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UN Youth Leadership Summits: A Mandate for Youth to Meet
the MDGs
An Interview with Djibril Diallo, Director
of the United Nations New York Office of Sport for Development and
Peace |
 Djibril Diallo, a citizen of Senegal, is Director
of the United Nations New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace which
coordinated the first ever United Nations Global Youth Leadership Summit in New
York in October 2006. He also chairs the UN inter-agency Working Group on Sport
for Development and Peace, dedicated to building cooperation and coordination
across the UN system. Previously, he was Director of the Communications Office
of the Administrator (COA) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
tasked with mobilizing political, popular and financial support for UNDP. Prior
to joining UNDP, he was a senior official of the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), acting both as Special Advisor to the Executive Director and as Deputy
Director of Public Affairs. | |
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 What is the background of the Youth Summits? |
 The UN-sponsored Youth Leadership Summits began in 2004 as a
way to mobilize youth to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
They evolved out of a UN inter-agency Working Group on Sport for Development and
Peace that was formed to discuss the ways that sport can promote development
efforts and encourage activities commemorating the 2005 International Year of Sport
and Physical Education. Youth are among the greatest beneficiaries of the
positive effects of sport, which also has great potential as a tool for
mobilizing young people.
Initially, regional Summits brought together
one young man and one young woman from countries in the region who had been
nominated by the UN system in their countries in consultation with governments.
Five regional summits took place: The Pan-African Youth Leadership Summit in
Senegal in June 2004; the Pan Asian Youth Leadership Summit in Japan in
September 2004; the Latin American and Caribbean Youth Leadership Summit in
Brazil in May 2005; the second Pan-African Youth Leadership Summit in Morocco in
August 2005; and the UN European Youth Leadership Summit hosted in Vienna in
June 2006.
The regional summits culminated in October 2006 with the
Global Youth Leadership Summit held at the UN in New York. For this event, two
young leaders-one young man and one young woman between the ages of 18 and
30-were invited from each of the 192 member states of the United Nations.
With the convening power of sport and culture as a central theme, the
Summit led to the adoption of a Declaration by the youth covering issues that they felt were
most important to them. These included health, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, human
rights, education, employment, youth participation in decision-making and
environmental sustainability. The Declaration is being circulated to
governments, NGOs, and the private sector. It was also presented in a report on
the Global Summit at the Fifth African Development Forum in Addis Ababa on 16-18
November.
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| What does the Declaration call for? |
There are a number of important points raised in the
Declaration. It calls for greater empowerment and capacity-building for young
leaders, recognizing the convening power of sport to reach out to the younger
generation, so that they can participate more actively in government
institutions and regional and international organizations and bodies. Greater
support for youth-run and youth-led initiatives and exchange programs,
particularly for young women, are also called for, enabling them to learn and
benefit from peer experiences. One innovation was the proposal to establish a
Global Youth Leadership Fund as a funding mechanism whereby youth leaders who
participated in the Summit can apply for assistance for their initiatives. Their
projects would be monitored on the ground to measure their effectiveness in
helping achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
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| How will the message of the Youth Summits and the Declaration be
disseminated? |
Through the five initial regional meetings, a global network
of youth leaders has emerged who want their voices to be heard. The network
consists of young professionals, community leaders, social entrepreneurs and
students, who are effective in grassroots outreach as well as advocacy with
their governments. The youth delegates who participated in the UN Global Youth
Leadership Summit were appointed Youth Spokespersons for the MDGs in their
countries. In this role, the Youth Spokespersons have pledged to mobilize other
young people and public and private sector partners in their countries to
accelerate progress towards achieving the goals. The appointment is renewable on
a two-year basis, contingent on performance.
A key message of the
regional Summits is that youth from every region can contribute, providing the
unique perspective of a region's expertise, understanding and cultural
traditions. As delegates forge relationships with young people from other
regions, they lay the foundations for international cooperation and a more
widespread exchange of resources and knowledge.
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| Why was this format adopted for the Summits? |
The United Nations has strongly advocated the need to
recognize the central role young people play in efforts to eradicate extreme
hunger and poverty at the global, regional and national levels. Forging
cooperation across the United Nations system, the UN-NYOSDP office helped create
the inter-agency Working Group on Sport for Development and Peace to discuss
coordination and cooperation to maximize the impact of sports activities. The
Business Plan for the Working Group is a comprehensive agenda for sports
initiatives by the United Nations system and its partners in support of the MDGs
and peace building, including the Youth Summit series and other activities
focusing on youth. The Summits are designed to provide a framework for youth
leaders to discuss strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in
their regions. They have connected local youth to the United Nations in their
countries which provides a support system and a network of mentors striving for
common goals.
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| What support did you receive for the Summits? |
The Summits could not have taken place without the dedicated
cooperation and support of our sponsors and partners, and our collaboration with
the UN Inter-Agency Group on Young People. The main sponsors for the United
Nations Global Youth Leadership Summit were the Gita-Mohan Mittal Foundation,
providing support through Vishwa Prawasi Bhartiya Leaders Forum (GMMF/VPBLF) and
the Inner Trip Reyukai International (ITRI). These sponsors have entered into an
agreement with the United Nations extending to 2015 and aiming to alleviate
poverty by empowering youth to work for the achievement of the MDGs. The Maybach
Family Foundation, in partnership with our office, is launching a global
mentoring program to foster educational opportunities for underprivileged young
people.
Sun Microsystems was our technology partner for the Summit,
providing support for the website, and informal networking in the "Young
Leaders Global Village," a large tent with computers furnished by Sun, which
also provided volunteer instructors, and materials from our UN system partners.
Many delegates have signed up for the online UN Youth Mentorship Program
established by Sun with support from Triple Creek Associates, offering business,
collaborative and technical skills. Some joined in digital storytelling
organized by Curriki, the Global Education & Learning Community, started by
Sun, and posted Summit diaries on the website. With the support of the World
Culture Open (WCO), a Youth United Against
Malaria concert for the
Summit in collaboration with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership took place in the
General Assembly hall, featuring celebrated performers from around the world.
Other partners for the Youth Summits vary from region to region and
include governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector. The
Government of Senegal; the Federal Government of Brazil, the City of Belo
Horizonte, and the Citizenship Institute of Brazil; the Kingdom of Morocco; and
the Government of Austria were all key partners in the countries where the
regional summits were hosted.
Our office has also initiated a number of
substantive public-private partnerships, not only during the Summit but in also
in its follow-up activities. The Council of Mentors, who serve as role models
for the youth, is chaired by Mohanlal Mittal, Founder-President of GMMF/VPBLF.
Other Council members are Hiroshi Matsumoto of ITRI; John Gage, Founder and
Chief Researcher of Sun Microsystems and Ulrich Schmid-Maybach of the Maybach
Family Foundation.
In the media world, a key partner is Eurosport,
which broadcast coverage of the European Youth Leadership Summit to 54 countries
in 19 languages, and also covered the Global Youth Leadership Summit through
monthly TV journals. The US-based National Association of Black Journalists
(NABJ) ,
the largest professional organization of nearly 4,000 journalists of color, set
up a team of student journalists to provide daily coverage of activities during
the Global Youth Leadership Summit. Other media partners included BBC and Radio
France International (RFI).
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 What did Development Gateway members have to say in our Youth Survey?
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