Sangam – The Festival Of Confluence

Introduction:

“Sangam – The Festival of Confluence” project, a pivotal moment that marks a new chapter in our journey towards a harmonious, peaceful South Asia. The festival is being organized as one of the sub-segments of BTY, intended to engage young people in developing peace-building dialogues, roadmaps, bridges, and strategies centered around climate change. Sangam is going to help young people identify the conciliation benefits, as climate change is already affecting the entire region, with no borders attached and empower them as change agents to deal with climate change while building sustainable peace in South Asia.

We know that climate change is a threat, and it casts a daunting shadow over our lands. It not only threatens our environment but also poses a grave risk of exacerbating existing conflicts.  You might be thinking how climate change can exacerbate the conflicts; climate change affects the rain fall patterns – which makes resources scarce e.g., food shortage, water shortage. Resource scarcity can push nations sharing borders to compete for resources. We know that nations had been fighting for water or oil or food. Scarce resources, heightened competition – these are the ingredients that can transform simmering tensions into full-blown crises or conflict.

However, among these challenges lies an opportunity – an opportunity to transform the risk posed by climate change into a catalyst for peace. The “Sangam – The Festival of Confluence” organized by Youth General Assembly (YGA) embodies this vision. It is a convergence of ideas, cultures, and civilizations, empowering our youth as the champions of change for sustainable peace and development in South Asia.

Our region shares a rich cultural heritage and a youthful demographic, attributes that can fuel our efforts towards peacebuilding. By nurturing collaborative dialogues and strategies centered around dealing with climate change, we aim to identify the common ground that unites us.

Some Interesting Information:

We have called the festival we aspire to organize, “Sangam” (which was called “Confluence 4 Peace” last year). With etymological origins in ancient Sanskrit, it is a word that exists in several South Asian languages, such as Bangla (Bengali), Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, and Urdu, with the same connotation – “confluence” or “coming together”.  It is a word that truly represents what we aim to achieve. As future generations have more to lose, therefore we bring together youngsters and adolescents, with an emphasis on the shared cultural characteristics of the South Asian region, to introduce the next generation of change agents that will focus on creating common projects, sharing ideas, and engaging with local governments, and thus, be the seeds of peacebuilding while trying to overcome the challenges associated with climate change.  

Objectives and Outcomes:

The objectives and outcomes of the project are:

• Knowledge & Perspective Exchange – To develop a program and platform to engage youth and allow them to gain capacity and exchange perspective on climate induced conflicts.
• Dissemination to the Grassroots – To mobilize capacity and exchange of perspectives, among young people, on climate induced conflicts and urgency of the issue.
• Policy Implications – To evaluate the effectiveness of the designed program and platform on youth’s capacity building and their motivation to engage in action, dissemination and policy conversations related to climate induced conflicts in South Asia.
• Regional Exchange – Young people will share their perspectives, action plans and policy implications, developed during the festival/workshops, with their South Asian regional partners virtually to disseminate their perspectives further and for promoting collective learning and exchange.

Key Contributors:

Advisors:

Partners:

Toolkit & Impact Report 2023:

Confluence 4 Peace Impact Report

Highlights: