Report: Asia-Pacific Youth Forum- 2013, Nepal
– invoking voice of youth on post-2015 development agenda and mountain issues.
By Arup Barua
While the global population dynamics depicts that the youths constitute more than half of world population, very few international organizations have incorporated their concerns or have facilitated their participation in addressing future global challenges. One organization has embarked on remarkable initiatives to engage youth in the sustainable development activities; that is International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). It is an international, independent mountain learning and knowledge centre committed to improving the sustainable livelihoods of mountainous communities in the extended Himalayan region.
It was established in 1983 and operates in eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. It extends cooperation and support to the global mountain community as well.
Realizing the importance of proactive participation from youth in discussions related to sustainable development and the challenges facing the mountain regions; ICIMOD has initiated the annual assembly of youth namely Asia Pacific Youth Forum (APYF). This year the theme of the APYF was Post-2015 Development Agenda and Mountain Issues.
Through a panel of independent judges, ICIMOD selected forty-five young representatives from 15 countries of Asia and the Pacific including university students and professionals. The selected youth attended the Asia-Pacific Youth Forum-2013 from 30 September to 4 October 2013. The forum focused on Post-2015 Development Agenda and Mountain Issues. These participants were selected from over 1150 applicants who submitted their application through the ICIMOD website highlighting their qualities, work experiences and commitment to the issues of the forum.
The official welcome event of the forum was organized on the evening of 30th September 2013 at Hotel Goodwill. The organizers introduced themselves, objectives of the forum and briefly mentioned about the expectations from the participants. It included a very gracious icebreaking session that was facilitated by The Innovative Group (TIG) and Nepali Youth in Climate Action (NYCA) in order to bring together the participants of 15 countries close to each other.
The APYF 2013 was inaugurated on 1st October2013 at ICIMOD Headquarters (Kanchenjunga Hall) with the welcome speech by Ms Anja Møller Rasmussen, Senior Manager, ICIMOD. Following the tone setting session three informative presentations were delivered by Dr. Golam Rasul, Theme Leader, ICIMOD; Purushottam Ghimire, Joint Secretary, Government of Nepal; Dr, Arjun Karki, LDC Watch representing mountain, government and civil society perspective. These presentations unveiled the paradigm shift in development planning from- Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and issues related to the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Following the inaugural session technical presentations were delivered by esteemed experts at ICIMOD in two consecutive sessions including one on issues related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and science application in development activities and national-regional-global processes interface in thematic areas.
The concluding session of the first day entailed motivational speech by Mr. Anil Shah, CEO, Mega Bank, Kathmandu; who delineated his tenacious career, role of human being in building peace and happiness in the greater society. Succeeding Ms. Neelum Chand, Miss Global Nepal-2012 inspired the youth to be confident and motivated under all circumstances. She closed her speech with a motivating statement: “While doing something great for the society, sometimes you may fall in cumbersome situation but you have to uphold your courage”.
The third day covered a field visit to ICIMOD Knowledge Park, Godavari, situated at southern slopes of Kathmandu valley. This Knowledge Park covers an area of 30 hectares of land provided by the Government of Nepal in 1992; where more than 5000 people from all walks of life including students, researchers, farmers, development practitioners, entrepreneurs and many others visit every year in order to learn about new technologies, approaches and practices for sustainable land use, natural resource management and livelihood enhancement.
Mr. Samden Sherpa welcomed the participants warmly with Nepali tea and delineated about the gamut of activities undertaken since the inception of the knowledge park. After the instructive presentation Mr. Samden took all the participants to the demonstration plots of Knowledge Park. At that sites participants came to know about good number of technologies and practices related to Renewable Energy, Water Management, Sustainable Agriculture , Soil Management, Ecotourism, livelihood options etc. Surprisingly the Knowledge Park included technologies and practices from all over the Asia and the Pacific that could contribute to better livelihood opportunities and conservation of natural resources in Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH).
Following the visit to the technology and activities demonstration stalls, all the participants were divided into a team of two to learn knowledge sharing through an activity named ‘1-1 Interview Your Friend’. Each participant was asked to interview the other teammate about the MDG’s achievement status of their native country, success stories, pitfalls from multidisciplinary context etc. and prepare a video of the interview. In accordance with the interview of the partner, each participant had to present each partner’s position.
Succeeding the lunch break another amazing session titled- World Cafe for prioritizing issues in the context of Post-2015 Development Agenda was organized. Participants were carved up into 5 groups to discuss on five thematic areas focusing Post-2015 Development Agenda, except the each group leader all the members had to shuffle after each group’s discussion within a limited timeframe. After each group has covered the 5 thematic areas, members selected from the group had to present the discussion outcome. Based on the discussions a new group was formed to draft the declaration of APYF 2013 in order to convey the expectations of the youth from Post-2015 Development Agenda and highlight the mountain issues that need to be addressed.
The fourth day was scheduled as to visit innovative projects sites focusing on sustainable development in Kathmandu. The first project site was visited the office and workshop of Foundation for Sustainable Technologies (FoST). It is a non-profit organization that endeavors to create awareness to counter wide-spread deforestation, harmful pollution, heavy dependence on fossil fuels by providing low-cost, sustainable technologies, that is easily adaptable and locally-built. It also focuses on better education and capacity building to improve the quality of life of the rural people. FoST is the brainchild of Mr. Sanu Kaji Shrestha, a retired World Bank official and solar energy hobbyist. He has promoted several biomasses to energy, waste to energy and solar energy technologies through FoST. Mr. Sanu widely travelled many parts of the world to acquire and learn about sustainable energy technologies and practices. He founded FoST to replicate and ameliorate those personal learning in the local context. FoST has already been awarded several reputed awards and recognitions both within Nepal and globally.
Following the visit to FoST, the participants visited the project site and office of Women Environment Preservation Committee (WEPCO). WEPCO is the first Nepali community based organization to deal with Solid Waste Management (SWM), initiated by a group of promising housewives. Since its establishment in 1992, it has gained popularity for their innovation and initiatives in SWM. WEPCO activities include community composting; home composting; vermi-composting; paper collection for recycling and bio-gas production from organic waste. President Mrs. Bishnu Thakali delivered her welcome speech to the participants, shared the story of WEPCO’s success and struggle since inception.
The concluding day was devoted to developing the final declaration of the forum amidst a real diplomatic process and experience sharing from veteran professionals as well participants. At the knowledge session Ms Judy Fainstein, Founder, Youth for Environmental Stewardship (YesBC), USA shared her experiences of engaging youth in North America for sustainable policy formulation and promotion of sustainable technologies. Mr. Don Messersmith and his team conducted a session of exploring ideas to engage youth in ‘Climate + Change’ for addressing Post-2015 agenda. Drawing the final Outcome Document of APYF took three hours of debate amongst forty-five participants by editing and passing out each sentence by simple majority vote. Ultimately participants developed the Declaration of Asia-Pacific Youth Forum on Mountain Issues and Post-2015 Development Agenda through a very participatory process incorporating concerns of all members present.
Anja Moller Rasmunssen, Senior Manager, KMC, ICIMOD in her concluding remarks stated “be together, be innovative, keep the dialogue ongoing, go back, be the voice, spread it out……..come back another time”
Anh Dang, one of the most vibrant participants from Vietnam shares her experience- “At first, I was just concerned about the environmental issues. After the forum, I have turned my attention to mountainous issues. I can see the connection between up-stream and down-stream issues, environment and livelihoods. I have broadened my perspective and learnt from experts and also each other. It was a great chance for me to learn that HKH problems are also our (people from outside HKH) problems.” Mira Khadka another promising youth activist, President-TIG from Nepal accounted her experiences – “I had a youthful experience at APYF 2013 sharing knowledge among youth from diverse backgrounds and nationalities on mountain issues and post-2015 development agenda. The field trip provided a glimpse of socio-economic and environmental issues of Kathmandu Valley and how the communities are tackling them.”
Dr. David Molden, Director General, ICIMOD articulated – “Many people address the youth as the future leaders. Why the future? No, you are not the future leaders. Tomorrow never comes. You are the leaders of today”
Tek Jung Mahat, Youth Initiative Coordinator, ICIMOD concluded the forum by uttering “Working with youths always adds happiness to us. Carry the knowledge, share your experiences, talk to policy makers, talk about the future you want”
The APYF-2013 was funded and supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
This report contributed by:
Arup Barua
Undergraduate student, Dept of Development Studies
University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
& Participant at Asia-Pacific Youth Forum-2013, Nepal
E-mail: arup_dds@hotmail.com
Cell: +8801912738591
