SustainUS made excellent progress at the Commission for Social
Development which took place from February 6th through the 15th, 2008. After
roughly 40 days of intensive preparation and training prior to the
event, the delegation, consisting of five delegates split between the
two weeks of the Commission, arrived at the UN headquarters. The
presence of SustainUS helped address the obvious lack of youth present
at the negotiations. Overall, roughly 25 youth were present at the
Commission who worked together closely developing strategies for the
promotion of issues important to youth. Based on what was taking place
in the negotiations, the youth present decided to collaboratively focus
on strategically important issues: mainstreaming youth employment into
national development strategies; ensuring youth participation in
decision making processes; creating an environment to allow for youth
entrepreneurship; and the strengthening of review mechanisms for
previously established goals and targets. A speech was given during the
plenary by two of the youth representatives, Emily Gayong Setton and
Nadim Sobhani, highlighting these. The final document provided
recognition of the importance of youth in multiple sections, addressing
some, but not all of our concerns.
The SustainUS CSocD46 Delegation formulated these policy documents: |
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