Bulletin no.

Beyond2015: Children and Youth Working Group

This week
The post MDG process officially kicks off this week with th th the opening of the 67 UN General Assembly (25 st Sept 1 October) at UN headquarters in New York. This will be the first time the members of the Post 2015 High Level Panel will have sat down together and so it is unlikely that anything concrete will come out of the session. However, it will give HLP members the opportunity to state their broad aims for the post 2015 development process and this will give direction to lobbying calls for those whose issues have previously been ignored or side-lined by the MDGs, such as climate change, human rights, economic inequality and of course, youth. You can follow the discussion and contribute via the World We Want 2015 online platform. Please share any contributions (blogs, tweets etc) with the group as this may be helpful in understanding what different CYWG members want to see on the post 2015 agenda!

Upcoming Events
The Friendship Ambassadors Foundation, an international NGO set up to support peace through peer learning and cultural exchange, has just opened applications to attend a Youth Assembly at the UN in January 2013. The overarching theme of the Assembly is The MDGs and Beyond: Youth Leaders Making a Difference, Today and Tomorrow and the focus of the session is Young Professionals, New Technology, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Social Entrepreneurship for the MDGs. This could be a great opportunity for young people to come together and discuss ideas for the post 2015 agenda. The foundation is inviting a wide range of young professionals and leaders to apply to attend the Assembly and is providing sponsorship for some youth delegates from developing countries. th th Applications opened on September 17 and close on January 18 2013. More information can be found here.

The African Youth on Post 2015 Agenda has also just opened a call for applications to participate in their Conference being held in Nairobi th from 12-16 November. The theme is Putting young people at the heart of regional development and will focus on developing ideas and strategies to get African Youth priorities in the post 2015 development framework. All information can be found on their facebook page.

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Opportunities
London Calling! Following up on the UN Rio+20 commitment to establish a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UK Parliaments International Development Committee launched an Open Inquiry on the post-2015 agenda in July 2012. The inquiry offers organisations and interested individuals the opportunity to submit written evidence on a range of criteria relating to previous experience of the MDG process and thoughts on how to build a new development framework. The closing date for th submissions is Friday 5 October. The inquiry provides a clear structure, asking organisations to submit written evidence on 9 areas relating to post-2015. Some of these do require a good working knowledge of how the MDG process has played out, however, organisations should not be discouraged by this; this inquiry is not a task in high level analysis but rather an opportunity for post-2015 stakeholders to put forward their opinions on how to get the most from the post-2015 development framework. Therefore, if you are thinking of submitting a document, we suggest really focusing on the areas that you are best qualified to talk about based on previous work and experience. As the CYWG, we would particularly encourage a focus on: Lessons learned from the adoption of the International Development Targets and the MDGs Where have the MDGs let us down in improving child and youth development? The Process: are the right voices being heard? This is a great opportunity to highlight the need for youth engagement and more space given to youth and child rights organisations to contribute to the process. The Content of the future goals: what would be a good set of global goals? Here, the need can be stressed for goals directly focused on youth development and child wellbeing.

Restless Development is intending to respond to the inquiry with the aim of really flagging the need for young peoples input into the post-2015 agenda. If you are also thinking of submitting something, please do feel free to share your thoughts with the group and ask for feedback, this is exactly why we are here! The deadline is fast approaching so check out the call here asap!

What are you up to?

We are really keen to learn about any post-2015 activities our members may be engaging in as this could really encourage important conversations and highlight opportunities for cooperation or partnership across the group or the wider network of Children and Youth focused organisations. So, if you are doing anything interesting please feel free to share with the Google group at beyond2015-children-and-youth-wg@googlegroups.com or contact eleanork@restlessdevelopement.org. We look forward to hearing from you!