Alexandria, 19 September 2022- Within the framework of the Regional Development and Protection Programme in North Africa in its second phase (RDPP II) the International Organization for Migration in Egypt (IOM) has collaborated with the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Mediterranean Youth Foundation to launch the Second Edition of the Mediterranean Youth Academy (MYA) that took place from the 15th to the 19th of September, 2022 at the Bibliotheca Alexandria and hosted youth participants from the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The MYA's Second Edition aimed at training and educating 120 young leaders on the challenging issues faced by the Mediterranean region, with a focus on unemployment, climate change and its relevant effects, migration and gender inequalities while building the capacities of youth regarding several global challenges which will enable their contribution in policy and decision making at the local and international levels, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) and confer their voices to Egypt's new national strategy for human rights.

Over the course of the MYA, several youth-led sessions were held covering one or more of the of the topics. Throughout the five days, participants were able to bond and build relationships among one-another through field visits, shared meals, and a few bonding and social activities.

IOM speakers discussed through several detailed sessions the notion of understanding irregular migration and analyzing the main irregular migration issues with a special focus on the effects of climate change as well as gender on migration where participants had the opportunity to provide a few recommendations regarding the before-mentioned topics.