18 November 2024, Cairo. – Imagine your first time at an international event. You are excited but also a little nervous—how do you represent your community, share your ideas, and connect with people worldwide? It can feel overwhelming, especially for young attendees trying to make their voices heard. The 5×5 Youth Challenge was designed for that purpose, a simple yet impactful way to help young people turn those nerves into confidence and those challenges into opportunities.
The 5×5 Challenge, launched by the Young Gamechangers Initiative (YGI) at WUF12, is a five-day interactive experience designed to teach essential soft skills through five small, daily tasks. Think of it as a toolkit for navigating big events like a pro. The tasks ranged from lighthearted icebreakers like “Ask a stranger to take your picture” to more intentional actions like “Attend an event and ask a speaker a question about their presentation.” Designed by urban professionals and engagement experts, the challenge made it easy for participants to step out of their comfort zones and maximise their time at the forum.
How does the 5×5 Challenge work?
The 5×5 Challenge was all about combining fun with learning. It started with participants joining a vibrant WhatsApp group moderated by UN-Habitat staff, where they could stay updated and connected. Each person also received a carnet (a little booklet inspired by a traveller’s passport) to track their progress and collect stamps as they completed tasks.
Here’s how it played out step by step:
Step 1 | Joining the challenge
A person joins the 5×5 Challenge WhatsApp community moderated by UN-Habitat personnel. The group is the go-to space for quick updates, announcements, and sharing tips. In addition to this, a participant grabs a physical carnet to start tracking their success.
Figure 1. The 5×5 Carnet for the stamp collection – inspired by the passport of a pilgrim, the carnet helps to keep track of the progress of completing the challenge, day by day.
Step 2 | Daily challenges drop
Each day, the 5×5 team released a fresh set of tasks designed to help youth build skills like breaking the ice, making meaningful connections, and asking great questions. Whether you were practicing outreach as “The Communicator” or connecting as “The Networker,” there was something for everyone.
Step 3 | Stamp your success
When tasks are completed, participants logtheir progress in theWUF12 App, and head to the stamp collection point to receive a stamp. Each task had a score tracked on the leaderboard which added a little friendly competition!
Step 4 | Completing the challenge
After five days of fun and learning, scores were tallied, and the top scorers earned awesome prizes, like Future Generations Zone t-shirts or woven bags handcrafted by Ecuadorian women from the indigenous people of Kichwa from Otavalo.
Step 5 | Keep the connections alive
Even after the forum ended, the 5×5 Challenge community stayed buzzing, celebrating everyone’s achievements. Plus, UN-Habitat is followed-up with a post-challenge evaluation to gather feedback and connect with youth eager for future opportunities.
Figure 2. The Children & Youth Track includes the timings and locations of collecting a 5×5 stamp (in dark purple) for the successful completion of the Challenge. The locations are selected strategically to point young people to the highlights of the programme, e.g. the room where the Children & Youth Assembly when it is about to begin, after the Children & Youth Roundtable, at the respective location etc.
What We Learned from the 5×5 Youth Challenge
In designing the 5×5 Youth Challenge, UN-Habitat aimed to align the 12th World Urban Forum (WUF12) with the best practices of meaningful youth engagement. The challenge sought to make the Forum’s agenda more relatable for young participants while creating a transformative learning experience for newcomers.
However, the initiative wasn’t just about capacity building or offering an “edutaining” activity for children and youth. It also became a testing ground for discovering better ways to engage young people in global dialogues.
1️⃣ Confidence Through Collaboration:
Participants often teamed up to tackle tasks, offering each other support and motivation. Many shared in feedback surveys that working together made the experience less intimidating and more enjoyable. Peer support proved invaluable, as team members motivated each other to succeed. Suggestions from the evaluation survey underscored this dynamic, with participants proposing ideas like “assign participants in pairs or groups for support, especially for networking tasks.” Some also recommended alternative daily rewards to maintain motivation, including “having an active leaderboard somewhere other than just the app.”
2️⃣ Building a Community:
The WhatsApp group became more than just a place for updates—it turned into a hub for networking, collaboration, and sharing opportunities. Even those who didn’t fully participate in the challenge found value in the connections it fostered.
3️⃣ Youth Want More Inclusion:
While youth-focused events like the 5×5 Challenge and the Future Generations Zone were appreciated, participants expressed a desire for more integration into the broader programme. They wanted youth-related activities to be better promoted and more visible across the forum.
Some young participants noted that youth involvement could extend beyond designated spaces like the Future Generations Zone. One participant reflected: “To a certain extent, I wish youth were more explicitly involved across the board rather than just at the Future Generations booth and the one roundtable or dialogue. I wish more booths announced more clearly their youth-related work or activities in advance.”
The Children & Youth Thematic Track boasted 31 youth-focused events, complemented by the youth-led programming in the Urban Expo’s Future Generations Zone. Sessions facilitated by groups like the UN-Habitat Youth Advisory Board, Cities4Youth Coalition, and Save the Children showcased youth leadership. Yet, for participants from Egypt—where nearly a third of the population is under 24—there were calls for even greater inclusion in the broader programme.
4️⃣ Keeping the Momentum Alive:
Participants suggested creating a post-event virtual community or mentorship programme to keep the connections going and sustain the impact of the challenge: “Indeed, young people were allowed to attend the forum, and this is necessary and very important to achieve experience among young people to advance the country and achieve sustainable development.”
The winners of the 5×5 Challenge, 8 November 2024. (c) Nikolas Lanjouw, UN-Habitat
Looking Ahead: The 5×5 Challenge as a Model for Future Youth Engagement at Global Forums
Looking to the future, participants suggested ways to maintain the momentum and deepen youth involvement:
- Post-Event Virtual Community: Creating an ongoing platform to sustain networking and collaboration beyond WUF.
- Mentorship Programs: Establishing connections between young participants and urban professionals for continued guidance and skill-building.
Moving Forward
The 5×5 Youth Challenge wasn’t just about making WUF12 more engaging—it’s a model for how global events can be more inclusive and empowering for young people. By creating spaces where youth feel heard and valued, events like WUF can inspire the next generation of changemakers.
For many, the challenge wasn’t just about completing tasks—it was about building confidence, forming connections, and finding their voice on a global stage. As one participant put it, “This made me feel like I belong here, like my ideas matter. It’s something I’ll take with me long after the forum.”
The 5×5 Challenge proved that with the right tools and support, young people can thrive in any space.
