On a mission to positively impact the lives of 1 billion youth in the
SCO region by 2050.

Our Story

SCOLAR stands for Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s Leaders with Aspiration and Respect for one another.

SCOLAR Network (SCO Countries Youth Platform) was founded in April 2017 as a grassroots community to bring together young people from the SCO region. In just a year, we received support and gained affiliation from the SCO Secretariat. Today SCOLAR serves as a platform to strengthen connectivity, promote empathy and dialogue, create social impact and contribute to the development in the SCO region.

Our values

We believe in the shared traditions, civilizational history and values of our neighboring countries. This is why SCOLAR takes the “Shanghai Spirit” principles as a guide in its mission to strengthen the role of youth in developing their countries and the Eurasian region as a whole. The “Shanghai Spirit”, as a combination of the founding principles of the SCO, includes mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development.

Our projects

SCOLAR aims to support university students and young professionals from 21 SCO Family countries by pursuing projects & establishing connections with relevant stakeholders. The goal of our projects is to find creative solutions to the challenges young people face. Our anchor projects include “Model SCO” intellectual game, “AGORA: SCOLAR Vision” youth conference and educational project SCOLAR Academy. These projects bring together thousands of people, including students, graduates, private sector, media representatives and other organization.

Why the SCO region?

SCO Countries Placeholder
SCO Countries
1 %

of the world population

1 %

of Eurosian landmass

1 %

of the world GDP

1

median age across 8 member states

Recognition of SCOLAR Network

Read what SCO countries’ leadership say about SCOLAR.

SCOLAR Network was highlighted by the Ministers of Education of the SCO member states as an important youth-led initiative. They supported the idea of establishing similar youth organizations in other SCO countries to create a common platform for dialogue and exchanges among young specialists and students, as well as their engagement in the development of their respective countries and the region.

– 17 October 2018, Astana, Kazakhstan

“Model SCO” was supported by the Council of Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) of the SCO Member States in 2018 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and 2019 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Meet The HQ Team

Olim R. Alimov ??

Co-founder
Olim R. Alimov is a China and SCO region expert specializing in policy and trade. Olim is the Head of Beijing’s Office of the United Center for Business Cooperation under the SCO Вusiness Council Secretariat (UCBC). A graduate of Peking University with a Master’s degree in International Relations, Olim has lived and worked in China for 12 years. He is a co-founder of a Beijing based advisory and management firm Shanghe House. His hobbies include documentaries, basketball and procrastination.

Victoria Khu ??

Co-founder and President
Victoria Khu is a Russian born Chinese, Co-founder and President of SCOLAR Network. Victoria is a TEDx speaker and a member of Global Shapers community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. She is inspired by the energy generated through the cross-cultural connections between the young people, and strives to contribute to the regional development through building educated and empathetic communities. Victoria has received MA from Tsinghua University in Journalism and Communication. She enjoys dancing, baking and learning Spanish.

Alina Zholobova ??

Creative Director
Alina Zholobova graduated with a double degree from the University of Busines and Economics (China) and the Baikal State University (Russia) in World Economics. Despite her broad vision and interest in the geopolitics process, she finds herself in Graphic Designs.

Sanaa Ganbat ??

Media Head
Batsanaa Ganbat is from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. She studied Chinese as her first foreign language when she was 6 y.o. Graduated with a Master of International Politics from Bejing Language and Culture University. Media Head of SCOLAR Network since 2018. She has lived and worked in Beijing for 9 years, she loves live music, singing, traveling, capture moments, learning new languages, and social media. Therefore, she daily posts on her Instagram account @zoulen.s (https://instagram.com/zoulen.s) that already have more than 10K followers, sharing beautiful traveling photos that she captured with a quote in English, Russian, Chinese and Mongolian languages. She passioned about impacting young people through this way, sending some good vibes, and helps people learn languages.

Shikha Magar, Ph.D ??

Project Manager
Shikha Thapa Magar is from Nepal who has finished her PhD in Agronomy from Hebei Agricultural University. She is the Founding curator of SCOLAR Kathmandu Hub which is the pioneer hub of SCOLAR outside China, working on local issues, uplifting the skills and leadership quality of Nepalese youth and bridging the gap of Nepal and other SCO countries. She had been engaged in different volunteering project related to environment, education and disaster relief. She was also engaged in connecting Universities of China and Nepal for collaboration to exchange research and young talents. She is an euthusiast learner and very open to any new and exciting chapters or projects.

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Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation, the creation of which was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai, China, by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It was preceded by the Shanghai Five mechanism.

The SCO Charter was signed during the St.Petersburg SCO Heads of State meeting in June 2002. This is the fundamental statutory document which outlines the organisation’s goals and principles, as well as its structure and core activities.

The historical meeting of the Heads of State Council of the SCO on 8-9 June 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan, granted the status of a full member of the Organization to India and Pakistan.

The SCO’s main goals are as follows: strengthening mutual trust and neighbourliness among the member states; promoting their effective cooperation in politics, trade, the economy, research, technology and culture, as well as in education, energy, transport, tourism, environmental protection, and other areas; making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region; and moving towards the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.

Proceeding from the “Shanghai Spirit”, the SCO pursues its internal policy based on the principles of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, mutual consultations, respect for cultural diversity, and a desire for common development, while its external policy is conducted in accordance with the principles of non-alignment, non-targeting any third country, and openness.

The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO. It meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation. The SCO Heads of Government Council (HGC) meets once a year to discuss the organisation’s multilateral cooperation strategy and priority areas, to resolve current important economic and other cooperation issues, and also to approve the organisation’s annual budget. The SCO’s official languages are Russian and Chinese.

In addition to HSC and HGC meetings, there is also a mechanism of meetings at the level of heads of parliament; secretaries of Security Councils; ministers of foreign affairs, defence, emergency relief, economy, transport, culture, education, and healthcare; heads of law enforcement agencies and supreme and arbitration courts; and prosecutors general. The Council of National Coordinators of SCO Member States (CNC) acts as the SCO coordination mechanism.

The organisation has two permanent bodies — the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.

Thus, currently SCO has 18 countries: 

  • 8 member states: India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; 
  • 4 observer states: Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia; 
  • 6 dialogue partners: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey, and Sri Lanka.