GLOCAL FORUM PRESENTATION UN HABITAT EXPERT GROUP MEETING ON STRATEGIES FOR CREATING URBAN YOUTH EMPLOYMENT : Solution for Urban Youth in Africa I - Glocal Forum experience on youth and governance 1. Glocal Forum The Glocal Forum is a Non-Governmental Organization created in 2001 working for a new balance between global and local forces by emphasizing the central role of cities in the world. Our vision, glocalization, is an innovative strategy focusing on global issues by empowering local communities. It is a reform of globalization that encourages global powers to have a broader respect for local powers and cultural diversity. Led by its president, Ambassador Uri Savir, the Glocal Forum promotes peacebuilding and development activities through city-to-city relationships, youth empowerment and information communication technology. The Glocal Forum believes that cities have a central role in international relations and that mayors are poised to become the new diplomats of our world. City leaders have the advantage of mobilizing the good will, energy and expertise of their civil societies to contribute to peaceful dialogue and cultural exchange. The organization supports city-to-city networks by connecting them to the resources of the private and public sector. The Glocal Forum utilizes this global coalition of international organizations and private sector companies to harness resources and address local needs. A primary goal of city-to-city cooperation is to build an environment in which divisions caused by conflict and hatred can be bridged with harmony and coexistence. The Glocal Forum uses the city- to-city model as a fresh approach to brokering peace in the Middle East. Through the organization, a shared vision for a more cooperative future was developed between the mayors of Nablus, Palestine and Rishon Le’ Zion, Israel. Working with the Glocal Forum, the mayors are working to incorporate joint projects that will breakdown barriers and build up their communities. The bridging of divides between groups in conflict is also being implemented through city-to-city projects with Delhi and Karachi; Sarajevo, Belgrade and Pristina; and Addis Ababa and Asmara. In the area of development, the city-to-city approach was used to create a resource-sharing relationship between Kigali and Rome. Through this partnership, programs of cooperation have been established to meet the development needs of the post-conflict city in the areas of food security, technological training, and municipal capacity-building. Mayors from both cities work together to involve their communities in these programs. 2. GYP and Urban Agenda Glocal Forum, has initiated a Glocal Youth Parliament (GYP) as a global-local vehicle for youth empowerment. The GYP mobilizes youth from cities around the world to develop an Urban Agenda for 2020 and serve as a youth-led lobby in advocating this agenda locally and globally. Through this initiative, the Glocal Forum facilitates communication between young people and their mayors towards increasing their influence in decision-making processes relating to the pressing issues facing their communities and the world both now and in the future. Nowadays, a hundred youths from more than fifty cities from all the areas of the world. In the coming months, the membership will be expanded especially to conflict and post conflict areas in order to foster youth debate and facilitate grassroots peacebuilding initiatives on the ground. The Glocal Youth Parliament has been established with the following broad-based goals: • To build and support a global network of youth from cities around the world for setting tomorrow’s urban agenda and serving as a youth-led lobby in advocating this agenda locally and globally. • To forge lines of communication between youth and their Mayors, acting as a catalyst for the increased participation of young people in local government and consideration of their views among policy makers. • To empower youth in affecting positive social change in their local communities through personal skill enhancement, access to information and global network activity. • To create a ‘Vision 2020’ movement as a tool for mobilizing a critical mass of youth from around the world to articulate their desires and concerns for the future as a basis for policy analysis and advocacy. The idea of GYP presents a unique opportunity for the youth to express their ambitions for the development of their city in the year 2020. This collective vision for the future which is presented to the mayors at the annual Conferences, is called the Urban Agenda for 2020. The first GYP delegates were selected from thousands of contestants in an international essay competition on the topic: “My City in 2020—and how it will relate to the world” conducted through the world’s leading free newspaper, Metro International. A total of forty-two winning essays were chosen from among those submitted, one male and one female from each participating city (ages 14-18). Winners were invited as delegates to the first convening of the Glocal Youth Parliament in Rome from May 10-13, 2002, taking place in conjunction with the Forum’s First Annual Glocalization Conference (May, 2002). GYP members have been chosen for a term of three years per member. The Glocal Forum is expanding the VISION for 2020 concept, aiming to magnify its value and impact by reaching a critical mass of youth around the world. Towards this aim, the Forum will encourage large numbers of youth from different regions of the world to articulate their visions for the city in 2020 through the youth movement under the banner of Glocal Youth Assembly (GYA). The assembly accounts for hundreds of members from all over the world, who are supporting the Urban Agenda 2020. The GYPs meet twice a year. In May, all the members of the Parliament come together for the Annual Glocal Youth Parliament Conference, which happens in concurrence with the meeting of the mayors. Then, the Think Tank members, representatives for every GYP working group meet during the year for the Biannual to summarize the progress and to plan future initiatives. 3. WAF An innovative approach: holistic, sustained, integrated, decentralized Today, one billion children under the age of 18 live in conflict afflicted countries. In the past decade alone, 2 million children have died as a consequence of conflict and war, a further 6 million have been injured or disabled, and 12 million have been made homeless. That is a total of 20 million children whose lives have been affected by conflict. Conflict breaks down the social fabric of afflicted societies, and, as a consequence, the basic needs of children are ignored. We Are the Future (WAF) is a worldwide effort designed to assist children in conflict and post-conflict areas by addressing these basic needs through programs in health, nutrition, and education (through ICT, sports and arts), and to enhance development and peacebuilding activities that will help heal the wounds of conflict. The core of the program is the creation of six child centers in municipalities of six pilot cities, where more than 100 youth (aged 16 to 20) will be trained to work with over 1,000 children in these areas. The cites are : Addis Ababa, Asmara, Freetown, Kabul, Kigali, Nablus, (Rishon Le’ Zion) Municipal Capacity Building: City-to-City Cooperation Each We Are the Future city will be paired with one or more partner cities, forging economic, cultural and personal ties between the municipalities. Partner cities will adopt WAF as a sustainable program in the framework of decentralized municipal activity, and will provide consistent support to the WAF Child Center. For example, the partnership between Rome (whose Mayor Mr. Walter Veltroni is a leading player in decentralized cooperation) and Kigali (whose Mayor Théoneste Mutsindashyaka is Chair of the WAF Advisory Board) is a model that will be replicated by other cities and has already led to several programs involving the respective civil societies. Youth Empowerment The cornerstone of this initiative is the youth-to-child training approach, ensuring long-term benefits and sustainability to partner cities. Youth will be trained in the different sectors of WAF Child Center activity. Local delegates of the Glocal Youth Parliament, a joint World Bank Institute and Glocal Forum initiative for youth empowerment, will serve as the key agents for the child development strategy of WAF. Peacebuilding Peacebuilding is an integral part of WAF, contributing to a climate of mutual understanding and tolerance through joint activities and peace education. Thus, not only will cities be coupled according to WAF city and partner city status, they will also be linked on the basis of past or current conflicts. Peacebuilding models between and within WAF cities will be developed, beginning with Nablus and Rishon Le’Zion, where the two cities will cooperate on peacebuilding activities related to youth and children. We Are the Future Program Areas: Nutrition/Micro-Agriculture WAF will facilitate the establishment of medium-sized crop gardens run by local youth. Youth will receive training in urban agriculture, hygiene and nutrition. The training will be led by the municipal agriculture departments and local experts in collaboration with partner cities and various international organizations, in particular, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The youth, in turn, will help local children set up small crop gardens and teach them about the importance of nutrition and hygiene. Health The We Are the Future Health Program will provide services, training and care to children through mobile health clinics and youth-led awareness campaigns that spread information on key health issues. The mobile clinics will provide basic diagnosis and treatment for children such as HIV tests, immunizations and vitamins, health education, and medication for common childhood illnesses, and more complex services using telemedicine technologies. Education Educational programs will span three sectors: Information Communication Technology (ICT), sports, and the arts.