UN SDGs Youth Impact Developers Conference 2026

Recommended Arrival

Participants are strongly encouraged to arrive in Tokyo on August 21, complete accommodation check-in, and prepare for the official opening the following morning.

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Evening Programme - Pre-Summit Welcome Party

An informal pre-summit gathering where delegates, facilitators, and partners can meet, build early connections, and receive a brief orientation before the four-day programme begins. Detailed timing and venue information will be shared with confirmed participants.
 

Venue: National Olympics Memorial Youth Center, Tokyo
Official Opening: 10:00 AM

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Main Focus

Startup Day connects youth perspectives with real innovation challenges. Participants explore how entrepreneurial solutions can be assessed through a sustainability lens and how international youth can contribute local knowledge, cultural insight, and market perspectives to emerging ventures.

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Programme Elements

• Opening ceremony and summit orientation

• Short addresses by international guests, including university professors and industry representatives

• Presentations by Tokyo-based startups and innovation organizations

• Small-group dialogues between international youth delegates and participating startups

• Sustainability analysis of the problems addressed by each venture

• Exploration of international market needs and cross-border co-creation opportunities

• Evening Tokyo SDGs Metro Challenge

 

Core Tasks

• Identify the sustainability relevance and potential impact of selected startup solutions

• Examine stakeholders, beneficiaries, and possible unintended effects

• Contribute international market and community perspectives

• Identify opportunities for future youth–startup collaboration

• Complete team-based sustainability missions at designated Tokyo Metro stations by meeting checkpoint facilitators and unlocking assigned challenges
   

Venue: National Olympics Memorial Youth Center, Tokyo

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Main Focus

Solutions Day moves participants from understanding diverse local challenges to co-designing actionable SDG solutions. International youth delegates share issues from their home communities, after which participants form matched teams and work with coaches to develop and pitch locally grounded, globally relevant responses.

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Programme Elements

• Short addresses by international guests, including university professors and industry representatives

• Glocal SDG Voices: sustainability challenges presented by youth delegates from different countries and cities

• Challenge selection, team matching, and stakeholder analysis

• Coach-facilitated solution design and feasibility development

• Youth SDGs Solutions pitch session and feedback

• Parallel Junior Sustainability Workshops for participants aged 11–14

• Second evening Tokyo SDGs Metro Challenge, featuring different stations, routes, and missions for every team

 

Junior Sustainability Workshops | Ages 11–14

During the afternoon, junior participants take part in two dedicated workshops facilitated by coaches from the Jane Goodall Institute networks in Japan and Taiwan:

• Japanese Sustainability Culture — exploring how values, community practices, and everyday systems shape sustainability in Japan

• Local Challenge to Sustainable Solution Lab — identifying a local problem and developing a practical, youth-led response

Junior participants who complete both workshops receive a dedicated Junior Sustainability Workshop Certificate.

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Core Tasks

• Understand the context and root causes of sustainability challenges from different communities

• Form cross-cultural teams around selected challenges

• Develop an initial solution model with coach guidance

• Test relevance, feasibility, stakeholder value, and potential impact

• Communicate the solution through a structured pitch

• Complete a second round of field-based sustainability missions on a route different from Day 1

Venue: United Nations University, Tokyo

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Main Focus

Advanced Learning Day strengthens participants’ professional understanding of how impact is designed, measured, managed, and communicated. Through a full-day certified learning programme at United Nations University, participants connect their team solutions with rigorous impact frameworks and international practice.

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Main Programme

• Full-day certified learning programme at United Nations University

• Impact development principles and frameworks

• Impact measurement and management

• Theory of Change, indicators, evidence, and accountability

• International cases and applied learning activities

• Integration of learning into team projects

 

Parallel SDGs Leadership Training | Ages 11–14

Junior participants take part in a full-day SDGs leadership programme within the United Nations University learning environment. The programme develops global awareness, communication, collaboration, and responsible leadership through age-appropriate activities. Participants who complete the training receive a separate certificate issued by the Singapore-based Global SDG & Leadership Development Center (GSLDC).

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Evening Programme — Accelerator Night

Teams refine their problem definition, impact logic, proposed solution, evidence, and presentation strategy in preparation for the following day’s Demo Day and UNU Impact Pitch.

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Core Tasks

• Apply impact-development principles to the group solution

• Define intended outcomes and measurable indicators

• Strengthen feasibility, implementation logic, and stakeholder value

• Integrate coach and expert feedback

• Finalize the Demo Day presentation and team responsibilities
   

Venue: United Nations University, Tokyo
Official Closing: 5:00 PM

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Main Focus

Presentation Day brings youth-developed solutions into direct dialogue with academic, corporate, investment, and civil-society perspectives. The day is designed not only to showcase learning outcomes, but also to identify concrete pathways for collaboration, project development, investment, procurement, and continued youth empowerment.

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Morning Programme — Demo Day & UNU Impact Pitch

• Final team presentations of Youth SDGs Solutions

• Expert and partner feedback

• Project review and recognition

• Awards ceremony

 

Afternoon Programme — Impact Developers Dialogue

• Dialogue between corporate representatives, academic experts, international youth, investors, and civil-society partners

• Discussions on impact development, impact investment, impact procurement, and youth empowerment

• Exploration of institutional and cross-sector collaboration pathways

• Partnership and cooperation signings, where applicable

• Presentation of the Tokyo Youth Impact Statement

• Final recognition, closing remarks, and official group photograph

 

Core Tasks

• Deliver the final team output to an international audience

• Respond to expert questions and recommendations

• Identify implementation, partnership, investment, or procurement pathways

• Contribute to the Tokyo Youth Impact Statement

• Establish concrete post-summit next steps