Youth key to global development agenda: reflections from Mexico

Caritas Australia's Campaigns Coordinator, Alex Engel, writes from the UN World Youth Conference in Mexico.

Hola everyone,

Well the World Youth Summit in Mexico has finally come to a close and I've had to say goodbye to friends old and new from across the globe : (

The final day was quite eventful, with a lot of uncertainty about how many of the NGOs' recommendations were going to be inserted into the final Government declaration, which will soon be presented to the UN General Assembly.

It was fascinating to see the different country blocs at play at the final stage of negotiations, as they all had their own agendas and priority areas that they wanted to see inserted into the declaration. Meanwhile, the NGO delegates (at least those of us that were allowed in) were seated at the back of the room, and were frantically using break times to lobby individual government delegates to get them to raise particular concerns or issues in the larger session.

At the conclusion of the meeting, all countries offered their overall support to the final government declaration and many requested that the NGO declaration in full should be presented as an appendix to the document (a great achievement for us!)

You can download both declarations in full.

In the end, whilst many aspects of the NGO declaration were not adopted, I think this conference was an important step on the road to achieving greater recognition of the particular development issues that young people face around the world and the importance of involving youth in the deliverance of the international development agenda.

On a personal note, it was an eye-opener for me as to how the UN system functions, the multi-facted (and by multi, I mean countless and endless and sometimes, quite ludicrous) levels of politics that are involved.

I've made some great friends which will not soon be forgotten and I'm particularly excited about working with young people across the oceanic region in the near future - world, here comes the Pacific!!

I think that advocacy at the UN is very important and can be used, at times, to positive effect - however, I firmly believe that it will be the local/regional connections and the grassroots actions that create the real and lasting changes into the future.

Best of luck to my colleagues at the UNDPI Conference in Melbourne this week who are ensuring that our partners' voices are heard and acknowledged when it comes to issues of global health and development.

Hasta Luego!!

Alex
xxx