foundation, young leaders from around the world will come together to embark on a two week design sprint to explore, prototype, and launch initiatives to tackle some of humanity’s greatest challenges.
The theme of the 2023 Big Brainstorm is “A Year of Action for the SDGs.” The upcoming second SDG Summit is an opportunity to accelerate action to solve the world’s most urgent problems, with young people at the forefront of change.
It is also a turning point to drive collective action for both people and the planet. The most successful initiatives will be spotlighted during the SDG Summit to demonstrate that meaningful progress on the 17 Global Goals is possible.
All young changemakers who engage in the Big Brainstorm will also be members of the Engine Room to Unlock the Future – a wider space for young people to forge connections, mobilize, and drive our efforts to rejuvenate the multilateral system.
The Engine Room
What is the Engine Room?
Are you a young change maker looking to make an impact?
The Engine Room is a global virtual forum where young changemakers can forge connections, collaborate and mobilise their impact initiatives ahead of the SDG Summit to address the world’s greatest challenges.
The Engine Room is launched each year at the Big Brainstorm, a virtual event hosted by the United Nations Foundation’s Our Future Agenda program. The Big Brainstorm is an opportunity for young thinkers and activists to design their future. It is a two-week design sprint to explore, prototype, and launch solutions to tackle some of humanity’s biggest challenges.
In 2023, the Big Brainstorm brought together more than 2,500 young people from 136 countries with the mission to mobilize action ahead of the SDG Summit. These young people now continue to develop their ideas into action through the Engine Room.
The Engine Room works across eight different Action Groups which are led by Next Generation Fellows as well as Action Group Innovators, young people who have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to accelerating action ahead of the SDG Summit and beyond.
In addition to the SDG Summit, the Engine Room will use three key political moments to platform young change makers: the ECOSOC Youth Forum, the High-Level Political Forum, and COP 28.
If you are a young person interested in taking part, please fill in the Expression Of Interest form here.
