© World Bank / Gulbakyt Dyussenova
Teenagers hanging out (Kazakhstan).

The UNESCO Office in Almaty will host the First Youth Conference on Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on 21 September 2017.


The main idea of this Forum is to bring together youth researchers and activists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to discuss main challenges and determine possible solutions for the prevention of intercultural and interreligious conflicts in the region.

The UNESCO Office in Almaty aims to foster an enabling environment and promote skills development to stimulate youth-led grassroots initiatives, thus contributing to forging a stronger civil society equipped with the opportunities, tools and knowledge to:
- make responsible decisions based on positive values;
- launch new forms of cultural literacy and cultural diplomacy among youth;
- foster youth creativity and innovation towards intercultural and interreligious dialogue.

During the Forum, participants will have an opportunity to take a part in an Intercultural Dialogue Workshop in order to experience and become more aware of the existence of cultural barriers. This will manifest itself through interactive activities, such as being introduced to regional cultures and offered the opportunity to share experience of these cultures in ones own country/institution; developing an understanding of the attitudes and reactions of researchers of these cultures and of ways to help them to overcome intercultural difficulties.