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OAS symposium examines strategies for empowering future leaders
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| Published on Friday, September 21, 2007 | Email To Friend Print Version
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WASHINGTON, USA: A historic youth meeting opened at the Organization of American States (OAS) headquarters on Wednesday, accentuating the need for mechanisms to be put in place at all levels to ensure that young people become an integral part of the decision-making process in the hemisphere.
The collaborative effort of the OAS Permanent Council and the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT), the two-day OAS Youth Symposium and Dialogues with Young People, themed “Empowering the Future Leaders of the Americas,” was formally declared open by Ambassador Deborah-Mae Lovell of Antigua and Barbuda, as Permanent Council Chair. Also addressing the opening session were OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza; Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of States Responsible for Education, Sports and Youth Affairs, Winston Vincent Williams; and Guatemala’s Vice President Eduardo Stein.
Arguing that the concerns and challenges facing young people must be prominent on the OAS agenda, Ambassador Lovell inaugurated the special session with a call for greater priority to development and poverty eradication as they relate to the youth, because without incorporating these factors, “we run the risk of undermining the very policies that we want to put in place.”
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| Secretary General José Miguel Insulza Inaugurates Seminar on “Empowering the Future Leaders of the Americas” Photo courtesy of OAS |
OAS Secretary General Insulza, meanwhile, told the large turn-out of young people and others assembled at the Hall of the Americas about the enormous challenge in creating jobs for all the young people, citing statistics showing Latin America and the Caribbean as needing some 15 million new jobs per year to meet the growing demand. “Substantively improving opportunities for youth and providing them good opportunities for education, a better standard of living and work is the best way to secure a better future for Latin America and the Caribbean,” he stated.
Insulza went on to note that building a democratic future for our hemisphere requires top priority to finding ways to provide all of future society’s young people an opportunity for development and self-actualization, and for them to work positively together for a better society and for a better life.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister Williams emphasized that youth development should be viewed as inter-sectorial since it is cross-cutting in nature. He said ministers of labor must grapple with the issue of unemployment among young people, seeking to provide skills that are relevant for today’s market; ministers of education must address the need for a curriculum that will prepare the young to reach their full potential and to become productive citizens in the modern era of globalization; and ministers of health must understand the challenges that affect the young, including the growing incidence of HIV/AIDS that has been destroying this productive sector of the population.
Vice President Stein, for his part, shared his three-point “vision” around, which emphasizes engagement and participation structures for the youth; taking advantage of the reach of mass communication media and the digital, interconnected world; and how young people could be strategically involved in addressing the major issues on the national and regional agenda.
“We should engage in this new, interconnected world in which we find a lot of opportunities,” said Stein, suggesting that many governments are missing out by not tapping into the collective knowledge and talent of the young people. He also cited the territorial “differendum” between Guatemala and Belize, explaining that “the youngsters want this issue to be solved. They do not want to engage in extending the discussion. The youngsters in our country want this page to be definitively turned, so that we can engage in an interconnected future to which we are all entitled.”
Various international experts drawn from the World Bank, the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), among others, addressed youth issues as they relate to strategic topics such as the Summits of the Americas process, social development and labor. OAS departments and international agencies also held a “dialogue with young people,” addressing: responsible citizenship and participation in democratic governance; employment, entrepreneurship and innovation for young people; opportunities and programs for youth development; underserved young people and youth at risk; and education and information technologies.
Remarks were also offered by YABT Chief Executive Officer Roy Thomasson, with Grenada’s Ambassador Denis Antoine thanking the keynote speakers, in his capacity as chair of the YABT board of directors and dean of the OAS corps of ambassadors.
The meeting, which will produce a package of recommendations for submission to a special session of the OAS Permanent Council, also recognized YABT’s Young Entrepreneurs in the 2007 Talent and Innovation Competition (TIC) of the Americas, and launched the 2008 TIC Americas. | | | | Reads : 433 | | | |
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