Get Involved: Junior 8

Junior 8 (J8) is the official youth programme of the G8 and is designed for young people aged 13 to 17. J8 is a collaboration between Morgan Stanley, UNICEF, and the country with the presidency of the G8.

J8 helps young people to get informed about global issues and gives them an opportunity to have their voices heard on an international stage.

It is a fully international programme involving young people from over 15 countries. Last year at the J8 Summit in Russia young people from each of the G8 countries had a 45 minute audience with all the G8 country leaders.

There are two main ways to get involved in the J8 programme:

1. Use the Education Programme: The J8 website provides free educational resources to help you teach your students about the major issues facing the world today.

There are fact sheets, opinion pieces and exercises and games covering everything from poverty reduction to infectious diseases to climate change. There are also lesson plans with individual and group exercises and opportunities for whole class discussion.

2. Enter the J8 Competition: Entering the competition enables students from G8 countries to develop their own solutions to global problems, and win the chance to take them to the leaders of the G8 at the J8 Summit.

To enter the competition, teams need to put forward their ideas on the topics discussed by the G8 in 2007. These include climate change and poverty reduction in Africa. This year we are looking for practical, interesting and innovative solutions to issues that affect all of us.

Everything you need to know about submitting your entry can be found on http://www.j8summit.com/. The competition closes on March 29, 2007. Winners from each country will be selected in April and the J8 Summit will take place in early June in Heiligendamm, Germany.

At the Summit young people from around the world come together to take part in workshops and roundtable discussions to determine their own ideas on the G8 agenda items. They will then present their ideas to all G8 leaders in a special audience.

The Summit will be a unique chance for your students to broaden their horizons develop their ideas and make a real impact on global politics!