Dear followers, the task-force is incredibly sorry for not updating the blog for a very long time. This is not at all due to a lack of activity – rather the contrary – but all the activities have led to a lack of capacity to work on the blog. Updates on our successes and failures at the UN General Assembly and the COP 15 in Copenhagen soon to come. Right now – just a quick update on the preparations of the World Youth Conference 2010.
The World Youth Conference 2010 will be hosted by the Government of Mexico August 23 – 29 in Mexico City – and gather Ministers responsible for Youth from all over the world.
The aims of the conference are to feed into the MDG review of the UN General Assembly 2010 (through the adoption of a Governments declaration), to give advise to reshape and strengthen the UN’s work on youth and establish the necessary links between the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and working with youth.
The World Youth Conference will be the first occasion for youth ministers to assemble in a global meeting since 1998. As ICMYO organisations this is something we have been lobbying for looking forward to for a very long time, so of course we appreciate the efforts of the Mexican Government.
ICMYO involvement: ICMYO was invited to nominate organisations to the Organising Committee of the Social Forum leading up to the World Youth Conference (SOFOC). In the SOFOC we find YMCA, IFM-SEI, Pax Romana, WOSM, WAGGGS, the Pacific Youth Council, FLAJ, YFJ and IFLRY. In addition the Ibero-American Youth Space, which also attended the last ICMYO, is participating in the committee.
The SOFOC first met in Mollina, Spain, during the 10th University on Youth and Development – and then in Madrid, Spain, in December. An important aim of the conference is to strengthen the links between civil society and governmental representatives. We are responsible for shaping the Social Forum, consisting of an NGO Forum (approximately 400 participants) and a Global Village (where we expect 5000 participants at least). Calls for these events will follow shortly.
Further we are preparing political input to the declaration to be adopted in the Governments’ forum – and lobbying for participation of Youth NGOs also in the Governments’ forum.
More information to come shortly – just one more detail: There is an initiative from the Mexican Government to initiate regional consultations or pre-conferences in the different regions of the world. These are mainly governmental forums but civil society participation is encouraged. Regional Youth Platforms should get in touch with governmental bodies to see how you can prepare jointly in the best possible way. Please don’t hesitate to contact christoffer.gronstad@youthforum.org if you have questions to this process.
For further information see http://www.youth2010.org/
Text: Christoffer Gronstad, Photos: Christopher Derigo Malano
icmyo.org 