Commonwealth Youth Forum in Australia

In October 2011 I was privileged to represent Girlguiding UK at the Commonwealth Youth Forum (CYF), in Freemantle, Western Australia. This event was to coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), a meeting held every two years where Commonwealth leaders meet to discuss global and Commonwealth issues, and to agree on collective policies and initiatives. 130 delegates attended CYF, representing each of the 54 Commonwealth countries, with the aim of developing young people’s understanding of the Commonwealth and its values and creating a platform for young people to contribute to Commonwealth and CHOGM agendas.

At the opening ceremony we were addressed by the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who encouraged the delegates ‘to ask for something bold, to mobilise for and inspire change, transforming the CYF process into achievable outcomes’. We set about this task during the week working in different thematic groups to discuss the main issues and priorities within the subject area. Themes discussed included peace-building and conflict management, health, youth enterprise, ICT, Sustainable livelihoods and economy, environmental sustainability and youth impact and participation in decision making.
I took part in the youth impact and participation in decision making theme, discussing how youth engagement and participation can be placed at the centre of youth development. The question which we based our discussions around was ‘if you can tell Heads of Government 3 things about how to improve youth participation what would they be?’ This seemingly complex and controversial question caused great debate but after many interesting discussions with a wide range of delegates representing a diverse range of countries and cultures we were able to reach consensus about what we believed were the keys to developing young people as one of the Commonwealth's most valuable assets.

In order for the Commonwealth to be relevant and accountable to the needs of its 1.2 billion young people we believed it is critical that young people directly participate in all levels of decision making and budget allocation, not only in policy and programme design but also in implementation and evaluation. We recommended the drafting of Guidelines for Governances by young people to ensure that all national youth structures remain relevant and accountable to the youth of their member states and further that Commonwealth governments should provide support to their national youth structures, including funding, technical and administrative support and partnership opportunities. At the end of the forum we had produced a communiqué which was presented to the Commonwealth Secretariat, giving the young people of the Commonwealth a chance to have their opinions heard by the Heads of Government.

Although these recommendations were made with regard to the Commonwealth, the themes we discussed were the process, implementation and accountability of youth participation; themes I believe can be applied directly into GGUK. We must ensure that we design our programmes with young people as partners involved as decision makers (‘nothing for us, without us’), ensuring we engage young people how young people engage best, providing meaningful platforms to speak and allowing opportunities for innovation. During the Forum we were addressed by the Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, who emphasised that if you don’t get honesty, integrity, precision and clarity from young people then you won’t get it from anybody!  We must trust our young people, placing them at the centre of development by giving them a voice but also ensuring adults are given ears to listen to them.

CYF was an exciting week of networking and interchange between the delegates and was a fantastic opportunity to meet a wide and diverse range of individuals. As well as a crash course in the Commonwealth and the opportunities it can offer young people, it also allowed me to share my enthusiasm for Guiding and highlighted what an amazing platform GGUK is for girls and young women to advocate for themselves in a relevant and meaningful way.

                                                                                                               Charlotte Ball