Press Release — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BKKBN and UNFPA Launch the Global Youth Forum:
Youth Rights at the Heart of Development
JAKARTA, 13 August 2012 — The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Government of Indonesia, represented by the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN), today announced the official launch of the Global Youth Forum at a ceremony held in @america, the American cultural center in Jakarta.
The Forum, to be held in Bali 4-6 December 2012, will establish a platform for sustained worldwide conversation about youth issues. It is the first of the three thematic meetings planned as part of a 20-year review process of the International Conference on Population and Development. A second conference on human rights, slated for May 2013, is being hosted by the Netherlands, and a third conference is being discussed on women’s health. The review process, known as “ICPD Beyond 2014,” aims to address key issues and generate recommendations for a future development agenda.
The Global Youth Forum is expected to attract about 1,000 attendees, primarily young people, from the UN’s 193 member countries, representing NGOs, civil society, international development partners, and governments. High-level dignitaries are expected to be present at the Forum, which will conclude with a concert by popular international and Indonesian performers. In addition, the Global Youth Forum will be attended by virtual participants from around the world through real-time streaming connections and social media.
“We have partnered with @america to provide one several venues around the world for young people who cannot be in Bali to gather and participate virtually. @america is a world-class venue, and they have demonstrated a commitment to engaging youth in development,” said Mr. Jose Ferraris, UNFPA Representative in Indonesia. He added that the Global Youth Forum’s open-access participation model is unprecedented among global governance meetings, in that it encourages direct participation from those most affected by its outcome, young people.
“People under 25 make up 43 percent of the world’s population, and the percentage reaches 60 percent in the world’s least-developed countries. That is why the UNFPA is committed to include young people as part of the agenda in the ICPD Beyond 2014 Review, which began earlier this year. The Global Youth Forum represents the culmination of efforts by UNFPA, other UN agencies, young people, civil society, and the private sector to translate the participatory aspirations of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) into a sustainable youth advocacy network,” said Mr. Ferraris in his remarks at the Global Youth Forum’s launching ceremony.
Discussion at the Global Youth Forum will revolve around issues relevant to young people throughout the world—specifically in the areas of learning for life, making a decent living, growing up healthy, sexuality in the context of family and rights, and exercising citizenship—in an effort to more effectively link these concerns to the broader ICPD conversation. The conference also intends to encourage a more broad-based dialogue on challenges faced by young people. It is hoped that such efforts will catalyze a sustainable youth movement and encourage innovation and investment in youth issues throughout the UN system and its partners.
BKKBN Chairperson Mr. Sugiri Syarief affirmed that the Government of Indonesia fully supports the Global Youth Forum due to the importance of the issues under discussion, both for the sake of Indonesia and the global community.
“The world’s increasingly large number of young people will be a resource for country development if their potential can be maximized. But so many young people can also cause many problems if their potential cannot be maximized in a positive way. Therefore, investment in this group is an absolute necessity,” Mr. Sugiri told the audience.
Mr. Sugiri added that he hoped the meeting in Bali would result in an outcome that provides all countries a basis for the development of policies and programmes that empower their youth.
In the lead-up to the December’s Global Youth Forum, a series of events will be held in cities across Indonesia, dubbed the “Road to Global Youth Forum.” The GYF Road Show will visit Jakarta, Surabaya, Kupang, Semarang, Palembang, and Pontianak. In addition, a number of social media competitions, including a blogging competition, an action project competition, and a photography competition, will be held between September and October 2012. Ten finalists from each competition will be posted online for public voting. The top five vote-getters will be announced as winners and receive tickets and observer passes to the Global Youth Forum.
For further information, contact Agustina Wayansari, Communications Officer for UNFPA Indonesia, by email (wayansari@unfpa.org) or telephone: 62-8121068341.
Tags: Young People, Global Youth Forum, ICPD Beyond 2014
