The international campaign for children and youth, 2024 Youth Innovation: Collaborating to Improve and Protect Our Plant (CIPP), dedicated to fostering innovative solutions for sustainable development, recently concluded with remarkable participation from across the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Organized by the International Centre for UNESCO ASPnet (ICUA, China) in partnership with UNESCO IITE, the event ran from September to November 2024 and aimed to engage young minds in addressing critical global challenges such as climate change, marine and terrestrial ecosystem conservation, and sustainable urban development.
ICUA is happy to announce that this year’s event impressively gathered over 30,000 submissions from across the world, including Oman, Finland, China, Turkey, India, Israel, USA, Bangladesh, UAE, Nigeria and many more. While the campaign was aimed at youth worldwide, specifically UNESCO IITE’s contribution consisted in spreading the information and collecting entries from the SCO countries.
This year’s version of the campaign received submissions from schoolschildren and pre-schoolers from all SCO member states: Belarus, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Each submission showcased the determination, creativity, and innovative thinking of young participants who are passionate about protecting the planet.
Among the 600+ entries from SCO countries (excluding China), six received the prestigious Grand Award (in the alphabetical order):
Sabina Abdullaeva (Uzbekistan)
Aditya Raj Chopra (India)
Diyar Narov (Kazakhstan)
Polina Nikiforova (Russia)
Ivan Gribenshchikov, Artemiy Nechaev (Kazakhstan)
Momina Yasir, Aynaan Tariq Alvi, Shanzay Mudasar (Pakistan)
All the Grand Award winners were invited to attend the Closing Ceremony of the event which will take place on December 8, 2024 in Hainan, China.
Additionally, 16 entries received Special Awards, recognizing their excellence in areas such as sci-tech innovation, eco-protection, and remarkable presence. These winners also included representatives from various SCO countries, reflecting the diversity and talent of the region’s youth (in the alphabetical order):
Alira Adik (Kazakhstan)
Achintya Garg (India)
Hasan Gumerov (Russia)
Apurva Jodha (India)
Mariia Korneeva (Russia)
Shyam Manikandan (India)
Atharva Shukla (India)
Amina Tazitdinova (Kazakhstan)
Olga Timchenko (Russia)
Areeba Fatima Umar (Pakistan)
Merey Beket, Rauan Baideldinov (Kazakhstan)
Tatiana Buslaeva, George Zholkin (Russia)
Hareem Shahid Khanzada, Bushra Laiq-ul-Hassan, Yousra Fatima Shaikh (Pakistan)
Shaina Mukherjee, Swara Shah, Manya Bhatt (India)
Dua Noushad, Kazbano, Syeda Fatima (Pakistan)
Ayesha Riaz, Falak Zahid, Zunaira Saffar (Pakistan)
The Special award winners will receive commemorative awards.
The full list of the Grand Award and the Special Award winners can be found here.
Additionally, 78 entries were awarded with Merit Awards for talents in scientific innovation and humanistic care.
ICUA and UNESCO IITE express their gratitude for the overwhelming response and praise the participants for their dedication and thoughtful solutions to global issues. Only through continuous collaboration across borders will it be possible to achieve sustainable development goals.
We thank all participants, educators, parents, and supporters for making this contest a success and eagerly await the inspiring contributions that next year will bring!