looking for nominations for the The Mexico City Youth Partnership Initiative

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

On behalf of the Network of Asia Pacific Youth we are delighted to announce

that, World AIDS Campaign and the Mexico Youth Force ( Part of the world AIDS

Conference 2008) introducing the Youth Partnership Initiative (YPI.. The YPI

willpair youth leaders with established leaders of a wide-range of

constituencies, to establish a two-way learning experience as well as build

sustainable partnerships.

On the Youth Partnership Initiative, the age limit for youth applications is up

to 29. Each organization can nominate a maximum of 2 people, so Network of Asia

Pacific Youth can nominate 2 people. Please note that nominations are due by

April 18th, 2008. Please feel free to disseminate this widely. For further

detail and nomination form please do contact us at

admin@... or write to me directly. As in the e list I

cannot send attachments.

Here is the detail of the YPI.

Throughout the upcoming 2008 International AIDS Conference, the World AIDS

Campaign[1] and the Mexico Youth Force[2], will implement the Mexico City Youth

Partnership Initiative (YPI). The YPI will seek to pair youth leaders with

established leaders of a wide-range of constituencies, in order for youth to

develop practical leadership skills experientially, as well as for the

constituencies to learn from youth leaders and develop partnerships with youth

as a constituency.

The YPI will establish a two-way learning process to promote mutual

understanding, facilitate networking, and enable a transfer of knowledge and

skills between the participants. Through its Global Steering Committee (GSC)[3],

the WAC will identify and encourage leaders from the constituencies of media,

people living with HIV and AIDS, business, women, non-governmental

organisations, youth, activists, faith and labour, to take part in this

initiative. In addition, leaders from academia, parliamentarians, harm reduction

and MSM will be engaged.

To select the established leaders from these constituencies, each constituency

will be asked to nominate 2 people. A subcommittee within the Mexico Youth Force

will then select 1 person for each constituency, who will be invited to

participate in the initiative.

Benefits of the Initiative

Through the Youth Partnership Initiative, it is hoped that each constituency

will gain awareness of how to integrate youth perspectives into their work,

while youth will develop greater knowledge on ways to work with different

constituencies, establishing sustainable and fruitful partnerships. In this

sense, specific benefits may include:

For youth leaders:

· Increased knowledge of the work of other constituencies;

· Improved ability to identify and take advantage of leadership opportunities as

they arise in the community served;

· Increased self-confidence, judgment, motivation and initiative;

· Increased technical support and guidance for on-going work;

· Ongoing, sustained relationship with and potential for partnerships

For established leaders:

· Increased awareness of youth leaders’ needs, programmes and activities to make

a difference in their communities;

· Increased commitment to take concrete action to promote youth leadership in

programmes and policies;

· Greater exposure to much-needed youth perspectives, which can improve

programme outcomes and make them more sustainable, relevant and effective;

· Ongoing, sustained relationship and potential partnerships

· Establishment of sustainable youth-adult partnerships which can scale up the

community-level work of the youth participant and influence the adult allies

priority HIV interventions.

Through sustainable partnerships, inter-constituency work will be strengthened,

leading to concrete opportunities for the development of joint initiatives,

fundraising opportunities, and overall cross-fertilisation of ideas.

What does it involve?

The YPI requires a series of commitments from each constituency, principally:

1. Each constituency should nominate 2 people and send their nominees to

ahumadac@... using the provided nomination form, no later than

18th April, 2008. Youth organisations will also be asked to submit 2 nominees

each, and 1 youth leader will be selected to match with each constituency. The

selection of all leaders will be done by the Mexico Youth Force, which will

select a total of 24 leaders (12 youth and 12 from other constituencies).

2. Once the leaders from each constituency have been selected, they will be put

in touch with their partner youth leader. They should be available to exchange

emails or have monthly conference calls to get to know one another and discuss

how they think the partnership can benefit both constituencies.

3. Immediately prior to the opening of the 2008 International AIDS Conference,

on Sunday 3rd August, 2008, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., as a side-event of the youth

pre-conference, the WAC will organize a brief two-hour opening meeting of the

adult and youth leaders. The objective of the meeting will be to make sure that

both youth and established leaders have an initial opportunity to meet and

personally get to know one another; clearly understand their roles during the

Youth Partnership Initiative program; and mutually discuss and clarify their

expectations. The first hour will be in the form of a plenary, while the second

hour will provide participants with the opportunity to begin to work as pairs.

All selected leaders will be expected to take-part in this meeting.

4. During the 2008 International AIDS Conference, each pair of partners will

shadow one another for two of the five conference days. One day will involve

the youth shadowing the adult, and the other, the adult shadowing the youth.

5. An abstract was submitted to the AIDS2008 to present the outcomes of this

initiative during the end of the IAC. If the abstract is accepted, selected

leaders will be asked to participate in this presentation.

6. At the end of the Conference, on Friday 8th August, from 3 to 5 p.m., there

will be another brief two-hour meeting of the adult and youth leaders. The

purpose will be to take stock of the Youth Partnership Initiative and discuss if

it has worked well and how it could be improved. In particular, the participants

of the Initiative will have the opportunity to meet in person and discuss the

sustainability of their recently built relationships. The main outcome of the

meeting will be for the Initiative participants to individually (i.e. as pairs)

agree on how to continue and sustain their relationships. For this purpose,

during the first hour participants will work with their partners on defining

concrete next steps, while the second hour will be used to share these steps

with all participants and identify ways in which the WAC can support them.

Participants will also be given an evaluation questionnaire to complete.

7. After the Conference, it is expected that the partnership between leaders

will continue to develop. The WAC will be available to provide support and

facilitate communication between partners, particularly if both sides will

engage in upcoming key events, such as the World Summit on MDGs and/or World

AIDS Day. In addition, 6 months after the Conference, participants will be

expected to complete a questionnaire to evaluate the sustainability of the

partnership.

[1] World AIDS Campaign, Warmoesstraat 149 – 151, 1012 JC Amsterdam, The

Netherlands, Tel: +31 20 616 9045. For further information, please contact

Ahumada at ahumadac@...

[2] Mexico Youth Force is a collaboration of various youth-led or youth-serving

organisations currently including: Ave Mexico, Youth Coalition, Global Youth

Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Advocates for Youth, Taking it Global, UNFPA and the

WAC.

[3] The WAC Global Steering Committee consists of international networks of

faith, youth, labour, positive people, business, media, women, activists and

NGO’s.

Agniva Lahiri

Coordinator

Network of Asia Pacific Youth

Kolkata, India

E-MAIL: <agniva_lahiri@...>