Much has happened today. First of all - I am proud to say that despite a wobble in the early afternoon, I am still on the wagon. It was walking past Pret a Manger that did it. The sandwich-y goodness.. mmm. So I was tempted to the point of stopping on the pavement, longingly gazing through the window at all the fascists eating their freshly made sandwiches. But I snapped out of it - and hurriedly realised I was running late for my meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and the Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell.
The meeting was part of the work of the Department for International Development's (DFID) Youth Working Group (Apparently I still count despite reaching the big 2-5! The group exists to further the the participation of young people in the development arena. It was a fantastic opportunity to make our case for greater involvement directly to the two people leading the UK delegation to the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
I was part of a group that presented a series of recommendations about empowering youth. This was how I introduced our work:
"Mr Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Secretary
We are here to present to you this paper, which demonstrates the importance of involving, empowering and elevating young people into the MDG process.
Mr Deputy Prime Minister - you campaign and continue to campaign on the issue of fairness. Mr Secretary - you've spoken today and at the Global Poverty Project on Monday about your experience in Ethiopia and your desire to not just take people out of extreme poverty, but actually towards hope and opportunity
Achieving that, and achieving a greater global fairness through the MDGs, is our generation's challenge. Extreme poverty was not rendered in a day and it won't be abolished in a day. That's why it's vital you include and invest in the people - the youth of today - that will have to take this challenge forward."
The team then outlined some of the impact of youth-led development work around the world, including:
- the work of the Youth Business Network in India, which has enabled more than 2 000 young people establish and run businesses - employing more than 17 000 other people over the last fifteen years.
- a youth-led project by Restless Development in Northern Uganda in which fourteen community peer educators reached 3 365 people over a 10 month period. The dramatic results include a 45% increase in condom use amongst young men.
I concluded the presentation with the following message to 'Nick' and 'Andrew'
"We need you to be our voice at the United Nations. Speak with hope. Speak with purpose. Give voice to the impact of young people that we've shown you. Celebrate it and make it a key part of fight against extreme poverty from now on. Thank you."
Will it make a difference to them? I'm sceptical. In and of itself - it's an important indication that Clegg and Mitchell actually made the time to see the Youth Working Group. Hopefully they will take the passion and the urgency of the people I stood alongside today and send a clear message to the United Nations next week. Hopefully they will represent our voice - but I'm glad that I got the chance to speak and lend my voice to those of the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty.
www.justgiving.com/dennis-marcus
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