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Dear YES Family That
YES Kenya 2006 was a remarkable success…no one can doubt! Nairobi took on the
appearance of ONE world - with YES delegates from ONE hundred countries converging
with ONE mission to learn how to 'create markets…unleash entrepreneurship'…and
leaving as ONE team with ONE dream! A dream of a world of employed productive
youth building a better world - our ONE world!
President Kibaki set the
tone by urging all of us in the inaugural to put youth first. We were also deeply
honored by the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Hon. Dr. Salam Al-Zobaee,
who by his sheer presence and inspiring words attested to the importance of getting
young people off the street into productive work. The Africa Ministers made a
bold commitment by declaring their commitment to a YES Africa master plan!!
The
Summit took place over four busy days and we were very fortunate to have all the
sessions extremely well attended and appreciated. All the details are on the website
www.yesweb.org. I wanted to reiterate that after all the painstaking preparation
and the busy pace of the Summit we have to get back to our lives, and start taking
the actions emerging from our time together. In my closing address, I framed the
following next steps:
1) Each Country Network and their governments should
go back and meet and set targets for number of employment opportunities they will
create for their youth in the next two years and be ready to report that in the
next Summit scheduled for 2008
2) Each Country Network with their governments
should prepare a 5 year action plan for employment generation, and should take
into account all youth - rural, urban and most of all vulnerable
3) Each
YES Country must have a 5 year YES Master plan which they should present at the
next Summit - this must be made in consultation with their governments and with
donors and multilateral agencies
4) The UN Agencies are requested to incorporate
into their programs flexibility to make interventions by way of technical assistance,
and financial support to build the capacity of YES Programs
5) And finally,
just like in Kenya where the development partners came together to support the
Ministry of Youth and the YES Kenya Network to host this Summit - it would be
immensely helpful if the UN and Donor agencies would engage with the governments
and the Country Networks in their countries to jointly assist them in the preparations
during this planning stage to prepare the master plan.
I feel grateful
for this opportunity to move forward the agenda of the YES Campaign and pledge
to work closely with all of you as we build plans and synergies to accomplish
our goals. I take this opportunity to invite your participation in the 4th Global
Youth Employment Summit, which Azerbaijan has agreed to host - "YES Azerbaijan
2008" ! In
Solidarity
Poonam Ahluwalia
Executive Director, YES Campaign |
