Special Envoy for Youth Nominated: a hope for renewed youth participation in the UN?

New York, 21 January 2013 // The European Youth Forum welcomes the nomination of Ahmad Alhindawi (Jordan, 29 years old) as Envoy on Youth by United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. The nomination of Ahmad Alhindawi emphasises the importance of a meaningful engagement of young people in the UN system.

When announcing his next five-year action plan, in the beginning of 2012, addressing the needs of the largest generation of young people the world has ever known was among the key priorities of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. With this, Ban Ki-moon committed to develop and implement an action plan on youth, to create a youth volunteer programme and appoint a Special Advisor on Youth. Last March, the Youth Forum, together with its partners of the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organisations (ICMYO), wrote an open letter to Ban Ki-moon putting forward expectations and recommendations regarding the appointment of the Special Envoy for Youth, asking to chose a young person under 30 and with solid youth NGO background.

In his new role, Ahmad should play an essential role in driving forward the UN priorities on youth, in advocating for the interests and needs of young people and in promoting the effective participation of young people and democratic, membership-led youth organisations in global governance and in the UN system, through participatory and accountable mechanisms, acknowledging their legitimate and valuable contribution to development and the goals of the UN. A major priority for him should be to ensure that the UN delivers on its commitment to young people and that youth is at the heart of the UN programmes, bringing a new impetus to the implementation of the World Programme of Action for Youth.

The European Youth Forum is available to support the new Envoy with its expertise and policy development to reach these goals. Moreover, we ask Ahmad Alhindawi to establish regular consultative meetings with the organisations participating to the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organisations. As a youth advocate and youth leader at the local, regional and international level, Ahmad knows well the situation of young people today as well as the global youth agenda and the global youth movement and the valuable contribution this can give to the achievement of the United Nations purposes and principles.

“We look forward working with Ahmad and wish him all the best for his new appointment,” says European Youth Forum President, Peter Matjašič, “he takes over at an important time for young people internationally: a time when a stronger focus on youth and youth organisations is expected from the Post-2015 development framework, in order to bring about the change our world and youth needs.”

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Notes to the editor:

The European Youth Forum works closely with the United Nations on global youth issues and to ensure the recognition of youth participation through representative, democratic and independent youth organisations within the UN system.

At global level, the European Youth Forum is member of ICMYO, the International Coordination Meeting of Youth Organisations. ICMYO gathers membership-based, democratic, representative and accountable International Youth NGOs (INGYOs) and Regional Youth Platforms (RYPs). The main objectives of ICMYO are the strengthening of the cooperation among youth organisations at the regional and global levels and the coordination of political inputs to global youth policy processes. For more information on ICMYO and a list of members, www.icmyo.wordpress.com

CV – Ahmad Alhindawi

Mr. Alhindawi – who was born in 1984 – has been Team Leader at a World Bank-funded programme to the League of Arab States on Institutional Development to Strengthen Arab Policy and Participation. Prior to this, he served as the Youth Policy Advisor in the League of Arab States in Cairo and as an officer in the Technical Secretariat of the Arab Youth and Sports Ministers Council, between 2009 and 2012. Past experience also includes serving as a Team Leader for the National Youth Policy Project in Iraq, a Youth Program Associate at the Iraq office of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and as an Emergency Program Officer at the non-governmental organization Save the Children. As a regional consultant, he has also supported the Danish Youth Council’s projects in the Middle East and North Africa. In addition, as part of his voluntary work, Mr. Alhindawi was among the co-founders of the All Jordan Youth Commission, and co-founded and headed the Youth for Democracy Network at the Jordanian Commission for Democratic Culture and co-founded the International Youth Council in New York