Youth NGO Consortia

The European Youth Forum (YFJ) is the platform of youth organisations in Europe. It represents over 100 youth organisations, which bring together tens of millions of young people from all over Europe. The member organisations of the Youth Forum are international youth NGOs and national youth councils.

The Youth Forum works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives by representing and advocating their needs and interests and those of their organisations. In the current uncertain political and social context that affects young people, they can be powerful catalysts for positive change and contributors of innovative solutions to Europe’s challenges.

BEST currently is an observer member of the Youth Forum and is represented in the Council of Members, the biannual general meeting of the Youth Forum, by its dedicated contact person.

IFISO Autumn Meeting and IFISO Spring Meeting

The Informal Forum for International Students Organisations (IFISO) is a non-political and non-profit forum for international organisations run by students and working for the benefit of students in different fields of studies. The purpose of this forum is to offer these NGOs an opportunity to network, to share knowledge and to encourage pursuing new possible collaborations. This Autumn meeting was hosted in October 2019 by EPSA (European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association) in their house in Brussels. Among other things, the topics approached and tackled were external donations, mental health and the future of IFISO.

Due to the pandemic, the meeting in Spring 2020 took place online. In different online discussions spread over three days, there were talks about climate change advocacy, tackling the pandemic and about new opportunities for IFISO. Also, the new management team and the host for the next IFISO Spring Meeting were elected here.