BANGKOK, November 15, 2018 The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Asia and the Pacific is excited to join YouTube in celebrating the achievements of dynamic, young video creators who have successfully completed the Creators for Change Academy Program at the regional summit, held in Bangkok. At the summit, the video projects of the 15 creators from Asia Pacific will officially be premiered, showcasing how creativity can be used to change negative online narratives affecting their communities. The initiative is co-funded by the European Union.

Over the last three months, video creators have been closely collaborating with local-level non-government organizations (NGOs) and industry experts invited by UNDP to produce videos tackling topics such as fake news, hate speech, online bullying, discrimination, social biases, and extremism. By producing videos that interact with difficult topics in creative ways, the creators are able to engage with other youth, not just in their communities but around the world too. This year’s creators collectively represent over 2 million fans.

The summit will also present opportunities for the creators to reflect on their learning journeys and cement established partnerships to combat hate speech, extremism and intolerance through a variety of approaches. It will also showcase the power of counter narratives to promote positive social values and thereby address the underlying causes of hate, extremism, misinformation and bullying.

“It is very encouraging to experience a group of such dynamic and creative youths, collaborating with others – such as UNDP, private sector like Google, and local NGOs - to produce positive messages advocating for peace,” said Simon Finley, Regional Conflict Prevention Advisor.

“Building networks and partnerships like the ones here is important to make sure that tomorrow’s world is a safer and more tolerant one.”

"YouTube's open platform has been a force for creativity, learning and access to information,” said Jake Lucchi, Head of Content and AI, Public Policy, Google Asia Pacific.

Our partnership with UNDP helps further strengthen this force by promoting positive social values and building a sense of community among people from diverse backgrounds. Bringing together talented creators with issue experts is a powerful recipe for changing hearts and minds, and focusing on what unites us.”

Partnering with YouTube’s Creators for Change is part of UNDP’s broader strategy to prevent violent extremism by utilising growing trends in social media use, particularly the global power of video. UNDP’s own complementary project, #ExtremeLives, is a series of Facebook live video interviews covering on-the ground stories of violent extremism from countries across the region, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines and Singapore. The PVE project as a whole demonstrates UNDP’s commitment to bringing expertise and strategic partnerships together to engage in important regional dialogues that promote a peaceful world by 2030. 

To see the final video projects, click here to view the YouTube playlist.

For more on the Creators for Change initiative, click here.

Contact

For media enquiries, contact Mailee Osten-Tan (mailee.ostentan@undp.org)