By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter

More than 450 young leaders will participate in the three-day Empower 2015 conference set to begin on March 12, at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) Student Centre.

Organised by Reach Out to Asia (Rota), a member of Qatar Foundation, this is the seventh Empower conference being conducted with participants from 23 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Asia and North America.

The summit will focus on the important role that young people can play towards achieving sustainable development goals and this year’s special focus is on youth development for peaceful societies.

“The Empower 2015 conference is one of the largest youth conferences to help prepare young people in Qatar and the Arab region to undertake leadership roles in their communities and to provide a platform for their voices to be heard and their ideas to have a positive impact on the world. More than 1,000 people have applied this year to participate in the conference. The final candidates have been selected after conducting personal interviews and assessments,” Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, Rota’s national programmes director, told reporters yesterday.

The official added: “We will have some prominent international figures who will address the gathering. We are still waiting for confirmation from some of the dignitaries and the names will be announced soon. The popular Kuwaiti recording artist Humood al-Khader will perform at the conference.”

According to Sale, this year’s conference will place a special focus on Turkey which is currently celebrating a bilateral Year of Culture with Qatar. The event features a combination of seminar, panel discussions from influential community figures, keynote speeches, lectures, group workshops, offsite visits and a student public debate.

Empower is Qatar’s first and largest youth-led summit, equipping young people in the country and the region to take active roles in building their communities and discovering a voice on global issues.

The 2015 summit, entitled 'Peaceful Societies', will focus on three core tracks for young people in the age group of 16 to 26: personal leadership, service learning and global citizenship.

The event, which serves the dual purpose of preparing youth for the World Humanitarian Summit, is guided by United Nations development goals that address education for sustainable development, human rights, equality and peace.

Abdullah al-Bakri, Rota’s community development manager, and Reem al-Khayyat, planning committee member, Empower 2015, were also present at the press briefing.

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