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Amman, 21st June 2010
Dear Secretary
General/President of the National Societies in the Asia and Pacific, and Middle East regions ,
Through this
letter, we are glad to inform you about the progress made in the area of youth
since last year, when youth from about 150 National Societies met in Solferino.
This event revamped the spirit of youth action in our regions and facilitated
the “birth” of new ideas and initiatives on the footsteps of Henry Dunant. In
order to keep the momentum, the youth representatives from the Asia Pacific and
Middle East regions have joined their efforts to organize a Youth Summit in Jordan before the Asia
and Pacific conference from the 9-17 October 2010. In
line with the theme of the Conference “Saving lives, changing minds”, the
proposed Youth Summit is strongly aligned with Strategy 2020, particularly with Strategic Aim 3 - ‘Promote social inclusion and a culture of non-violence and peace’
and Enabling Action 1 “Building stronger
National Societies” through youth actions.
The goal of
this summit is to empower young people to
improve service delivery for vulnerable people across the region, and to
actively implement Strategy 2020 at national level. Its four main objectives are to:
· Train youth peer
educators in the regions on ‘Youth as Agents of Behavioural
Change’ (YABC) initiative, piloted in Solferino last year and identified as a
relevant youth-led program to disseminate further in our region. . YABC uses
peer education and non-cognitive approaches to empower youth to play a key role
in their communities and address issues such as discrimination, violence,
stigma and intercultural dialogue. The youth leaders in the regions felt that
YABC training and implementation at national and local level would address
fundamental concerns in their communities.
· Improve
youth-led service delivery through greater exchange of
good practices and technical assistance. Among Asia
and Pacific and Middle East National Societies there is a wealth of good
practice in the area of youth. The opportunity to exchange them will be
particularly inspiring and encouraging to do more and better through youth
actions.
· Profile the
contribution of youth and
work together to develop national
youth policies and strategies that will contribute to create an enabling
environment for youth engagement.
The proposed ‘Youth Summit 2010’, a 7-dayevent will
include:
· 5-day ‘Training of peer educators’ on YABC initiative; the IFRC Principles & Values department in
Geneva will
support this. This training will equip the youth in every National
Society in the Asia Pacific
and Middle East regions to
implement this successful and innovative programme.
· 2-day-‘Think Tank’; to discuss and develop a long-term regional youth strategy
on how ( (YABC) training and focuses can be turned into tangible humanitarian
actions at National Society level. This document will
then be presented to the Regional Conference 2010.
The summit and
its focus will also contribute to mark 2010 as the International Year of Youth, starting on August 12 with the theme
of Dialogue and Mutual Understanding.
It will also represent a major step in implementation of the Solferino Youth
Declaration across our region and will allow an active youth participation in
the Asia Pacific Conference, in Jordan.
As the only
cross-zonal IFRC youth event for 2010, the new President Mr. Konoe has
expressed his willingness to join the Youth Summit on behalf of the wider
membership of our organization.
Furthermore, the
youth participation in the Asia and Pacific
Conference will allow the youth representatives to present to the National
Societies leadership the outcomes of the summit and the regional youth strategy
to work side-by-side towards common goals.
For the first
time in Asia and Pacific, this will be an
opportunity for youth representatives from every National Society to attend the
Regional Conference. The Planning Committee also included youth in all
Conference agenda items (effective preparedness, humanitarian diplomacy and
youth and volunteering); as well as a youth representative in the Conference
drafting committee. It is with energy, commitment and motivation characteristic
of youth that we call National Societies to support the achievements of the
above youth summit goal and objectives. The budget attached outlines a summary
of its costs.
In a previous
letter, you have already been encouraged to register a youth representative to
the Asia Pacific Regional Conference. This youth representative should be a
youth leader that will also attend the Youth Summit beforehand in order to
reduce the costs related to transportation.
To ensure a
sustainable follow-up and a real impact of the Youth Summit at National Society level, we ask you to appoint two youth participants
for the Youth Summit (one registered to the Asia
and Pacific Conference) according to the following criteria:
- Youth leader(s)
in a position to disseminate and implement the YABC initiative within his/her
National Society, with the leadership support
- Experienced in
facilitating/organising trainings
- Knowledgeable
of and dedicated to the Movement Fundamental Principles and Humanitarian Values
- Aged 18-30 and
fluent in English
- Pluri-disciplinary
profile and practical voluntary work experience encouraged (e.g.:
Dissemination, Health, DM,…)
This initiative
and its follow-up can meaningfully contribute to the actual implementation of a
series of statutory commitments made by the leadership to increase youth
engagement in National Societies
programmes and decision making processes, i.e. IFRC Youth Policy (1991 and
1999), the Singapore declaration (2006), the IFRC Pledge on youth volunteering
presented at the International Conference in 2007 and the Solferino Youth
Declaration.
In order to
facilitate communications and encourage sustainable youth development, we would
recommend that the identified youth leaders would be accountable for the
implementation of the youth summit plan
at national level and for reporting to the National Society leadership on the progress
of youth activities. This person could also represent the National Society in
various youth forums, group discussions on the web, regional RCRC youth
networks, etc.
National
Societies applications will be gathered by the Asia
and Pacific & Middle East Youth Summit steering committee will review the
candidatures. As places for the Youth Summit are limited (100 places), only candidates
responding to ALL criteria will be considered for this.
A fundraising
letter for the event will follow shortly. We expect National Societies to
contribute to the participation of their Youth representatives as much as
possible.
Please submit
the names of your candidates as follow to violaine.desrosiers@ifrc.org:
- Profile (full
name, date of birth, gender, position in the NS)
- Years of
experience in NS programmes and which programmes
- Availability of
funding for his/her participation (Y/N)
- Attendance to
the Asia Pacific Conference after the Youth Summit (Y/N)
- Email address
and phone number of the candidate
- Approval and
signature from the Secretary General and/or President
With our best
regards,
The
Youth Steering Group for the Asia Pacific Youth Summit
Mr.Abdullah
Ahmed, India
Mrs.Rania
Suaifan, Jordan
Mr.Vinay Menon,
Australia
Mr.Mohammad
Fawaz, Jordan
Dr. Amal Emam,
Egypt
Mrs.Charlotte
Tocchio, Geneva
Covering Letter - Youth Summit