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DEVELOPMENT: The Young Set Out to Show the Way

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Jul 29 2005 (IPS) - A world youth conference will be held in Scotland to point the path ahead to the September UN summit on the millennium development goals as the young see it.

The World Youth Congress is to be held in Stirling Jul. 31-Aug. 8. Stirling is the town in Scotland that generated the most active protest at the G8 (group of eight industrialised countries, the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia) summit at nearby Gleneagles earlier this month.

The youth congress is expected to be neither militant nor left-wing. About 600 youngsters aged mostly 18-25 from more than 150 countries will attend the youth congress. A report on the outcome will be presented to the United Nations and to governments of several countries.

”After the Commission on Africa and the G8 summit, and with the summit on the MDGs (millennium development goals) coming up, we expect governments to take seriously what the youth congress will have to say,” Paul Kane, one of the organisers of the congress told IPS.

”The UN is looking for a written report from the conference. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has also asked for a report from the conference. And so we have a lot of input from a lot of people going into the conference.”

The last two world youth conferences, in Hawaii in October 1999 and in Casablanca in Morocco in 2003 had made significant recommendations that were taken note of by at least some, said Francisco Peieira (25) from Ecuador who also attended the last two youth congresses.

Peieira, who has just completed a degree in digital arts, said the first conference had produced a book called ‘Be the Change’. ”That contained our thoughts on what is needed for a new world,” Peieira told IPS. ”In Ecuador we presented a copy to the President, who seemed very interested.”

But Peieira acknowledged that after the show of interest, ”it did not go much further.”

The second conference produced a declaration handed to governments. But some specific action followed this time ”because the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) gave money for young people to carry out development work in line with the recommendations.”

This time, he said, most discussions would lead to recommendations on how to take progress further towards the MDGs, a set of eight goals agreed in 2000. The goals are to eradicate extreme hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS and other serious diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development. The target date for many of the specific aims is 2015.

The UN Millennium +5 Summit will be held in New York Sep. 14-16 to review progress towards the goals. The youth congress seeks to inform that review process in the face of widespread indications that the set targets will not be met.

”We are looking forward to involvement of youths from different countries to agree what we want for meeting those goals,” Peieira said. About a third of the youth are from developing countries. Most of those have been assisted with travel costs met by donations raised by individuals and through Peace Child International, the British non-governmental organisation that started the world youth congresses.

The declared theme for the youth congress is ‘Young people working for a sustainable world community’. For the first time young people predominantly have been involved in planning and implementing the event.

Leading development and aid agency officials are being invited to listen in and learn. Representatives from several governments too will attend the congress as observers. The aim is to ”get youth-led development accepted as an important component in the fight against poverty as well as a contribution to the UN MDGs,” the congress organisers said in a statement.

Scotland youth are setting out to learn their own lessons as well. About 5,000 Scottish youth have signed up to a supportive Change 05 campaign. They have taken up five pledges: to not drop litter or spit gum in the street; to not waste water or electricity; to buy ‘Fairtrade’ where possible, and where not, to ask why; to donate old clothes and Cds to charity; and to challenge discrimination wherever seen or heard,