TIGblogs TIG | TIGblogs GROUP TIGBLOGS LOGIN SIGNUP
The Rapscallion Ramblings
The Rapscallion Ramblings
CSD Day Two

Again I'm sitting in the Vienna Cafe in the basement of the UN General Assembly building. It's been busy again, but not to the same extent as Monday - hardly surprising really, since we were starting off and had lots of things to arrange.

Yesterday at 4pm I attended a side event run by the Global Youth Action Network and it was an education. The issues under discussion at this CSD session aren't exactly my specialist subjects, so I'm learning all the time.

Taking place in the Dag Hammarskold Auditorium, which I remembered well from October, the event opened up with a brief presentation by a representative of the UN Programme on Youth. He gave a general outline of the work they do, such as other partipation activities of young people at the UN. Youth Delegates to the General Assembly were a major point, along with the massively successful WPAY review I attended last year.

Then we had a presentation about sustainable energy activities in North America. There's some awesome work going on at lots of university campuses to use more environmentally-friendly energy sources such as wind power. In one case, students even voted in a referendum to pay higher fees when the extra amount went to emissions reduction programmes.

Students and young people have been the driving force for change in many historical situations and that kind of monumental effort seems to be brewing up at the moment. The climate change agenda is clearly an important issue to many and they are taking action in the best way possible: by changing the places they live their everyday lives.

The second presentation was by our CSD youth delegate from Nepal. He spoke about projects he co-ordinates at home which are having a great impact. Young people are organsing ways the country can make the most of its large potential for hydroelectricity, working in partnership with energy companies run by young entrepreneurs. In some cases they are dedicating part of their profit to improving sustainable energy. Peer education is also taking place to teach younger children about the importance of sustainable development to their futures.

Thirdly, there was a short speech from CSD Co-ordinator Emmanuel Edudzie about projects in his home country of Ghana. I was particularly interested to hear about these, since it's the hopeful destination for part two of filming for the documentary. He only went into detail about one example, but it was fascinating. The Youth Employment Network of Ghana won a grant from a competitive international funding scheme and is using the money to improve agriculture on the country's west coast, where 90% of its farming output is produced.

Irrigation techniques were massively modernised. Farms traditionally operate using a system of human-operated wells, with a very time consuming process of watering the crops. It could take entire days to bring up enough water to feed the fields, so resultantly there was no time to expand the farm and output was greatly limited.

Now, however, the use of new machinery to draw up buckets of water and supply it to the land has meant a great amount of time is saved. Even better: the machine is powered by a windmill-driven turbine. The farmers are able increase their lands and output, which also creates employment opportunities for young people in the surrounding area - in addition, a few have learnt about how to maintain the well machine and are paid to do so. More livelihoods, more produce, more efficiency. I can't wait to visit Ghana!

As for today, we had the usual Youth Caucus daily briefing in conference room B, then split up again into smaller groups to work on specific issues. There has been a lot of progress; we had another media group meeting at 6pm yesterday evening and things were looking good. In the intervening time between then and now, people have been working on the youth statement for a Multistakeholder Dialogue Session tomorrow and preparing case studies of youth-led sustainable development projects. One of our main goals it to try to get some of these featured in the excitingly-named "Matrix" document, a compendium of successful examples of sustainable development initiatives being implemented across the world. Currently there are no cases being run by young people, so we're aiming to change that in a major way. Caucus representatives sitting at the youth seat in every session will intervene whenever possible to promote the youth-led projects and there will be a big emphasis on them tomorrow for the dialogue session.

Hopefully we can make a real difference!

May 2, 2006 | 1:30 PM Comments  2 comments

Tags:
You must be logged in to add tags.


Comments

sarahtoumi Sarah TOUMI
May 4, 2006 | 5:43 PM

very interesting article! it is as I were there when I read you lol.
Sure youngs can change the world ! Or who would do it if we don't ? :)
letsfindit Marc Ludwig
May 15, 2006 | 10:01 PM
cool
thanks for this really good text from you
Frederick Bernas's Profile

Frederick Bernas's Friends


Latest Posts
A Cappella Group...
Earth Patriot
Moscow: the new home...
Igor Butman: A Jazz...
Kirill's balancing act

Monthly Archive
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
December 2006
May 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009

Change Language


Tags Archive
acousticladyland afrobeat antibalas blusa csd14 english funk funnylinks hiphop interview jazz la lablusa latin live music patronaje portfolio posts ramblings respuestasapreguntas review robertmitchell rwanda theblessing unga60 updates us3 world

Filter By Type
Events
News
Travel
Topics

Friends
A Better Community for All (ABC4All)
Adam Cairns
Ahmed Haroon
Ajay Kamalakaran
Alastair Wolfe
alberto
amil husain
Amran J. M. Hussain
Ange
Angela Jhanji
Anita
Anna Yershova
Anu maheshwari
Ardit Rada
Bakhtiyar Hajiyev
Benjamin Quinto
Bernise Ang
Callum McKayle
Carlos García-Robles
Carol Paiva
Cath Lowther
Chloe
Christine
crazydiamond
dante
David Taylor
David Woolcombe
Den
Desert ROSE
Dmitry Savelau
Dr.A.Prabaharan
dsgreen07
Edgar Dearn Makona
edudzie
ekpeke peter
Elias S. Deis
Elissa Smith
Elle
Emily Davila
Emma
Erik Thijs Wedershoven
Erika
Francis
Frank Cohn
Franziska Seel
Fred Doulton
Freedom-Kai Phillips
Gabi Spitz
Gabriel Mauricio Sarmiento Argüello
ghazaleh
globalfuture
Hanna Hallin
heba
ike
Ioana
J.
jaclyn blair barbo
Jarra McGrath
Jasimin
Jatin
JEAN MICHEE VOLANT
Jenny
Jimmy Tam
João Felipe Scarpelini
Joel Kalpram
John Roche
Jonah Wittkamper
Joonas Sarvamaa
Joop Theunissen
Josh Tulkin
Joya Banerjee
Joyce Lin
JP Hoffmaister
Julie Larsen
Karin Carlesten
keeley williams
Kollas Panayotis
Kristofer McGhee
KWAME ANANE FREMPONG
Leif Holmberg
Leon Castellanos Jankiewicz
Leonardo Jianoti
Lewis Best
Luis Davila
Luis Irigoytia
Luke Cholerton-Bozier
malick
Marc Ludwig
Marina Bobrovska
Martin Tairo M.
Matthew Carroll
Megha V
mekuse
Michael Furdyk
Michael Gale
Michael Joslin
Moustafa Mohamed Hussein
Mustapha
NADIA RAMOS
Nadia_S
Nadine Braun
Nick Moraitis
Nikola Pucarevic
Novell Chikuvanyanga
oseeresidor
Pallavi Mogre
Pascal Bekono
Paul Dwyer
Peace Child Int
Peter Tipler
Petra Dunne
prernac
Rashid
Richard Bartlett
Robert
S
S. Cole Siemion
S. Cole Siemion
Sabine Horn
Samer
Sara Darr
Sarah
Sarah TOUMI
seydina Lo
Shamina de Gonzaga
Shancy
Sherian Randle
Simeon Earnshaw
simon
Sofya
Sohail Razzaq
Stephanie Penev
Sudip Aryal
Sudyumna Dahal
sweden45
Tim Shand
Toby Clarke
Tom Burke
Torokul
Triin Tuulik
Uday Rosario
Ulrich Wilke
Umar Kankiya
Vidar Ekehaug
Vik
wilco
Wilson Ang
Wu Yang
yasin m. billy
Yochi Zakai
Yuan Yao

Links
BBC
Boots 'n All
Citizenship Foundation
CSD Youth Caucus
English Secondary Students'...
fighthunger.org
Guardian Unlimited
GYAN
It's Getting Hot In Here
London 2012
Make Poverty History
Millennium Campaign
Peace Child International
UK Youth Parliament
UN Programme on Youth
UNGA60
UNICEF
United Nations
UNYSA-UK
World Youth Congress,...
World66
Young People Now


126944 views
Important Disclaimer