UNITAR and ITS Education launched the 8-week-long 2025 Youth Ambassador Asia-Pacific Programme, "Future Skills for Grassroots Leadership".
29 October 2025, Hiroshima, Japan - On 11 October 2025, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), with ITS Education (ITS), launched the 8-week online "UNITAR Youth Ambassador Asia-Pacific Programme 2025 - Future Skills for Grassroots Leadership". The opening ceremony was joined by 30 motivated youth from 16 countries, namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, including Hong Kong, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam.
The 2025 Youth Ambassador Asia-Pacific Programme will train young people, aged 15 to 26, to think from grassroots perspectives and apply that perspective in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through social entrepreneurship, problem-solving, and design thinking. The participants will be mentored by both UNITAR and ITS staff. At the end of the programme, the Youth Ambassadors will present their self-directed capstone projects to be implemented in their local communities to drive positive change.
The Programme: Exploring Grassroots Leadership and Developing Projects
After the opening ceremony, participants received an orientation to UNITAR, the United Nations system, and the SDGs. The participants will gather online every Saturday for the next 7 weeks to explore grassroots leadership, learn frameworks for identifying and solving SDG-related issues in their communities, and develop skills in social entrepreneurship and design thinking.
The programme will feature expert speakers and facilitators from UNITAR and partner institutions, such as Professor Primitivo Ragandang (youth leadership, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology) and Ms. Kuniko Watanabe (ANT-Hiroshima). ITS will guide participants through practical applications of SDG principles and effective presentation techniques.
The programme will culminate on 29 November with a graduation day, where participants will present their community outreach projects. They will showcase how they plan to apply their learnings at their schools and local communities. This online graduation ceremony will celebrate the participants' journeys and provide them with an opportunity to share their solutions with peers across the Asia-Pacific region. They will also receive a UNITAR certificate of completion.
