The 4th WYC Congress will be celebrating youth and the role they play in achieving the MDGs. The underlining principles that will be the base for our conference are:

Empowerment
Through social and commercial entrepreneurship, and through devising and managing different types of community improvement projects, young people have shown that they can contribute directly to the sustainable development of their communities. By empowering and mobilizing thousands of young people throughout the world to aspire to complete hundreds of ambitious youth-led development projects, the World Youth Congress Quebec 2008 will shine a spotlight on the most effective ways that young people can advance the development agenda.

Contribution to achieving the MDG
The young project managers who come to the Congress, and the youth-led development projects they display and discuss there, will provide compelling examples of how young people can help their governments achieve the Millennium Development Goals. These goals, adopted by all UN member governments in the year 2000, mirror almost exactly the priorities agreed by the young delegates at the 1st World Youth Congress in Hawaii in 1999. By stimulating and highlighting hundreds of youth-led development projects both before and after the Congress, the Canada 2008 World Youth Congress will demonstrate the enormous contribution that young people can make to the global effort to achieve the MDGs and increase the chances that the number of people living in extreme poverty will be halved by 2015.

The Emphasizing models
The province of Quebec and the government of Canada have much to be proud of in their record of supporting youth-led development – locally, nationally and internationally. The World Youth Congress will highlight model programs and projects that have had, and continue to make an important impact on sustainable human development in Quebec, across Canada and around the world. The host country will lead by example and encourage other governments of the world to pursue similar models.

Selflessness, integrity and the global family
The World Youth Congress will celebrate and honour the diversity of culture and opinions within our global family. Likewise, it will encourage every participant, both virtually and physically present, to adopt the values of selflessness and integrity which are the foundations of a peaceful, caring, sustainable human society.

Co-management
The Co-management principle of equal partnership between youth and elders will be applied at all stages in the planning and execution of the Congress and to all decision-making procedures. The management of the Congress will be structured to ensure that young people aged between 18 and 30 years of age share equal power with elders in all decisions made about the content, delivery and outcomes of it.

Partnerships, dialogue and cooperation
The Congress management team will not seek to create new organizations or networks. As far as possible, it will build constituencies by forging partnerships with existing organizations and movements to accomplish its objectives. Dialogue and cooperation will be integral to the congress’s management, developing partnerships that will benefit sponsors, the congress itself and, most of all, its participants.

Sustainable development
The Congress will be a model example of sustainable event management, with the smallest possible ecological footprint. The emphasis on the virtual congress: “bringing the congress to the young people as well as bringing young people to the congress” - will demonstrate a new paradigm for international youth meetings in the Internet age. The choice of menus, locations, transportation, local action projects, content of workshops and cultural programs will be carefully screened by a Sustainability Committee to ensure that, in every aspect, the Congress walks the talk of sustainable lifestyles and environmental conservation. The food served will be locally produced where possible, and all imported foodstuffs and materials used at the congress will be sourced from fair trade outlets.