One River. Shared Responsibility. Shared Future. – Advancing transboundary cooperation in the Dniester River Basin
Banner by Nina Nikogosyan, International Expert – SSA, Graphic Design Expert.
International Youth Day is an opportunity to recognise young people not only as leaders of tomorrow, but as participants in environmental action today.
Across the Dniester River Basin, young people are connecting with one of Europe’s major transboundary rivers through art and storytelling, environmental education, field experience, dialogue and practical learning.
The Dniester is the ninth largest river in Europe, stretching around 1,350 kilometres across a basin of more than 72,000 square kilometres shared by the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. More than 8 million people depend on the river basin, making its sustainable management important for communities, ecosystems and economies in both countries. Co-operative management of the river also supports confidence-building and regional security.
Protecting such a vital shared resource requires effective institutions, scientific knowledge and co-operation across borders. It also requires people who understand its value and are prepared to contribute to its future.
Two initiatives supported through the GEF/UNDP/OSCE Dniester project—the basin-wide contest of creativity “Colours of the Dniester” and the Dniester Youth Summer School—demonstrate how different forms of engagement can help young people move from awareness and personal connection to knowledge, participation, and action.
Creativity as a starting point
For more than 17 years, “Colours of the Dniester” has encouraged children and young people across the basin to discover the river and express what its protection means to them.
More than 25,000 participants have taken part since the initiative began.
Through drawings, photography, video, poetry, essays and other creative formats, young people explore the relationship between people and the river and communicate their own perspectives on environmental protection.
The 2025/2026 edition, held under the motto “Colours of the Dniester - a shared art of protecting the river,” received 1,160 creative works from pupils, students, educators and water users from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The initiative culminated in an award ceremony held on 31 May 2026, marking the International Day of the Dniester River.
Behind these numbers is a broader purpose. Creativity provides an accessible way to engage young people with environmental issues while also bringing conversations about the Dniester into schools, families and communities.
The young participants are not simply illustrating a river. They are interpreting what it means to live alongside a shared natural resource, and why caring for it is a shared responsibility.
When the river becomes the classroom
The Dniester Youth Summer School takes this engagement further by connecting young people directly with environmental knowledge and practice.
In 2026, the Summer School brought together 70 young people aged 15 to 21 from the Republic of Moldova (both banks of the River) and Ukraine, with the river itself providing the setting for learning, exchange and practical activities.
Participants explored topics such as Integrated Water Resources Management, biodiversity, water quality, climate change adaptation, environmental legislation and public participation. Working with scientists, experts and environmental practitioners, they combined classroom learning with field experience and practical activities.
This approach helps make complex environmental challenges tangible. Water management is no longer only a technical concept; biodiversity is something participants can observe in the field; and transboundary co-operation becomes something they can experience through working and learning together.
The Summer School also creates an inclusive space for dialogue between young people from different communities. By exchanging perspectives, solving problems together and developing new relationships, participants experience an important principle of transboundary water management in practice: shared challenges are best addressed through knowledge, dialogue and co-operation.
Winners of the contest Colours of the Dniester during the 2026 award ceremony, Republic of Moldova
Photo by Victor Platon
Building a generation of shared responsibility
The two initiatives use different tools, but they reinforce the same long-term objective.
“Colours of the Dniester” builds awareness, creativity and a personal connection to the river. The Dniester Youth Summer School deepens that engagement through scientific knowledge, practical experience and collaboration.
Together, they recognise young people not simply as an audience for environmental information, but as voices for awareness, participants in environmental stewardship and contributors to a culture of co-operation.
This matters increasingly as the Dniester River Basin faces pressures including climate change, floods and droughts, pollution, ecosystem degradation and competing water uses. These challenges cross borders and generations alike.
The wider GEF-funded Dniester project therefore places inclusive participation, stakeholder engagement and transparent information-sharing among its core areas of work. By 2029, it foresees support to the yearly “Colours of the Dniester” contests and the Dniester Summer Schools, helping make youth engagement a continuing part of basin-wide co-operation.
On International Youth Day, the experience of the Dniester carries a message that reaches beyond one river: when young people are given opportunities to create, learn, participate and connect, they become part of the long-term solutions that shared natural resources need.
About the project
Running from 2025 to 2029, the project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as Implementing Agency, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as Executing Agency, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) as project partner.
For more information, please contact Dana Bogdan: Dana.Bogdan@osce.org;
Related content
“Colours of the Dniester” – 2025 edition / 2026 award activities: Colours of the Dniester 2025 | Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities
Dniester Youth Summer School 2026: Advancing transboundary co-operation and Integrated Water Resources Management in the Dniester River Basin through implementation of the Strategic Action Programme | Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities
Words by Dana Bogdan.
Thumbnail by Victor Platon.