Youth Exchange Programme for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

October 14, 2018

Youth exchange Programme participants on a visit to the Chinese Medical center (photo: courtesy of MOFA)

Based on the vision of the current leadership in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its continuous efforts to bridge the gap between nations through cultural dialogue, Saudi Arabia aspires to enhance dialogue opportunities among civilizations based on solid knowledge and sincere desire to set strong bases of cooperation, searching for common opinions, promoting mechanisms aimed at benefiting from the scientific, intellectual and cultural wealth of nations and making the best use of it for the benefit of the entire world.

Based on the eighth and ninth plans, Saudi Arabia is keen on expanding youth development participation and raising their leadership capacities, especially that they represent the major category in the community. The government aims to use the youth unutilized energy and increase their experience to enhance leadership roles they will hold in the near future.

On its part, the UNDP develops many capacity developing programs in the youth sector on an international level through its field presence in 166 countries worldwide. The UNDP can present best practices of other countries for the Saudi youth to benefit from such experiences and explore international partnerships with many youth institutions in other countries.

In this respect, this project aims to accomplish specific goals which will jointly support the national efforts aiming at expanding youth participation in development and raising their leadership capacities and skills.

Based on the above, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs aims to implement the Project of Youth Exchange Program supported by UNDP to accomplish the following goals:

Implement the vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to promote cultural, scientific and knowledge dialogue among nations;

Increase Saudi youth participation in youth forums and develop their leadership, dialogue and communication skills, while understanding capacities of their counterparts from other countries;

Encourage youth participation in the development process;

Benefit from the experience of other countries to improve youth leadership skills; and increase the level and quality of youth participation in the local community.