Young Australians plan for the planet: program overview

On part of the United Nations International Youth Day on 12 August 2016, the Young Australians Plan for the Planet Program was launched at Questacon in Canberra. This Executive Brief provides a background on the program, how it will operate and be evaluated, and opportunities moving forward.

Why the Young Australians Plan for the Planet?

In 2016 the United Nations launched the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) as the framework to “end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.”  The Young Australians Plan for the Planet provides an approach that enables promotion and delivery of these UN SDG’s throughout Australia utilizing an innovative national extra curriculum schools program.

Why use the Plan for the Planet approach?

The Plan for the Planet approach has been developed to leverage the effectiveness of business planning and management, teamwork and leadership principles and practice to achieve sustainable outcomes at a local, regional and global level.

Why a national schools program?

The Plan for the Planet approach has been adopted to promote and deliver the UN SDG’s based on its integration of science, mathematics and geography knowledge and focus on leveraging business management, leadership and teamwork principles and practice to develop and deliver local, regional and globally sustainable outcomes.

What does the Young Australians Plan for the Planet Program involve?

The Australian pilot program will operate as an extra curriculum program involving 20 schools across Australia. Each school will develop a sustainable development plan for their regional EcoZone to 2050. The schools will then work to combine their individual EcoZone plans into a national sustainable development plan. (Young Australians Plan for the Planet (Aust). This will then be presented to the Australian Prime Minister as part of Science Week in August 2017.

Who will be involved?

20 schools will be selected across Australia with one school representing each EcoZone, covering all major Australian cities and regional areas. Each school will select twelve Year 10 Students and 3 Teachers to build their regional EcoZone plan and work with all other schools to integrate these regional plans into the National Plan.

Who are the key program advisors?

Program advisor organisations include Questacon, Future Earth Australia, the Foundation for Young Australians, Inspiring Australia, the Australian National University (ANU), the University of New South Wales (UNSW), University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and UNIC (Australia).

When will the Young Australians Plan for the Planet program take place?

The program will launch on 12 August 2016 at a Q&A Event at Questacon in Canberra as part of the United Nations International Youth Day.

How is the program being evaluated? Monitoring and evaluation methods from our university partners have been integrated throughout the program framework and will examine the effectiveness of the program in developing and achieving sustainable outcomes.

How is the program being funded?

The pilot program is being funded through grants and support from Questacon (scope and program development), Inspiring Australia (website development), ANU (program and media support), and UNSW / UTS (research content development and evaluation). Additional corporate, government and community support will be developed to expand the program.

How will the program move beyond the pilot?

The program and website have been developed to be replicated and scalable beyond Australia, facilitating potential adoption by other countries. The potential outcome over a 3-year period is a global Plan for the Planet to achieve the successful delivery of the UN SDGs to 2030 and global sustainable development to 2050 and beyond.