During our conversation, Caucus members outlined our concerns with current youth participation in public policy decision making. A quandary arose. How do we lobby for meaningful participation when language has already been written into official documents such as the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS and the 2006 Political Declaration? Moreover, language emphasizing the need for meaningful youth participation was included in the 2001 and 2006 Declarations, meaning that our concerns stemmed not so much from poor language but from poor implementation. Some of us could even cite instances from our countries in which young people had been given a "voice" in HIV/AIDS policy making, but a voice that fell on deaf ears.
I noted a theme underlying this conversation for those of us wanting to participate in the political processes that govern our lives: as young people, we seek political space and recognition without becoming token representatives of the three billion members of the world's population that are under the age of 25.
At 21 years old, I am a young person. I am fortunate to be working at an organization that values youth involvement in its decision-making and representation but, three weeks out of college, I feel younger than ever around my more experienced colleagues in the international policy field. This is perhaps one of the greatest challenges youth face. Sometimes the feeling is similar to just arriving in another country -- I may have studied the language, the culture, the people, but until I have experience, it is difficult to communicate and feel comfortable.
During the caucus we resolved to advocate for the following points:
These points may not seem strikingly revolutionary or surprising as a contribution from a group of progressive young people and their organizations, but they reflect a commitment from youth to work in partnership with policy makers and governments, to design realistic pathways to achieve the ever-distant universal access targets. The notion of youth-adult partnership in achievement of the universal access targets underpinned many discussions I had with other young attendees at the conference. If we expect our countries to achieve universal access targets by 2010, we expect ourselves and our peers to be active participants in galvanizing social action to successfully realize the targets.
Central to this underlying theme at the progressive youth caucus is the final point in the aforementioned list: "Invest in youth leadership." True youth participation can be facilitated through mentor relationships between experienced leaders in policy and civil society with young people.
The drafting of the Civil Society Declaration, the document which attempted to distill the key messages of member organizations of Civil Society in attendance at the UN meeting, is a good example of experienced members of the policy community reaching out to young people to ensure their inclusion at the highest levels of messaging and decision making.
The organizers of the meeting arranged to write the declaration sent out a broad invitation to youth attendees at the conference to ensure their participation in the messaging discussion. During the meeting, young people were leaders in each of the working groups assigned to draft various pieces of the declaration.
As a result of our inclusion and full participation at that meeting, the official Civil Society Declaration mentioned:
I highlight these pieces of language not to harp on "wins" for the youth community but to show that, through meaningful collaboration between adults and young people, substantial results can be achieved in drafting policy and messaging that truly reflects the needs of young people. The Civil Society Declaration and the Declaration of the Progressive Youth Caucus were both delivered to the General Assembly President at the end of the High Level Meeting.
In terms of effecting policy change and urging implementation, the 2008 High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS was a challenging experience. Many of us in Civil Society were unsure about our role and our capacity to influence the outcomes of the meeting. Fortunately, however, a very forward-thinking concentration of young people and adults in Civil Society were able to collaborate to produce strong and clear messages for our country delegations to take into account.
]]>Addressing the Millennium Development Goals is the challenge that we have taken on as a global community. Women Deliver has attempted to be a piece of achieving goal number five, which is related to the reduction of maternal mortality. Hearing vivid stories about the tragedy of unnecessary deaths of women due to pregnancy and childbirth for reasons ranging from the HIV/AIDS epidemic to abuse of human rights has indeed illuminated "MDG 5" for me. Young women my age are dying because of lack of access to basic healthcare.
Thus, I can say that Women Deliver has left me with a visceral drive to reduce maternal mortality. However, at the same time, it has left me with a similar sense of frustration concerning the ability of the international advocacy community-including intergovernmental, non-governmental, and political organizations-to work cohesively to achieve this single end. The many dimensions of maternal mortality necessarily require a multi-faceted response from various sectors of civil society and governments, which I saw represented in the more than 2,000 delegates at the conference. Yet this is the frustrating piece of the puzzle for me: international development itself is a multi-dimensional challenge requiring a multi-faceted response from different levels and sectors of global society. But somehow cohesion in this response seems to remain elusive.
Given the various representatives from important international agencies and organizations and governmental ministries who have walked through the halls of the conference center of the past few days, I personally believe I saw the most potential for action in the youth. I say that not to be cliché, nor to push a "youth agenda," but out of a basic impression. We are working in a global system in which there are developing countries and developed, recipients and donors, those to be helped and those who do the helping.
While I met many young people from "developing" countries, they did not describe a future in which money for AIDS drugs still came from the United States and Europe, or in which maternal mortality continued to be a problem. Why? Because young people of today are part of a new global paradigm that reflects a shift in the world order. Women Deliver showed me more than anything else that if and when maternal mortality is to be reduced substantially at a global level it will be done not through a helper-recipient model, but through a model of collective and equitable support, a new model of global development that is defined most purely by those who know the new world best: its youth.
]]>While working at the Youth Commitments Desk, young delegates from Turkey, Paraguay, Ecuador, Uganda, Kenya, China, Panama, Chile, the Congo, Nepal, the Philippines, (the list goes on and on), informed me firsthand about the issues that I advocate for within United States foreign policy. My primary question to them: am I getting it right?
I feel so privileged to have the opportunity to go to university and work in Washington, given the city's immense centralization of global power and influence. I want to make sure I am using my time and energy correctly. While I wish the answer to that question could have been a simple yes or no, the reality was somewhat more complicated.
I heard from a young woman from Uganda that the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programs are saving her family members because of the free provision of antiretroviral therapy. But at the same time, she told me that the prevention messaging ignores the realities of Ugandan social norms regarding monogamy and general sexual practice. I spoke with another young woman from Palestine who told me that while sexual practice is not an open topic in Islamic society, religion and effective reproductive health policies do not have to be at odds with one another. Another young woman from the Philippines told me about the young victims of sexual predation resulting from poverty and lack of education.
Neither of these or my other conversations was particularly shocking to me, nor did I particularly disagree with anyone. Perhaps that is the result of convening a conference of 2,000 like-minded people working for reproductive and maternal health. However, I did learn that something is going right-even though we face seemingly insurmountable challenges to transforming global access to reproductive and maternal health, not all, but many young people the world over are aware that the status quo does not have to be accepted. My work in Washington is but a piece of that global struggle.
Perhaps the best way to conclude the day was seeing Andrew Francis, a member of Advocates for Youth's International Youth Leadership Council on stage as an equal stakeholder with international policy and non-governmental leaders during the afternoon plenary session. Indeed, it was not a resolution to include youth at the stakeholder level, but it was an inspiring step in the right direction.
]]>As the rousing applause quieted down following the plenary and the massive conference hall emptied out, a collection of colorful chairs and funky-modern furniture was rolled onto the stage. It was time for the youth panel! Seven inspired, intelligent, empowered, and excited young leaders from around the world walked onto the stage. Sadly, of the thousands who crowded that same room 10 minutes prior, only 20 or so remained scattered around to hear what the world's young people had to say. While I sat, inspired by their words, I was frustrated at a contradiction that manifests itself all too frequently at conferences such as these: although we are aiming to empower women, the assembled global leaders somehow believe that we can achieve this without even lending an ear to an informal discussion among young people.
During the panel discussion, questions from what does "family" mean for today's generation to how do young people impact policy, were considered. Three themes became particularly evident to me while listening to their comments:
If Women Deliver organizers and participants are really going to deliver for women beyond the conference and address the concerns raised in the youth panel, I suggest we put inter-generational collaboration on the list of priorities for governments and civil society. Working together and in true partnership, adults and young people can make a difference so that women and men, both young and older, can truly plan their families and their futures.
]]>Brian Ackerman is an intern at Advocates for Youth and a junior at the George Washington University, majoring in International Affairs.
I always shudder when I hear that young people aged 15-24 account for over 40% of new HIV infections. At 20 years old, I am halfway through college and focused on the youthful experience of "finding myself" and creating my future. I hope HIV never has to factor into my equation, but knowing that it is a daily reality for my peers around the world is an eerie truth. Helping young people protect themselves while still balancing the rest of the costs and needs of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is increasingly difficult.
This was reiterated for me at recent briefing, "A European Perspective on the Future of Global AIDS Programs: A Conversation with Five AIDS Ambassadors," hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Center for Global Development. The event began with each ambassador speaking for a few minutes about the commitment their country has made toward fighting global AIDS. Since coming to work as an intern on international issues at Advocates for Youth, I've been exposed to much of the rhetoric about the flow of aid aimed at fighting infectious diseases in the developing world, but the commentary from these ambassadors was both refreshingly honest and difficult to hear.
]]>Brian Ackerman is an intern at Advocates for Youth and a junior at the George Washington University, majoring in International Affairs.
I always shudder when I hear that young people aged 15-24 account for over 40% of new HIV infections. At 20 years old, I am halfway through college and focused on the youthful experience of "finding myself" and creating my future. I hope HIV never has to factor into my equation, but knowing that it is a daily reality for my peers around the world is an eerie truth. Helping young people protect themselves while still balancing the rest of the costs and needs of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is increasingly difficult.
This was reiterated for me at recent briefing, "A European Perspective on the Future of Global AIDS Programs: A Conversation with Five AIDS Ambassadors," hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Center for Global Development. The event began with each ambassador speaking for a few minutes about the commitment their country has made toward fighting global AIDS. Since coming to work as an intern on international issues at Advocates for Youth, I've been exposed to much of the rhetoric about the flow of aid aimed at fighting infectious diseases in the developing world, but the commentary from these ambassadors was both refreshingly honest and difficult to hear.
Sigrun Mogedal, Norway's AIDS Ambassador, left me with goose-bumps as she reminded all of us that beneath everything else, stopping AIDS is about power. The statement was simple, but for me, it was the most articulate explanation of the reality of global AIDS. To successfully turn around the pandemic, governments, institutions, and people must become empowered. Forget the heart-warming speeches about "being the future of the world"; those most affected by AIDS, young people, are not empowered. We exist in an "in-between universe" -- a place where we are still dependent and subject to the decisions of the adults in our lives while, simultaneously, eager to make our own independent decisions.
Paul Bekkers, the Dutch AIDS Ambassador, reminded us of the tragedy of disempowered youth, especially young women. He relayed an all too familiar story about an adolescent girl in sub-Saharan Africa who remained abstinent until her marriage to an older, sexually promiscuous man. She contracted HIV from her husband and subsequently, passed HIV to their child. At the root of this tragedy is the reality of unequal power. While the target population would seem to be young women, Ambassador Bekkers noted, after a discussion on gender, that the focus must also be on educating young men to change the power dynamics of relationships. In the same sense, for young people to be empowered to prevent transmission, adults must recognize the often disempowered nature of being young.
In a breakout discussion on prevention with Lennarth Hjelmaker, Sweden's AIDS Ambassador, the issue of empowerment dominated the conversation. In order to have successful prevention programs, those who have power, at the global, national, and local community levels, must be willing to alter the power relationships to which they are accustomed. No easy task, to say the least. Considering HIV in these terms, it is no surprise that over 40% of all new infections are among young people aged 15-24. Societies around the world are apprehensive about ceding any control to a demographic group defined by its inexperience.
After spending the day with these Ambassadors, it seems to me that the underlying problem is that, while we have taken the first step in identifying the problem fueling HIV/AIDS, we have yet to develop a cohesive plan to effectively resolve it. Yet, I came away from this discussion with a sense of hope, courage, and opportunity. Yes, young people today are faced with the challenge of the AIDS pandemic. But our experience with this disease provides us with the opportunity to develop answers and solutions to the questions that those making the decisions have yet to discover.
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