Youth, raise your voice!
I have been placed on the WYC policy document drafting committee. The policy document will be going up to the World Summit of the UN General Assembly in September, the follow-up review on the 2000 Millennium Summit.
What we want to do with this document, is to put youth at the forefront of the UN Millennium Development Goals, by being specific about what governments can and need to do in order to provide the channels and structures for youth involvement.
We've just finished the preliminary research phase, which leads us now to gather intelligence on various regions' needs assessment.
So that's my ulterior motive for putting this post up: We need your voice. In particular we are lacking input from Russia, developing ASEAN, and the Middle East.
If you are familiar with any of the country issues within these regions, please pop me an email with what you know to ipanema [dot] garota [at] gmail [dot] com. As this is a policy document, your input will need to be fairly specific in terms of what governments will be able to tangibly commit to or implement. For example, rather than merely listing education as a pressing issue in India, a recommendation might possibly go along the lines of,
Calling on the Indian government to increase funding by x% or $x m/billion [statistics not absolutely crucial] towards the establishment and expansion of educational infrastructure as well as training of youth for peer-to-peer youth-led teaching.Just as an example.
It would be useful to take into consideration what efforts governments and/or NGOs have already undertaken on the various issues.
This briefing on the policy document will help give some context and direction. A particularly helpful resource on that same page, among a few others, is the MDG youth white paper.
The document will be presented to Congress floor this saturday 9am GMT+1. So I look forward, soon, to hearing from anyone reading this from the listed regions.
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On a totally random note, did you guys know that the sun sets here at 10pm! Totally wicked. Also thanks for messages comments and emails. Pardon my anti-social tao-ness for this period.
Ok. Back to drafting meeting.
Technorati: UN, MDG, global issues
ao longo de garota a 08:34
3 Comments:
In terms of ASEAN, in my opinion, it is too broad and most of the governments are rather wary of any initiatives that will empower their youths politically.
Also the matter of different countries within the region also faces different challenge and needs, and youths might not really be a part of the government's solution.
And if it is directed specifically towards meeting the MDGs, then certainly not all the countries in ASEAN would be relevant. Except or say, the Philipines? And in countries like Burma, it is rather difficult to see that the junta will give up any of ther power to let youths take up initiative.
Hah, guess it's quite negative there, but I do see some light amongst others, such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and The Philipines.Guess which country I am leaving out..hehe.
5/8/05 03:19
beach-yi: it seems then, that one issue arising from the needs assessment of some ASEAN nations would be that of creating spaces for youth participation in decision-making processes relating to national development strategies.
your comments also allude to an issue of civil liberty, specifically right to political participation (i think it's UDHR article 21). that issue however (and unfortunately) is not under the purview of Youth-Led Development (YLD).
5/8/05 09:18
i am cautious of these big summits where NGOs present to governments. it seems that the governments tend to just give very superficial, noncommital responses.
i agree that there should be space for youth participation. but it is impractical to ask the government to create that space. whoever wants that space should come out and push for it. the government can help by allowing these people to take that space.
i'm sorry if i sound negative too. but personal experience has taught me that sometimes, writing these policy papers and all doesn't really work. you just do it and talk later. and that means even if you might have to be beaten, imprisoned, lose money, etc while you are just doing it, cos some times, you might be the prophet, seeing a better future that no one else sees yet. but when you are done, when you have finally made real and concrete, through your own efforts and inspite of all the opposition from the powers that be, that vision of a better future, then you would convince the government.
so the point is, not so much what the governments can do, but what can the youths, the people themselves do, inspite of the government.
on another note, i might have changed a CDC policy. am aiming now to change 1 person's life. it's my personal starfish project. :)
5/8/05 11:08
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