Around the world, young people are stepping into
humanitarian action in ways that challenge long-standing assumptions about who
leads, who responds, and how communities rebuild after crisis. From Haiti to
Türkiye, from Sudan to Peru, youth have acted as first responders, community
organisers, digital mobilisers, and key connectors in places where formal
systems struggle to keep pace. Yet despite this growing evidence, “youth
leadership” in humanitarian action remains inconsistently understood and weakly
institutionalised. Across contexts, young people describe similar patterns:
they volunteer, coordinate, innovate, and sustain community support, but rarely
gain recognition as actors in their own right. Instead, they occupy fragmented
roles with unclear pathways toward leadership or professional opportunities.

This leads to a central question for humanitarian actors:
how can the sector move from ad-hoc youth engagement to genuine youth
leadership? Join our panel of expert to unpack:

· What value can youth leadership bring in
humanitarian contexts?

· How can organisations design safe, structured,
and empowering pathways for youth leadership in humanitarian action?

· Can we do more to amplify youth leader’s voices?

Speakers:

Jennifer Dias - Humanitarian Leadership Academy (a department in Save the Children UK with the mission to accelerate
locally led action)

Maryana Zaviyska - Open Space Works Ukraine (a women’s-led local research organisation based in Ukraine)

Olha Shevchuk-Kliuzheva – Alliance UA CSO (An alliance of Ukrainian Civil Society Organizations focused on ensuring local
leadership in responding to humanitarian crises)

Mercedes Garcia – Save the Children International

Van Anh Tranová- Member for Youth Advisory Panel - Czech Republic Ministry of Education

Huseyin Arslan - Humanitarian Leadership Academy