World YWCA represented at World Youth Conference 2010
The city of Leon, Guanajuato, in Mexico, was the host of the World Youth Conference 2010 from August 23 to 27, 2010. The conference organised by the Government of Mexico through the Mexican Youth Institute (IMJUVE) was divided into two forums, the social forum, which included the NGO meeting, and the Global interactive forum and the Government forum. The international meeting brought together young people from over 153 countries. The main goal was to provide a space for analysis and exchange to strengthen ties of cooperation between government agencies and NGOs and to establish priorities for action on the issue of youth. Andrea Núñez Argote, President of the YWCA Naucalpan, Mexico represented the World YWCA at the event and was the young voice of the movement for the five-day conference. She gives her report:
“With the theme ‘Say it aloud!’ the Conference’s main focus was to unify the topic of youth with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as for young people to share experiences, learn new things and dialogue among ourselves. The first two days, young men and women activists from over 200 NGOs developed a Statement, which scheduled to be presented to the Governments of the world during the Governments Forum. UN Agencies such as UNFPA, UNIFEM, and UNICEF, the Mexican Government, especially the government of the state of Guanajuato, SOFOC and IMJUVE (Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud – ‘Mexican Institute of the Youth’), worked together with the NGOs present to make the MDGs youth-friendly and strong enough so that it reaches governments globally. Despite the language barrier, which was an issue and created some problems young men and women did their best to understand each other.
The conference had different participant categories including: NGO delegate, Advisor and Observer. As an advisor, my role was to provide my opinion on certain issues and influence NGO delegates on what I considered a good decision before voting.
In creating the final Statement all the participants were divided into groups so that we covered the entire document. One group focused on one general MDG, i.e., instead of having one group about ‘MDG 5: Improve maternal health’ and one about ‘MDG 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria & other diseases’, we had the ‘health’ group, which would cover the MDGs related to health.
As the YWCA movement works mainly on women and health, I went into the groups of Gender Equity; gender equality, eradication of violence against women, and the role of women in conflict resolutions; Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and HIV and AIDS.
I also attended the ‘Global March of Young people’ that aimed to eliminate violations against young people’s rights and UNIFEM Young Women’s forum, where panelists talked about the MDGs from the perspective of young women. I was surprised that in this event, young people from local middle schools were invited to listen and they also participated, giving their opinions on matters of relevance to them. It was not only interesting to see girls, who understood the situation they are in finding their way to change things in the Mexican society, but also the boys were active and they said it was important for them to help eradicate the violence, stigma and discrimination women face.
I enjoyed helping the NGO delegates to reach certain conclusions that got into the final document. I think one of the things I learnt is that being a leader is not only being in the spotlight, but to provide others with enough information to make their own decisions, and it is always enriching when you see that your opinion was really taken into account. “
The NGO statement was a strong one, which was quite controversial for the Mexican Government as it touched on issues, which crossed conservative boundaries, including the topic of abortion and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer (LGBTTIQ). The conference proved successful overall as many strong recommendations were drafted and will be presented to the UN General Assembly and the MDG Summit in September 2010, to ensure that youth play key role in the achievement of the MDGs.
