Young Professionals in Local Development

The Young Professionals in Local Development (YPLD) network is envisaged as being a know-how transfer platform between young and experienced professionals in all fields of expertise that relate to international and local development.

YPLD is a network of professionals aged between 18 and 40 involved in both international and local development through the nature of their education and professional activity. Due to our worldwide partners (currently we have partners in the USA, Asia, Europe and Africa) and our network of Regional Coordinators, its development was based on a global reach from the start.

YPLD serves as a platform for Young Professionals (YP) in Local Development (LD) to share their opinions, grow knowledge and skills and foster innovation towards a more sustainable local development. YPLD has four strategic objectives:

1) To facilitate knowledge sharing between young and experienced professionals willing to contribute to international and local development regardless of age, nationality, profession;

2) To empower young professionals by facilitating the acquisition of skills so that they can contribute better and more actively to the development of local communities on one side and to relate better with local, regional and national authorities in order to increase youth participation in the decision making process;

3) To create synergies in regards to international and local development by spreading knowledge, information, best practices;

4) To create networks in order to promote young professionals through a capacity building process by developing creative synergies between different stakeholder groups in LD including research, academia, NGOs`, CBOs`, public authorities (local and national) and private sector organizations.