Voice Newsletter
December 2005 Edition
Oxfam's International Youth Parliament (OIYP) Voice Newsletter showcases the positive social change accomplished by Action Partners worldwide. Distributed to over 4500 OIYP Network members in 150 countries, Voice also features relevant news from external partners and organizations for the benefit of our readership. Also Published at www.iyp.oxfam.org/news/
Email us at: iypvoice@oxfam.org.au
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Focus
This month Voice focuses on Trade Justice. Issues of Trade Justice have particularly importance currently as the next ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is scheduled for 13-18 December 2005 in Hong Kong. It has also become an important focus of OIYP through our ‘trade justice project’.
The World Trade Organization was established in 1995 as a successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The WTO was established to provide an institutional forum for trade negotiations and to enforce trade agreements concluded between member states.
Today, WTO agreements define the terms and conditions that structure all major aspects of the international trading system. As such, the WTO agreements significantly affect the lives of all of us.
Unfortunately, the policies of the WTO have been shown to have a deeply negative impact upon millions of people around the world. Despite criticisms and protest from numerous countries, organisations and countless individuals, the WTO continues to pursue policies in the name of ‘wealth creation’ but ignores ‘wealth distribution’. Consequently, the divide between the economically disadvantaged and the wealthy has been deepened directly by the policies of the WTO. In addition, WTO agreements continue to be completely unrepresentative and reached way with no real consultation at the grassroots. A central part of the criticism directed at the WTO is that it continues to implement a global trade liberalisation process that is heavily biased in favour of wealthy industrialised countries and transnational corporate interests at the expense of developing countries.
At the same time as global opposition to the WTO in the form of organised local and international advocacy has strengthened, cracks have emerged within the WTO, with member states increasingly unable to negotiate consensus on new phases of liberalisation. In September 2003, the 5th WTO Ministerial in Cancun collapsed and it was unclear how the WTO would proceed or whether it would be possible to conclude new agreements in the future. Some 10 months later, following an intense lobbying effort, the General Council of the WTO in Geneva announced that it had reached a series of agreements (known as the 'July Package') that broke the deadlock of the Cancun Ministerial and enabled talks to be re-started in preparation for the 6th Ministerial in Hong Kong. As with previous WTO outcomes, the July Package which forms the basis of negotiations leading up the Hong Kong Ministerial has been widely condemned for the unrepresentative process by which it was drafted and “agreed”, and for failing to address the concerns and needs of developing countries, while pushing ahead the demands of powerful developed countries
Despite this, any final agreement is unlikely in Hong Kong. Rather than conceding the general failings of the organization, the Director-General of the WTO announced a ‘face-saving measure’, which is that the WTO was “recalibrating” its expectations for Hong Kong and would plan further Ministerials next year.
As the trade liberalisation agenda through the WTO as well as bilateral and regional free trade agreements continues, social justice activists will have to keep a close eye on the impact of new rules on the communities we work with.
OIYP’s experience with the ‘trade justice project’ this year has seen members of the network work on a range of issues that at first sight appear unconnected to the international trading regime. However, various Action Partners involved in the project have worked to identify specific ways that WTO agreements have a significant impact on their communities and daily work. As you read this month’s edition of Voice we encourage you to think about possible linkages between the issues facing your communities, and international regimes like the agreements of the World Trade Organisation.
Next month, IYP Voice will focus on ‘18 months on from the 2004 sitting’ - what have we all learnt? A year and a half after the second sitting of the OIYP in Sydney, 2004, we want to know about the challenges that you have faced in your projects, the successes that you have achieved and the impact that these experiences have had upon you and your community.
Please email any of your ideas and experiences to iypvoice@oxfam.org.au .
In 2006 we will begin an exciting new initiative with IYP Voice. We would like to invite Action Partners to apply to guest edit editions of the newsletter, in this way making IYP Voice truly the voice of the network. Guest editing an edition of IYP Voice would involve collaborating with the volunteer editor to source Action Partner updates, generating stories on a defined theme, communicating with members of the network and co-ordinating sharing of resources.
If this sounds like an exciting challenge which you would like to take on, please send an application email to: iypvoice@oxfam.org.au
We hope you enjoy this issue.
The OIYP Trade Justice Team
Editor: Catherine Loy
Action Partner News
Our Action Partner updates this month catch up with three action partners from 2000 – who have stories on how their lives as activists and their projects are going. If you have an update please send it to iypvoice@oxfam.org.au. .
Vikram Aditya
OIYP 2004 Action Partner, India.
My trade action project is focused on empowering farmers' communities in villages surrounding the Vikarabad forest range by providing them with training on developing agricultural sustainability in dry land farming as well as on the international trading regime and domestic trade legislations. The main objective is to teach farmers about how their adaptations to market forces including unsustainable and unsuitable farming to maximize returns coupled with their ignorance of the trading system have a downward spiralling effect on their ability to produce food grains, saving seeds for planting, the soil and ecological condition and ultimately their capability to feed themselves. The project also hopes to include other segments involved with agriculture and negatively affected by WTO and UPOV including plant breeders and market traders in negotiating terms outside the perimeter of the market regime but within the purview of domestic laws that
are beneficial, fair and do not discriminate, but retain the focus on farmers.
Currently, the project is in the initial stage of mobilizing support from farmer committees and groups and organizing training workshops in villages. The training will be held informally in each village and will be conducted in two rounds:
· The development of agricultural sustainability, and discretion in crop selection, soil and water management mechanisms; and
· On the international trading system and allied national trade laws and their implications on the farming and cropping systems of farmers and ultimately on their rights of the farmers.
The sessions will be conducted by partner organizations and specialists. Later on the project will include other groups, namely local plant breeders of the Vikarabad range and market representatives of the town market. At this stage, we are also considering seeking support from local NGOs and civil society bodies in organizing trade negotiations between the three groups in the near future.
Kenneth Msiska
OIYP 2000 Action Partner, Malawi
The Malawian Youth Voices
My Trade Action Plan (TAP) aims to give the youth of Malawi a platform to voice their concerns about the existing trade injustices and how they impinge on their human rights. The activities are expected to kick-start next week with a series of enlightening workshops in the three regions of the country. These workshops also aim at strategising the course of action to take during the WTO Ministerial Conference week. After the workshops the youth across the country are expected to carry out various activities in order to raise awareness about the ministerial conference and the prevailing trade injustices. The activities will reach a climactic end with a grand concert that will feature the country's youthful musicians.
My TAP also includes a publication on youth perspectives on the current state of affairs. The publication will be released in March 2006. This publication will be done concurrently with a research exercise the aim of which is to establish the consequences of trade injustice on the human rights of the local citizenry in Malawi. The research exercise will target the tea factory workers, farmers and People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs).
Norma Elvira Carías Montiel
OIYP 2004 Action Partner, Honduras.
Hello friends!
With the support of our organization CEPROSAF and the members of the network YES, Honduras will be carrying out a cycle of conferences about the WTO/Trade and Human Rights in three cities of my country! The cities are La Ceiba, San Pedro Sula and the capital Tegucigalpa. The cycle of conferences begins the week of December 12, coinciding with the meeting of the WTO in Hong Kong. I am very happy because organizations in my country including the Catholic University, the anthropology museum, the municipality of SPS, NGOs of Tegucigalpa, SPS and Ceiba are providing us with free use of their facilities. This has been possible because of my voluntary young colleagues of the network YES in Honduras. They have been mobilized to request these spaces, also the support of a national newspaper, Diario La Prensa, to give coverage to the events. Without the help of my colleagues in Honduras it would be impossible for me to arrive at the end of my TAP, but I already travel December 6 to my country where I will be intensely implementing my TAP.
Constance Walyroo
OIYP 2004 Action Partner, Kenya
My TAP has been integrated into our existing projects, campaigns, networks and partnerships and in this way we have managed to see Trade Justice develop voices across the nation. This process has been very effective, as we have increased awareness and mobilization of individuals and communities. It has been very involving, but totally gratifying.
Various activities have been undertaken with the aim of creating awareness, increasing understanding of the issues, and empowering and mobilizing communities to get actively involved in the struggle for trade justice. These include:
- Active involvement and presentations on International Trade in relation to Agriculture and the Right to Food and Work at a Food Sovereignty Workshop in October;
- Ongoing Facilitation at ‘Lessons for Life’ Training Of Trainers workshop where I lectured on International Trade in relation to TRIPS and the Right to Health and access to ARVs and essential medication (www.gmfc.org). Citron Wood/ GYCA are part of the National Coalition in Kenya;
- Ongoing promotion of ‘Count Down To the WTO: Spreading the word’ through radio programmes, newspaper articles, bulletins, fact sheets, our networks, WSIS Youth Caucus, RYNICS campaign and the internet;
- Providing training on International Trade and Human Rights Based Approach to Development. Also, mobilizing communities to take part in trade justice campaigns and activities like the white band day 10th December, and joining the BIG Noise (see www.maketradefair.comfor more details);
- Collecting case studies and sharing experiences about trade issues;
- Organizing workshops and discussion forums on trade;
- Sending ‘Make Trade Fair’ letters to the major stakeholders, Heads of Delegations, World Bank, IMF, EU and appropriate UN bodies; and
- Organizing individuals, farmers, HIV/AIDS activists into groups with the capability to advocate and lobby for their rights. Where such networks already exist, we are working to ensure they function effectively.
The Hong Kong Ministerial will be a remarkable experience, not only because the WTO itself is at stake, but particularly as the livelihoods of millions of people's are under threat. The abundance of skills, partnerships and networking, and resources that we have obtained will help us tocontinue making real contribution to our communities, our regions, and the world, by ensuring that disadvantaged communities have a chance to work their way out of poverty and to effectively address HIV/AIDS. I am very positive that this experience will make me even more effective in spreading the word, and helping people to know and understand i) WTO, Human Rights & International Trade and the consequences of the unfair trading system for developing countries and ii) how to effectively integrate human rights within development programmes, with the aim of strengthening accountability and empowering people as both principals and agents of change for their own development in the struggle for trade justice.
My contribution during the Ministerial will be to ensure that there is a common ideal that to unite us – Trade Justice. We must challenge and change the rules that govern international trade so that they benefit all nations equally. However, they must also be re-written in favour of developing countries to ensure that they can support their vulnerable farmers, provide affordable medication for the millions of people living with HIV/AIDS, build their own industries, develop stronger economies, and one day, to compete as equals.
We have the power and an obligation to ensure better futures for all members of the human family. It is important for us not to stand aside and let nations be ravaged by poverty, conflict and disease. Youth are the most precious resource this planet possesses. The world is depending on us. All that remains is that we believe in ourselves.
STORY OF THE MONTH
Our Story of the Month this December is by Faith Cheruiyot, OIYP Action Partner from Kenya, who participated in the OIYP Trade Justice workshop held in Cambodia in September. In Voice this month, Faith explains the ways in which international trade laws have a deeply negativeimpact upon the farmers of Kenya.
ACTION TOWARDS FAIR TRADE
Greetings from Kenya to all IYP Action partners all over the world. I have been working on my action plan around trade issues.
I was among the participants trained in Diplomacy Training Programme (DTP) in conjunction with International Youth Parliament in Phnom Phen, Cambodia. When I returned to Kenya, I came back with a principle that youth should play a vital role in promoting fairness in the world trading system. Tomorrow belongs to the youth, therefore we have to act and participate now to make a better tomorrow. It is our children, our grandchildren, who will suffer the effect of our inactions or omissions right now; so we better act before it is too late.
International Trade
I have been working on my action plans that all centred around public awareness of the International trading system by assisting in facilitating various public workshops, debates and inform trade concerns to the rest of the public. I have also written various articles for the local daily newspapers. For those of you who are wondering what this trade hullabaloo is all about, for those in developing countries like me, take a look around you and perhaps query why there is so much poverty around that never seem to end.
In today’s world, international and regional trade is probably is the most effective way for developing economies to fight poverty. Yet, trade rules are established and enforced by multilateral agencies that are far removed from the participation of the people they affect. Many of these rules and policies have led to the uncontrolled liberalization of agriculture and the privatisation of basic social services. This excludes people and negatively affects the lives and livelihoods of many, particularly poor farmers.
Specific Case Study (The Dairy Industry)
In Kenya, the dairy industry is struggling to avoid dumping–induced collapse. This is being caused by cheap subsidised imports from the European Union like cheese, powdered milk and ice cream that are threatening the local industry. In the early 1990s, farmers in Rift Valley Province were pouring milk away because they could not sell it. The situation improved temporarily when the government increased the tariff from 30% to 60% and revived the Kenya Co-operative Creameries.
The other concerns include:
- The World Bank and IMF continue to place policy conditionality on Kenyan government to cut public investment for inputs, including seeds and fertilizers to local farmers. Yet, developed governments who have the greatest control over the same institutions provide huge subsidies to their farmers. This drives down their farmer’s production costs and places them in a stronger, more favoured position over the Kenyan farmers to export internationally.
- The WTO promotes and encourages a form of trade liberalization that removes the use of controls and regulation in strategic sectors that serve the national interest. In Kenya, trade liberalization in wreaking havoc not only in dairy, but also in sectors including cotton and sugar. Daily, maize, sugar and beef production is under threat from cheap imports.
We have also seen domestic infant industries close under the weight of more advanced industries from developed countries. While these issues have a direct impact on the lives of many Kenyans, many Kenyans do not actually know how it affects their lives.
So why is all this important? Because every human being has a right to a decent standard of living, right to food security and most important of all a right to life. Yet all of the above trade issues directly threaten these rights.
What we have done as a coalition – which includes Oxfam GB, Action Aid Kenya and Eco-news Africa – is to arrange a whole range of public awareness activities to pass on information to the local population, even as the WTO ministerial in Hong Kong draws nearer.
We identified a chain of a local supermarket that has in the past openly declared its support for Kenyan products by selling these in their chain of stores. This particular chain maintains a policy of stocking over 79% for local products. On designated days, we invited Kenyan leaders, celebrities and the general public to sign petition and an open letter to our trade Minister for better Trade Justice. On these days we were also selling white bands with a Kenyan flag which is a symbol world wide worn by those expressing solidarity with calls for more action to end poverty. During these days both the leaders and the celebrities were interviewed and their opinion sought. We also handed out leaflets of information to all who are interested.
December 10th shall be the official date for presenting an open letter to the Ministry of trade listed there in will be our trade concerns.
november FEATURE
Our December Feature is by Nixon Duban, OIYP Action Partner and OIYP Country Co-ordinator of Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is a nation facing many challenges in terms of youth culture and indigenous youth identity. Here, Nixon looks at the ways that these problems are being addressed by the work of the OIYP Papua New Guinea team.
Papua New Guineastands as a country facing many challenges in terms of its social, economic and political development. The country is going through a lot of challenges, yet being propelled forward by vast mineral and resource developments. However, it is now evident that the growth focus lacks substantive vision beyond the current boom.
Papua New Guineans have had traditions and cultures that best depict their own indigenous communities and youth development. Amongst certain order of development the most distinguished of all are discipline and obedience. The rapid velocity of globalisation cannot serve as an excuse for the discontinuity of such values but unfortunately it may have affected the level of planning by policy makers.
The government in its obligation to protect the rights of the youth have not achieved very much. The failures are attributed to the inability of the government in relation to effective planning and distribution of resources. Though globalisation may have immensely contributed to the increase in youth underdevelopment, the government has no reason to be complacent at all. What we have in this country is no clear direction on how youth problems can be addressed and where the government can effectively fit in. Whilst this area remains to be addressed it is then accumulating and spilling over into all other host of problems.
It is really amazing to note that the government has yet to demonstrate a clear policy line regarding the complexities of youth development. Today it is so obvious that there are no effective mechanisms in place to tackle the ever increasing marijuana consumption. One will find that the behaviour amongst the affected youths are quite unique and threatening to the future of their own communities. The government have failed again in curbing the rise in the consumption of home brew commonly referred to as “steam” amongst the youths as young as 12 years.
However, globalisation has also presented opportunities to the growing number of youths through other key players in integral human development. Through technology and individual willingness certain establishment of regional and international networks have seen youths of countries becoming connected as one big family. What has brought them together is the will power, energy and charisma towards change and development. In this age of globalisation more than any other time in history youths will be subject to intense exposure and may depart from what the previous generation have hoped.
It is through this principle that Oxfam International Youth Parliament (OIYP) came about in giving the opportunity to young leaders in their pursuit for development and change. Today as a result of OIYP, many new projects and programs are managed by young people for their own empowerment and through such establishment hundred of youth are bringing positive changes to their communities. In Papua New Guinea there are Action Partners initiating specific programs for HIV Aids, community empowerment, rehabilitation, education, agriculture and individual business enterprise.
In 2005, one year after the 2004 sitting of the OIYP, an OIYP Pacific Workshop was organized in Fiji. This was an opportunity to bring together the Pacific based Action Partners to share and learn from each other’s experiences over the last year. Our facilitators were Anna Powell and Dave Traynor, both from Sydney, Australia. The action partners came from Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. It was a 1 week workshop dominated by intensive review on our challenges. There were a lot of new ideas thrown around about the inability to communicate, specifically in the area of internet and computers. This area remains the biggest impediment in our endeavor to bring about change as it limits the capacity to learn from each other, to access resources and other opportunities.
Our Fiji workshop was very interesting where personal experiences and experiences of how communities have changed were shared. Patrick from Pomio in the East New Britain province highlighted his projects about using coconut oils in making soap, cooking oil and sooner or later he might tap into fuel production. The sustainable part of his project was through selling the products and supporting the community organization. Then we have Janice Badui who is keen on changing her community by getting former Bougainville Revolutionary Armies rehabilitated and getting them to appreciate a normal livelihood.
It was so interesting to know what other action partners have been doing. Some have been very fortunate to have secured funding and resources from donor agencies and government organizations in initiating and sustaining their own projects. We also made recommendations about how our communities were going and how best we can make a difference. Our challenges were factors like communication, funding and specific resources for our project development.
The PNG team comprised of Nixon Philip Duban, Patrick Kaupun, Taitus Kuman, Sharon Diave, Tamara Babao, Janice Badui and Ruby Sky. Whilst the teams were divided on issues they agreed that healthy debates and discussions were needed in fostering strong Youth Development in PNG. Also agreed was the need for a good communication network, through newsletters, to facilitate our networking within the region. OIYP is now very supportive and is doing an assessment on all recommendations presented in the Fiji workshop.
PNG being so diverse became so united in driving across realistic messages about how the country is developing and what challenges remain. Although the Action Partners are spread around the country we all agreed that the onus is on each individual and the country representative to ensure that communication and networking are intact. We have also agreed that PNG will have its own in-country program and Action Partners are required to submit anything to the country representative for purpose of planning.
Our message to this country’s youth is to push for strong government participation in youth development programmes and training. There must be a strong focus on cultural exchanges and international exposure for the purposes of skills and capacity building. There must be a lot of consultation with the young people in the development of civic participation, including volunteering, international exchanges, internships and teaching opportunities in underserved communities.
We are also grateful to say that in 2007 there will be another OIYP sitting and more Papua New Guinean youths and those in our region will participate together with others around the world. There is no doubt that OIYP will unveil a lot of opportunities for young leaders around the world. It is a big network and you will not regret being part of it. On the same note we would like to take this opportunity to once again offer our sincere gratitude to Nicole Breeze, May Miller Dawkins, Anna Powell and Robyn Higgins for their unending support. We are also grateful that OIYP Pacific Workshop was a success and Anna Powell and Dave Traynor should be commended. Thankyou OIYP and Oxfam Australia.
resources
Online Trade Justice Resources.
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/min05_e/min05_e.htm
The official site of the Hong Kong WTO ministerial conference
http://www.hkpa-wto.org
The website of the Hong Kong People’s Alliance on the WTO.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/bwi-wto/wto/2005/03cancunhk.htm
A website which shows the issues from the Cancun WTO ministerial, to the ministerial to be held in Hong Kong in December 2005.
http://www.awid.org/go.php?stid=1476
How is civil society involving itself with the WTO in the run-up to the December ministerial meeting in Hong Kong?
http://www.maketradefair.com/en/index.php?file=03042002121618.htm
Rigged Rules and Double Standards – Trade, Globalisation and the fight against poverty. An Oxfam Paper.
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1530&lang=1
The website of the UN Conference on Trade and Development
Letters to Voice
Dear Voice,
This is Lan Anh, IYP 2000 Action Partner from Vietnam. I am writing to ask a big favor!
I am working as co-coordinator at the Casa de Mujer in Tena city in Ecuador. Our organization is located in the Amazon rainforest, which is the most impoverished region of Ecuador. Our centre is run by 6 women and we provide free services on legal assistance on family issues, psychological advice on domestic violence, medical check-ups for women and workshops on women’s rights and reproductive health rights. Our clients are indigenous and non-indigenous women from 23 different communities in Tena city and the surrounding areas of Napo province. Last year the centre supported over 3400 cases of domestic violence and health issues.
However, we have a great difficulty in obtaining resources, information and publications for women in the communities. I am establishing a library system and a workshop training project. For the library system, we need books, leaflet, information, videos, etc on women’s rights, reproductive health rights, prevention of domestic violence, child nutrition and parenting. For the workshop project, I am going to travel to different indigenous communities to deliver workshops on anti-oppression, self-defence and prevention of domestic violence and reproductive health rights for young women. I need a lot of workshop toolkits, tips and games, videos etc. Since these women speak Spanish and Quichua, all information in these languages would be of much help to us!!!
The women that we work with are in extreme need of support and they do not have any access to resources and opportunities. Your support to create this library and designing these workshops will have such an empowering impact on us, that you can never imagine. So, If you have any resources, information that we are looking for, please contact me at: Angelonbroomstick@gmail.comor phone : 593 9 6212 802
Lan Anh Ha
-------------------------
Dear IYP Voice,
Peace!
For quite some time I have been busy doing volunteer work here in Mindanao with my organization, working on children’s basic art and literacy education with internally displaced Muslim kids in one of the evacuation centres in Marawi City, Mindanao.
Moreover, I am also busy preparing for the Mindanao Youth Parliament. This is the project that the National Youth Parliament alumni association-Mindanao chapter is implementing this December 2005. I was chosen last November 2004 after Sydney OIYP 2004 as my province representative for the Philippine 5th national Youth Parliament.
National Youth Parliament Alumni Association - Mindanao chapter (NYPAA-Mindanao) has been actively pursuing advocacies on the grassroots level by engaging government, NGOs and Youth Leaders to promote support for youth.
With our passion to help other youth develop to their utmost potential and realize the implementation of the Mindanao Youth Parliament for the benefit of the other Mindanao youth, we, the alumni, are doing our best to push through the project. Right now, we are still looking for possible people of good hearts to help us make MYP 2005 successful. This is the reason I am writing to ask for possible help, or maybe you can provide me with a list of other possible sponsors for this humble project of ours.
Thank you and god bless!
In the service of the youth,
Patrick Asinero
2004 OIYP Action Partner, the Philippines.
News, Events and opportunities
News, upcoming events and involvement opportunities for OIYP Stakeholders.
We now have the results of the 3rd Round of the OIYP Grants Program!
On behalf of the OIYP network we extend our congratulations to:
Titus Kuman (Papua New Guinea)
Evans Musonda (Zambia)
Nour Mosawy (Iraq)
Willis Nyabwala Alala (Kenya)
Vikram Aditya (India)
Maha Alburai (Palestine)
Erkulanu De Sousa (East Timor)
Peter Otim (Uganda)
Julio Jose Recalde Lara (Paraguay)
Irene Banda (Zambia)
Nixon Philip Duban (Papua New Guinea)
Sai Awn Tai (Thai-Burma Border)
Kenneth Hary Msiska (Malawi)
Jose Rafael Guillen Canizares (Venezuela)
We wish you all the best as you implement your activities and look forward to hearing updates as you work towards positive and sustainable change in your communities! If anyone would like to read the summaries of the Action Partner proposals funded for Round 3 please contact: iypsgrants@oxfam.org.au
Thankyou to all the applicants who put their time and effort into writing their applications for the program. It was a testament to your commitment and passion for change in your communities.
To this end, our warmest regards also go to all those who have been active within and without the grants program over the last 18 months. This network of Action Partners continues to be an inspiration!
THE ROLE OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN COMBATING HIV AIDS: OIYP – GYCA research
From Imane Khachani, OIYP Action Partner
Today,10 millions young people out of the world’s over one billion are living with HIV and each day, around 6000 young men and women get newly infected with the virus.
Young people are the most hardly hit by the pandemic of which they remain a crucial component in terms of transmission, vulnerability, risk and potential change.
But their needs are often ignored when HIV AIDS policies are designed, when prevention programmes are developed and when budgets are allocated and young people themselves are often excluded from the implementation of initiatives that target them. Hence the failure of many to address affectively their needs in terms of awareness raising, prevention and care.
Today, there are a growing number of young people across the world who are working within their communities to reduce the vulnerability and risk behaviours of their peers. With often limited resources, thousands of young activists are leading grassroots initiatives worldwide, contributing to the fight against HIV epidemic’s spread through peer education based programmes, home care for HIV positive patients, advocacy for an equal access to treatment etc…
Oxfam International Youth Parliament and the Global Youth Coalition on HIV-AIDS* are currently conducting a research on youth driven initiatives in the area of HIV-AIDS.
This youth-led research aims at making light of the contribution of young activists’ work in the area of HIV AIDS worldwide and represents a great opportunity for sharing experience, knowledge and lessons learnt among them. It will result in an advocacy document with evidence around the contribution that youth-led projects and programs make to be shared at the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto, as part of the Toronto Youth Force process. It may also result in recommendations to be presented to parties attending Toronto.
Get Involved!
You can be involved in a number of ways over the next 8 months – you can be interviewed and have the chance to speak to other action partners about your work, you can interview other action partners and take place in online sharing around case studies of our work.
10 OIYP Action partners are currently involved in this research: Piyoo Kochar (India),Tamara Babao (Papua New Guinea),Imane Khachani (Morocco),Chukwumuanya Igboekwu (Nigeria),Rene Constanza (Belize),Nixon Duban (Papua New Guinea),Nwulaekwe Hilary (Nigeria),Tinei Nyamhuno (Zimbabwe),Joya Banerjee (USA), Leonard Boniface (Tanzania), Khothatso Duncan Moeketse (South Africa),Morebodi Lebo (Botswana),David Traynor (Australia) and the project is being coordinated by May Miller Dawkins and Joanne Been from the Sydney OIYP office.
Register: For more information or to register please email iypaction@oxfam.org.au! You will receive more information and a range of options for involvement.
Imane Khachani
OIYP Action Partner
GYCA Middle East North Africa
MDG Skills Share – Facilitated by Ruby Kenny (OIYP action partner)
8 goals, agreed to in September 2000 by the member states of the United Nations, to halve poverty by the year 2015, to increase the effort in the fight against poverty, illiteracy, hunger, lack of education, gender inequality, child and maternal mortality, disease and environmental degradation. Many NGO’s argue that the MDG’s are not ambitious enough, yet at the current rate, these goals will not even be achieved by the year 2050.
As young people working toward positive and lasting change in our communities, we often feel the need to become aware of the Millennium Development Goals. We all have experiences which relate back to the aims of the MDG’s on a daily basis.
By becoming aware of what is being done in your region or country, you can link your work to others and join the global network of individuals, groups and organisations working to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
I n February 2006, an online skills share will be held on the OIYP forum to discuss what the MDG’s are; how they came about; what is being done in your country to meet them and the role of your government & local organisations. The skills share will also focus on what more can be done to meet these targets and what action you can take to make this change.
What is an online skills share?
Over 4 weeks in February, action partners from around the world will have an opportunity to discuss and learn about the MDG’s. This discussion will take place on the OIYP Forum (online discussion board), facilitated by Ruby Kenny (IYP2004 action partner from PNG).
Background reading materials will be provided. Training will be given on how to use the online forum if you have not used it before.
How much time will I need?
Over the 4 weeks in February, participants will need to:
- read materials provided
- participate in the forum 2-3 times each week
- plan for action
How do I register?
For more information or to register email iypskills@oxfam.org.au or Ruby Kenny at ruby_Kenny@yahoo.com.au.
Alternatively, fax us at +61 2 9280 3426 or phone Anna (OIYP Learning & Development Coordinator) on +61 2 8204 3913.
Registrations close Friday January 20, 2006.
Endnote
A closing thought to inspire you this month.
It is time to draw a line between things that are to be managed by the market and things that exist for the sake of humanity and are outside the market. As young people, we need to act because that time is now.
James Arvanitakis, Co-convenor of the Commons Institute
IYP Facilitator, 2004
The contents of this newsletter do not reflect the views of its subscribers or Oxfam Australia.
