World Scouting plays a key role in multi-stakeholder meetings on youth engagement in the global development agenda beyond 2015

 

Friday 17 August 2012

Last week, over 45 participants representing youth-led organisations, civil society organisations, various agencies of the United Nations, representatives from the private sector and academia, met for two days in New York to coordinate and harmonize their efforts to enhance child and youth participation in the formulation of the agenda that will succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) after 2015. World Scouting was invited as a leading youth-led organization for this key consultation meeting. The meeting – organized by the UN Millennium Campaign in collaboration with the UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development, the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service, CIVICUS, GCAP and the Beyond 2015 campaign – counted the presence of Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General (of UN) for Post-2015 Development Planning.



Liana Manusajyan, a youth representative from Armenia, opened the meeting. “I am asking you to lift the barriers to child and youth participation,” she said. “Because we need your help, we offer you our help in return.” Rajiv Joshi, Global Call to End Poverty at the opening said “Our planet stands upon a precipice and people around the world, particularly women and young people are facing growing inequality, poverty and injustice. As World Leaders craft the Post 2015 Development Agenda, we call for a future framework that is built upon the voices of citizens around, particularly young people who are in the forefront of changing their nations and the world".



The multi-stakeholder working session was conceived to facilitate partnerships between different stakeholders, to design a children- and youth-led engagement strategy, to develop follow-up mechanisms to enhance their engagement in this process, and to mobilize resources from donors. 

Speaking at the session Amina J. Mohammed, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General in Post-2015 Development Planning said “Youth participation is fundamental for the post-2015 agenda. Their vision and energy will be needed to do the heavy lifting in its implementation.” 

Throughout the first day, a common understanding of ongoing processes and efforts was strategically established and participants were able to hear from each other about their work on the post-2015 front. UN agencies reinforced their commitment to support the national, thematic and online consultative processes. Child and Youth-led society organizations such as Restless Development, World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM), Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), CIVICUS Youth Assembly and others also had the opportunity to share their work and create synergies that will provide them a truly global reach in order to move forward child and youth participation. 



On day two, participants engaged in strategic thinking, focusing on the enhancement of girl and young women’s participation, and paying special attention to ways to breech the digital divide and guarantee an inclusive use of social media and ICTs with marginalized children and young people. 

Despite its considerable size, the group managed to formulate concrete recommendations for child and youth engagement in the national, thematic, High Level Panel and online tracks of this process. Their joint commitment to participation will be guided by the fundamental principles of gender equality, protection, accountability and non-discrimination. 



Some of key recommendations from the group were: 


1. Call for a ‘Child-Youth Declaration On Post-2015’ - to be developed in the coming months through a youth-led and bottom up participatory. This will be presented to the UN High Level Panel on post-2015. 


2. Working draft of an outreach strategy on strengthening child and youth engagement in post-2015 including a component for social-media with children and youth. 


3. Identify a list of key tools for strengthening child and youth engagement for the post-2015 agenda:
• A child and youth friendly Q+A,
• A toolkit on linking children and youth engagement outcomes from Rio+20 to the post-2015 agenda
• A toolkit for researching with children and youth in post-2015,
• A toolkit on consulting with children and youth on post-2015 in National Consultations, Thematic Consultations and High Level Panel influencing opportunities,
• A toolkit on inclusive social media for outreach with children and youth engagement in post-2015 linked to www.worldwewant2015.org,
• A policy calendar for young people to influence the post-2015 phase,
• A fundraising strategy on children and youth engagement in post-2015
• Guidelines for child and youth engagement in post-2015


The meeting resulted in setting up of a multi-stakeholders support group on child and youth engagement in post-2015 and participants also discussed follow up plans after the year 2015. The need for the importance of and continued strong existence of organising partners such as the UN Inter-agency Network on Youth Development, Beyond-2015, NGLS, GCAP, Child Focused Organisations, UNMC, was reiterated and the meeting also discussed a proposal for a Global Meeting on “Youth Engagement in Post-2015” in Colombo, Sri Lanka in the year 2014.