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Targeting Young People In Promoting Development And Democracy

3 June 2004

A framework for self-assessment on youth engagement has been developed by various Commonwealth organisations and follows from the workshop 'Putting Youth Engagement into Practice' held at the Commonwealth Club in London, UK, on 24 May 2004.

About 50 participants from various pan-Commonwealth and civil society organisations met to explore various issues involving young people in their work. Several of the organisations had participated at the first workshop on this theme held last September at London University's Senate House.  

Steve Mokwena, Chief Executive Officer of Modjadji Works, a South African development communications company, said that the framework "includes questions to be answered by each organisation, which can develop into guidelines for best practices for organisations interested in involving young persons in their work." Mr Mokwena delivered the keynote address on 'Young people as participating partners in development and democracy'.

Key themes from the workshop and its evaluation are included in the framework: mainstreaming youth, culture and attitudes of organisations, governance, internships, attachments and young personnel, youth projects and programming, and sharing practice and knowledge.

Cristal de Saldanha Stainbank from the Commonwealth Youth Programme spoke on 'Lessons drawn from gender mainstreaming', while other representatives from the British Youth Council, National Council for Voluntary Youth Services and the former Chair of the Pan-Commonwealth Youth Caucus shared their perspectives.

Oivind Grimsmo, Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth Engineers Council, presented his views and the plan to establish a web-based network of young engineers in Commonwealth countries who are interested in sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

The workshop was jointly organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society, the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council and the Commonwealth Youth Programme, with funding support from the Commonwealth Secretariat.

These organisations are keen to find a strategy for including civil society organisations based outside of London in this work.

Participating organisations have set up a group on 'Youth Mainstreaming and Commonwealth Promotion'. Pan-Commonwealth non-governmental organisations interested in sending a representative to the next meeting in London on 15 June 2004, can contact Susanna Darch at susanna.darch@rcsint.org.

 

CNIS - the Commonwealth News and Information Service  Issue 186              2 June 2004