World Congress
Within the framework of the celebration of the Centenary of Scouting, the World Organization of the Scout Movement is organising a World Congress that will take place on 16-17 November 2007 in Geneva at the UN 'Palais des Nations' and the Hotel Ramada Encore.
Education and the World Scout Movement :
Experiences and Challenges
World Scientific Congress,
UN 'Palais des Nations' and the Hotel Ramada Encore
16-17 november 2007
For one hundred years the Scout Movement has not only represented a unique educational phenomenon but, it also provides a sound and systematic approach to education, through The Scout Method, now termed ‘nonformal’ education. Its social impact however, reaching beyond the Scout community, has not been accurately assessed. The World Scientific Congress on the contribution of the Scout Movement to the development of education will offer a crucial opportunity to debate the personal and social impact of Scouting with the international scientific community involved in research in pedagogy and social sciences, the history of education as well as management and leadership.
Download : Congress presentation.pdf 883,69 kB
Throughout the world, there are millions of social workers, activity leaders and educators working in the field of non-formal education. They develop hundreds of innovative projects in such varied areas as education for peace, sustainable development, leadership and engagement, AIDS prevention, job preparedness, and much more.
A Congress for researchers and field practitioners
The Preliminary Programme envisages a constant dialogue between researchers from universities or other research institutions and field practitioners in Scouting and other NGOs. Both the plenary presentations and contributions to the workshops will enable everyone to compare scientific research with the outcomes of action research carried out by field practitioners. Thus, for example, in the workshop on peace education, the discussion will be fed by scientific research and accounts of field experiences on this subject.
This is a world congress that is open to all and in which national Scout associations have a major role to play.
Just as is the case with Scouting, this Congress aims to bring together all categories of people, young and less young, both in terms of presenters and participants.
This Congress hopes to include representatives from NGOs, intergovernmental organizations, researchers and, more broadly, everyone with an active interest in Scouting and non-formal education.
Please fill in the attached form if you are interested in participating and send it to .
The Centenary Congress also aims to strengthen long-term cooperation with universities and other research institutions in the world:
The Congress report will contain the main presentations made in plenary and in the workshops, a summary of the debates, a presentation of best practices and the “Agenda for Change”. This report will be the basis for the World Scouting Report 2008, which will be widely disseminated amongst university and research institute networks and within the World Scouting network.
It is our pleasure to invite you to the World Scientific Congress and the Youth Event of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. The World Scientific Congress and preceding Youth Event on “Education and the World Scout Movement: experiences and challenges” is to be held in Geneva, Switzerland from 13 to 17 November 2007.
The aim of this World Scientific Congress is to rebuild strong links between Educational Organisations such as the World Organisation of the Scout Movement and the academic community in order to benefit from academic research related to the main educational challenges in today’s world and, based on their objective views of the capacity of Scouting and its partners in the world of non-formal education, to contribute to developing innovative solutions for the future.
The Youth Event that will take place immediately before the World Congress from 13 to 15 November has the specific objective of preparing the young delegates who will participate in the World Scientific Congress. These young delegates will come from National Scout Organizations, other International Youth NGOs (IYNGOs) and Regional Youth Platforms.
The working title of the event will be: “Young citizens of the world promoting diversity, participation and change: The contribution of 100 years of non-formal education”.
