PRESS CONFERENCE ON GLOBAL YOUTH SUMMIT

 

Two prominent delegates to the United Nations Global Youth Leadership Summit in New York –- one from West Africa, the other from Latin America –- spoke, Tuesday, at a Headquarters press conference on the challenge that lay ahead in promoting the Millennium Development Goals among young people around the world.

The three-day Summit –- aimed at strengthening the movement to engage young people in decisions about the future of their communities, their regions and the emerging global society -- concluded Tuesday, with a declaration in which delegates committed themselves to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  The declaration also called on Governments to fulfil the goals by 2015.

Solange Marquez, from Mexico, told the correspondents that the Summit had been “very inspirational,” as well as an opportunity for young people to raise their voices about issues that were important to them.  She, herself, had “always” talked about the environment, an issue she felt had been overshadowed by poverty.  She argued that all the Millennium Development Goals were connected; poverty had to be eradicated, but environmental degradation had to be confronted, as well.  “We can’t end poverty without that,” she said.

Marie Tamoifo Nkom, from Cameroon, recalled that Africa’s youth faced a host of problems, such as unemployment, poverty and migration.  For her, the question was how to relate the Millennium Development Goals to youth.  The Summit had been an important experience, empowering the participants, as they prepared to return to their home countries.  “It is a global platform that we are creating,” she said, “and I hope a lot of action will come of it.”

Responding to a correspondent’s question on how delegates had been selected, Djibril Diallo, director of the UN Office of Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), which organized the Summit, on behalf of the UN system, said they had largely been selected, by United Nations agencies, based on their leadership skills, in consultations with Governments and civil society.

Asked what made the declaration different, Ms. Tamoifo Nkom said the drafting committee had succeeded in pulling together the key points of earlier declarations made at the regional level.  It also had the “added value” of setting out ideas on how the follow-up should proceed.  Ms. Marquez called the declaration “complete and global,” though it had been hard work to find common ground between regional agenda.  Africa, for instance, had been concerned with HIV/AIDS, while Latin America had been more focused on environmental and political topics.

Asked, by a correspondent, how many youth people had attended the summit, Mr. Diallo said that, at any one time, there had been 550 to 600 participants, including a “very strong presence” of young entrepreneurs, who had paid their own way to New York.  There had also been a number of adult observers, too, creating a true “inter-generational dialogue.”

Questioned about the role of Sun Microsystems as a sponsor of the Summit, Mr. Diallo said the organizers had wanted to be sure to use the best technology to take the issues to the most remote villages in 192 countries, using webcasts, online forums and digital storytelling.  Some delegates had also been given cameras to document their work.  Mr. Diallo also noted that the head of Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwarts, had written to his employees, inviting them to become mentors to help young people with presentational skills and to draw up business plans.  The Maybach Foundation had also offered to promote mentoring.  What was important, Mr. Diallo said, was for the Millennium Development Goals debate to move beyond the walls of Headquarters and the capitals of member States.

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For information media • not an official record