Last weeks Youth Level Panel event, facilitated by Restless Development, gave young people an opportunity to contribute to United Nations high-level discussions concerning the future of international development beyond 2015. The session stimulated a lively discussion and encouraged meaningful and effective exchange between global leaders and young people about the process and the role of youth going forwards.
Taking place in London on the 2nd November 2012, the event ‘Young Leaders, Young voices’ represented an opportunity forthe UN High Level Panel to interact with youth and, in so doing, better understand development through the eyes of the world’s largest demographic bar none.
As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) move towards expiration, the UK Prime Minister David Cameron,President Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia and President Yudhoyono of Indonesia have been tasked by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to co-chair a High Level Panel on the post-MDG agenda. Together, they will lead a process aimed at identifying a post-2015 international framework for development.
Conceived within this context, the Youth event, facilitated by Restless Development, gave young people an opportunity to contribute to this process, demonstrate their understanding of the development context facing their generation, and offer practical input into the post-2015 process. The session stimulated a lively discussion and encouraged meaningful and effective exchange between global leaders and young people in the process going forwards.
The full outcomes and recommendations of the discussions will be drawn together by Restless Development, and of course wider impacts remain to be seen. However, as Nik Hartley, Restless Development CEO, said:
“We’ve heard a radical idea here today of young people being brought into the panel. This is the beginning of the real consultation.”
We know that young people are a vital asset in the formulationandleadership of any new commitments to global development and tackling poverty worldwide and, through such events, Global Leaders will come to know this as well. “Youth”, one youth contributorstated, are today “too plentiful and powerful to be excluded…in terms of population, there is China…then there is India…and then there is Facebook…youth are the third biggest country and therefore a reason not to be ignored”.
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Youthpolicy.org/development will update you on outcomes and recommendations as they emerge.