TakingITGlobal - Panorama - "The MDGs are...

Published on: Sep 30, 2005

Topic:

Type: Interviews

https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=6305

On September 27th, I had the chance and honor to conduct a phone interview with Erik T. Wedershoven, 19, who is the official Youth Delegate of The Netherlands to the United Nations General Assembly in 2005. I’ve chatted with him for about one hour about his role and work as Youth Delegate, his participation in the Millennium Summit and the difficulties of getting more young people from developing countries become Youth Delegates.

Erik, in October last year you were selected as official Youth Delegate of The Netherlands to the United Nations General Assembly. Can you explain us a bit more about the role of youth delegates and your work in particular?

My work consists mainly of two things: First of all, what I would call the official part, is to work with our Ministry of Foreign Affairs on international youth policy, but also on national youth policies, like employment etc. It is about linking the Dutch youth policy and Dutch youth organizations to the international level - like the World Programme of Action for Youth, for example.

Secondly, I’m working in The Netherlands to raise awareness and let other young people know about the World Programme, about youth in other countries and how they can work in international development and start their own projects. I do this by attending a lot of conferences here in The Netherlands.

And in fact, I would add a third point, which is that I’m trying to lobby for more youth delegates, especially from the South…

… which is actually a topic that I would like to come back to later on. Let me first ask you a few questions about your involvement in the M+5 Summit. Because I think it was very unique that you went there as well. Can you tell us a bit more how it happened that you also went to the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly? Usually, Youth Delegates just go to the UN General Assembly segment that is dealing with youth. How did it come that you also joined your government to the M+5 Summit? Did they just invite you to come along?

They weren’t actually inviting me. I decided that when I was elected last year, on October 21st. One of my major points in the campaign were the MDGs. Basically, it was the first time that the MDGs were really in the news and on national television.
Because I used those words and I explained what they meant. It was one of my strongest points. And of course the M+5 Summit was very important for the evaluation of the MDGs, there were so many side-events and important discussions going on around the MDGs, that I really decided to lobby for a place in the government delegation to the Millennium Summit.

I was very active for the last couple of 4-4,5 years in development cooperation, so I had a good network and everyone supported me in this. For example, if a youth organization from The Netherlands met with someone from the Mission to the UN in New York they were asking “is our youth delegate going to the Millennium Summit?” That proved to my government that I really had ideas about the MDGs and it showed them how important it is to involve youth in this. Because the MDGs are really young goals; when you are talking about education, when you are talking about HIV/AIDS - these are youth issues! It is so important to involve youth when you talk about these issues and make decisions on policies.

It took us half a year to lobby for it but in the end my government saw how important it was to not only have youth there present that could discuss with other leaders on youth issues and on the MDGs. But also to give the youth delegates something to work on and to bring back home to the youth in The Netherlands from the Millennium Summit.

It’s interesting that you say you had to lobby for it. Can you make that a bit more concrete? How do you lobby to become a youth delegate in such a high-level meeting? What were the arguments that you used?

Well, lobbying is trying to do things through an unofficial way – or at least that’s the Dutch meaning of it. As a youth delegate you are on a lot of panels and when you are in such a panel or discussion they always expect you to say something interesting about youth and to give a young view on certain things. I did that, and my Minister saw me many times. A lot of people from the Ministry saw me, too and I worked with a lot of people from the Ministry on different projects trying to raise awareness for development cooperation in The Netherlands. And after a certain time they knew me, they knew that I wasn’t just smiling and representing the youth, but also, I could really help them with finding experts on different youth issues. What I know a lot about because of my work at Red Cross is HIV/AIDS. But if they wanted to talk with child soldiers, I could help them with contacts of youth from Sudan or Liberia. That was very helpful for them. They saw that I was really honest and hard-working and again, so many organizations supported me. Every time they would talk to a Minister or an Ambassador they would ask for me and that really helped. It showed that I had a lot of support from other organizations and not only from my friends. So, I don’t know how you say that, but at a certain point you have a lot of nets put out and one moment you catch the fish.

So you managed to get on the delegation, but what was your actual role at the Summit?

My most important role was to go to as many meetings and side-events as possible and to work on my networks, try to prepare myself for the speech I’m going to give on the 6th of October, of course a lot of work was again showing how important it is to involve young people in the MDGs and showing to many governments how good it was that The Netherlands was sending their youth delegate. The other important point was to raise awareness about youth issues concerning the MDGs and making clear that they are youth goals.

But also to bring back a lot; because I learned a lot, I did a lot of networking, I did a lot of lobbying, I worked on my speech. That was really useful. It’s something to bring back, because, as bad as it sounds, if a youth delegate goes to the Millennium Summit it really is something interesting, it’s something you can talk about and you can talk with a personal angle about international politics.

…so you mean it’s something good for your own personal development…

Of course, but it’s also something interesting for youth organizations. The contacts I made are interesting for them and they can say “see there are youth going to the Millennium Summit”. Then media for example came up to me and I could raise more awareness about the MDGs. I was talking about youth, but I also went to a lot of media, trying to raise awareness for the MDGs and for development cooperation. That was very useful. Not only for supporting policies, but also for supporting organizations: What could people in The Netherlands do to support development cooperation?

You talk about the MDGs being youth goals. How do you see the role of young people in international development, where do they fit? What do you think are the most effective ways for young people to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs?

There are a couple of obvious things and I’m going to start with the most concrete examples. Of course, there are so many organizations working on the MDGs already. Youth are very motivated, they are strong, they have good ideas, they are creative. And development organizations, for example in The Netherlands, are jumping for young people. They would love to have more young people working on their policies, working in the field. Young people are such strong contributors, they’re such good networkers, they can do so much on the ground, they can do so much on the grassroots levels, they can support projects for achieving the MDGs. Because the MDGs are not achieved by the governments themselves. Of course we need money and resources, but achieving the MDGs is also a matter of awareness, of work on grassroots level - it’s the most important work.

But then there is also the maybe more abstract form that’s advocating for the MDGs. I can see when I’m at debates and discussions in The Netherlands and in Western Europe a lot of experts, a lot of managers from developing organization are very pessimistic about the MDGs; and I find that the only organizations in The Netherlands that are truly supporting the MDGs and are really advocating for the MDGs and convincing our government to stay sharp with this, are youth organizations. They are the strongest lobbyists when we are talking about the MDGs and development cooperation.

So there are basically two things, the concrete work and projects, trying to invent, to think of projects, but also trying to just advocate for the MDGs.

Read more about Erik’s thoughts on the World Programme on Action for Youth, the difficulties of getting more youth delegates from developing countries to the UN General Assembly and what you can do if you want to become a youth delegate yourself in Part II of this interview.

« return.



by Franziska Seel
Published on: Sep 30, 2005
Topic:
Type: Interviews
https://www.tigweb.org/express/panorama/article.html?ContentID=6305


On September 27th, I had the chance and honor to conduct a phone interview with Erik T. Wedershoven, 19, who is the official Youth Delegate of The Netherlands to the United Nations General Assembly in 2005. I’ve chatted with him for about one hour about his role and work as Youth Delegate, his participation in the Millennium Summit and the difficulties of getting more young people from developing countries become Youth Delegates. Erik, in October last year you were selected as official Youth Delegate of The Netherlands to the United Nations General Assembly. Can you explain us a bit more about the role of youth delegates and your work in particular? My work consists mainly of two things: First of all, what I would call the official part, is to work with our Ministry of Foreign Affairs on international youth policy, but also on national youth policies, like employment etc. It is about linking the Dutch youth policy and Dutch youth organizations to the international level - like the World Programme of Action for Youth, for example. Secondly, I’m working in The Netherlands to raise awareness and let other young people know about the World Programme, about youth in other countries and how they can work in international development and start their own projects. I do this by attending a lot of conferences here in The Netherlands. And in fact, I would add a third point, which is that I’m trying to lobby for more youth delegates, especially from the South… … which is actually a topic that I would like to come back to later on. Let me first ask you a few questions about your involvement in the M+5 Summit. Because I think it was very unique that you went there as well. Can you tell us a bit more how it happened that you also went to the high-level segment of the UN General Assembly? Usually, Youth Delegates just go to the UN General Assembly segment that is dealing with youth. How did it come that you also joined your government to the M+5 Summit? Did they just invite you to come along? They weren’t actually inviting me. I decided that when I was elected last year, on October 21st. One of my major points in the campaign were the MDGs. Basically, it was the first time that the MDGs were really in the news and on national television. Because I used those words and I explained what they meant. It was one of my strongest points. And of course the M+5 Summit was very important for the evaluation of the MDGs, there were so many side-events and important discussions going on around the MDGs, that I really decided to lobby for a place in the government delegation to the Millennium Summit. I was very active for the last couple of 4-4,5 years in development cooperation, so I had a good network and everyone supported me in this. For example, if a youth organization from The Netherlands met with someone from the Mission to the UN in New York they were asking “is our youth delegate going to the Millennium Summit?” That proved to my government that I really had ideas about the MDGs and it showed them how important it is to involve youth in this. Because the MDGs are really young goals; when you are talking about education, when you are talking about HIV/AIDS - these are youth issues! It is so important to involve youth when you talk about these issues and make decisions on policies. It took us half a year to lobby for it but in the end my government saw how important it was to not only have youth there present that could discuss with other leaders on youth issues and on the MDGs. But also to give the youth delegates something to work on and to bring back home to the youth in The Netherlands from the Millennium Summit. It’s interesting that you say you had to lobby for it. Can you make that a bit more concrete? How do you lobby to become a youth delegate in such a high-level meeting? What were the arguments that you used? Well, lobbying is trying to do things through an unofficial way – or at least that’s the Dutch meaning of it. As a youth delegate you are on a lot of panels and when you are in such a panel or discussion they always expect you to say something interesting about youth and to give a young view on certain things. I did that, and my Minister saw me many times. A lot of people from the Ministry saw me, too and I worked with a lot of people from the Ministry on different projects trying to raise awareness for development cooperation in The Netherlands. And after a certain time they knew me, they knew that I wasn’t just smiling and representing the youth, but also, I could really help them with finding experts on different youth issues. What I know a lot about because of my work at Red Cross is HIV/AIDS. But if they wanted to talk with child soldiers, I could help them with contacts of youth from Sudan or Liberia. That was very helpful for them. They saw that I was really honest and hard-working and again, so many organizations supported me. Every time they would talk to a Minister or an Ambassador they would ask for me and that really helped. It showed that I had a lot of support from other organizations and not only from my friends. So, I don’t know how you say that, but at a certain point you have a lot of nets put out and one moment you catch the fish. So you managed to get on the delegation, but what was your actual role at the Summit? My most important role was to go to as many meetings and side-events as possible and to work on my networks, try to prepare myself for the speech I’m going to give on the 6th of October, of course a lot of work was again showing how important it is to involve young people in the MDGs and showing to many governments how good it was that The Netherlands was sending their youth delegate. The other important point was to raise awareness about youth issues concerning the MDGs and making clear that they are youth goals. But also to bring back a lot; because I learned a lot, I did a lot of networking, I did a lot of lobbying, I worked on my speech. That was really useful. It’s something to bring back, because, as bad as it sounds, if a youth delegate goes to the Millennium Summit it really is something interesting, it’s something you can talk about and you can talk with a personal angle about international politics. …so you mean it’s something good for your own personal development… Of course, but it’s also something interesting for youth organizations. The contacts I made are interesting for them and they can say “see there are youth going to the Millennium Summit”. Then media for example came up to me and I could raise more awareness about the MDGs. I was talking about youth, but I also went to a lot of media, trying to raise awareness for the MDGs and for development cooperation. That was very useful. Not only for supporting policies, but also for supporting organizations: What could people in The Netherlands do to support development cooperation? You talk about the MDGs being youth goals. How do you see the role of young people in international development, where do they fit? What do you think are the most effective ways for young people to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs? There are a couple of obvious things and I’m going to start with the most concrete examples. Of course, there are so many organizations working on the MDGs already. Youth are very motivated, they are strong, they have good ideas, they are creative. And development organizations, for example in The Netherlands, are jumping for young people. They would love to have more young people working on their policies, working in the field. Young people are such strong contributors, they’re such good networkers, they can do so much on the ground, they can do so much on the grassroots levels, they can support projects for achieving the MDGs. Because the MDGs are not achieved by the governments themselves. Of course we need money and resources, but achieving the MDGs is also a matter of awareness, of work on grassroots level - it’s the most important work. But then there is also the maybe more abstract form that’s advocating for the MDGs. I can see when I’m at debates and discussions in The Netherlands and in Western Europe a lot of experts, a lot of managers from developing organization are very pessimistic about the MDGs; and I find that the only organizations in The Netherlands that are truly supporting the MDGs and are really advocating for the MDGs and convincing our government to stay sharp with this, are youth organizations. They are the strongest lobbyists when we are talking about the MDGs and development cooperation. So there are basically two things, the concrete work and projects, trying to invent, to think of projects, but also trying to just advocate for the MDGs. Read more about Erik’s thoughts on the World Programme on Action for Youth, the difficulties of getting more youth delegates from developing countries to the UN General Assembly and what you can do if you want to become a youth delegate yourself in Part II of this interview. « return.