#gpedc

Jimmy Smith led an ILRI delegation to the Second High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (HLM2 GPEDC), which was held in Nairobi, Kenya 28 Nov–2 Dec 2016 (photo credit for this and all pictures in this article: ILRI/Susan MacMillan).

This week, Jimmy Smith, director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), led a delegation from…

This 15th-16th April 2014, saw the first high-level meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development (what?!) and the overall consensus post conference seems to be: great talk, time for action.

As a Youth Delegation, we hoped that by joining key decision makers and influencers from around the world, we would demonstrate the importance of including young people as partners in effective development and that we would open up communication between those attending and those watching around the world.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

And we certainly had some successes. Many of the conference delegates commented on the overall youth presence that was felt at the conference. Whether it was from listening to some of the young speakers in the panel sessions or seeing images from young people around the world projected in the main entrance, our mantra “half the world’s under 25” was heard.  My main concern is that they’re not taking us serious, and truly seeing the value that young people bring.

Our team of seven had worked hard in the lead-up to the conference collecting voices and inputs from around the world on the themes being talked about at the meeting. With over 400 following our Facebook page, we provided a platform for an active community to share and get involved with discussions surrounding the GPEDC. We then brought this to the conference delegates via the voice wall, at our marketplace stand and in the 3 speaking opportunities we were allocated.

We had a number of meetings and the most meaningful by far was the half an hour spent with David Hallam, UK Envoy on Post-2015 Development Goals for DFID, discussing how young people should be considered across the board in the development of the Post-2015 agenda. While there were many photo opportunities, there was a call after the first day for this not to be tokenistic and come day two, we were back and ready to push the initiatives and actions already being taken by youth from all over the world to further the effective development progress.

For example, Benjamin Mwape was speaking on the South-South Cooperation focus session and talked about the policy sharing that had he had recently been involved with between Zambia, Ghana and South Africa on comprehensive youth development plans. Karma Yonten, a young entrepreneur with a successful small enterprise from Bhutan, spoke in the private sector plenary session of the difficulties he came up against when initially trying to secure loans to start his waste management company Greener Way and called for the decision makers present to make this process more accessible to young people in order to encourage entrepreneurship.

There were definite frustrations surrounding the two days. We’d hoped to be able to make more use of the comments and question sections at the end of the panels, however those slots had all be pre-assigned and there wasn’t much room for challenges from the floor. Never mind, no space to talk? We’ll make it.

As a team, we feel it is a huge achievement that there are now two paragraphs in the annex of the communique calling on all GPEDC stakeholders to take in active role in supporting youth-led, data-driven accountability and governance (something that is already being set in motion through the Big Idea).

We’re pushing for, and believe in, young people being active partners in effective development. In fact, I’m going to out there and say: in order to achieve effective development, young people NEED to be active partners. Half the world’s population is under 25! The progress everyone was getting together to discuss is going to be lived by the next generation and that generation needs to be on board to believe in it and make that progress real. 

We are calling for the new co-chairs to establish young people as a major stakeholder in the GPEDC partnership. They can make this a reality by putting young people on the steering committee and pushing the delegates to deliver on the commitments they made at the conference.

“I will always invite a youth representative to future panel discussions” – Anders Nordstrom, Ambassador for Global Health at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

It has been an exciting lead-up to next week’s high-level meeting in Mexico. I have been interning at the Restless Development Headquarters in London and working closely with my counterpart, Merybell, in the Dominican Republic to collect input from the world’s youth for the GPEDC. It has been a fast paced 3 weeks and I’ve jumped straight in with acronyms up to my head. 

Who am I?

I’m Dawn and I will be a Youth Communicator at the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC) conference. As a Development Advocate (supported by the Gates Foundation), passionate about empowering young people, I want to make sure that they are considered across the board in the development of the post-2015 agenda. I believe it is essential that the messages from the conference next week are accessible to everyone. Governments, private entities and civil society members will be coming together to discuss how effective development can occur through partnership and the world’s youth need to have a role in shaping the decisions that will directly affect their lives.

So, what is the GPEDC.!?

The GPEDC stands for the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (click here). Co-chaired by the UK’s Secretary of State, Justine Greening, it aims to bring together nations, business and organisations to ensure that funding, knowledge and policy is shared in order to maximize development impact in the continuing fight to help improve lives and end poverty.

The first high-level meeting aims to assess how and what progress has been made since the last objectives were set at the meeting in Busan, 2011. 1300 key players and decision makers from around the world will gather in Mexico City, 15th – 16th April 2014, to review and discuss how to continue moving forward.

What will the youth communicators be doing (apart from trying to get a selfie with Ban Ki-Moon)?

As a Youth Communicator I will strive to make sure that young people from around the world are represented at this high-level forum. So far, Merybell and I have been busy gathering opinions and ideas from all over; Jordan, Nigeria, Haiti, Ghana, South Africa, Japan, Venezuela and more. Together, Merybell and I have compiled their quotes, designed images, edited footage and from next week, this will be displayed on the ‘Voice Wall’ at the GPEDC conference. The content so far has been inspiring:

Aside from myself, there will be 6 others in the super youth delegation; three will be Panellists, each specialising in one of the main themes, and the other four will be active participants in the discussions, sharing evidence and experience on development from the grassroots level, both in the main panels and the focus sessions.

The meeting will address three main themes: the Private Sector, Middle Income Countries and South-South cooperation. It is an opportunity to share knowledge, discuss what works and what hasn’t in the past and look to the future to see how best to collaborate in the above areas.

Why?

Half the world’s population is under 25. That’s a lot of positive energy. Restless Development (the youth-led development agency) is supporting a youth delegation to reach out and engage young people from different countries, regions and networks to participate in these global discussions. By being there, the Youth Delegates will show the value and advantages of working with young people to increase development effectiveness. I am excited at the prospect of playing a role in making sure that the voice of the younger generation is heard; that the decisions that are being made on their behalf are informed and right for those who they will be affecting.

How?

We want you, reader, to join us. Become a remote delegate of this conference, making it truly global.  On this Facebook page, you will find us hosting debates, encouraging discussion and relaying key elements of the conference.

On Twitter you’ll see more real-time updates and join the conversation.  You can follow me (@dawn_1989) or Merybell (@MerybellNabilah) or check the hashtags #myGPEDC #GPHLM. Highlights will also be on @RestlessDev.

The voice wall will be hosted through Instagram @RestlessDevelopment. To add to it, you can upload your image or 15 second video with the hashtags #myGPEDC and it’ll show here with all the others from all over the world.