At A Glance: ASEAN Youth Initiative 2013

ASEAN Youth Initiative with Secretary John Kerry

The two-day ASEAN Youth pre-Summit was held at Jerudong International School in Brunei, in the form of youth leadership initiative workshop. This workshop was intended to create initial framework for the greater ASEAN Youth Summit held on December 2013 in Manila, The Philippines.

There were 25 youth delegates from South-East Asian countries and the organizer (AyalaFoundation) of the program, discussing some issues as well as opportunities for the sustainable youth engagement following the summit. There were two main objectives from this workshop: the establishment of youth initiative as the core team and the issues to be advocated for further discussion during the summit in Manila.

The workshop was started by team-building activities as well as sharing ideas about the characteristics of the youth in each country. From this, we could set and determine the level of knowledge of the ASEAN youth in relation to youth empowerment through community engagements.

The next agenda was to determine the advocacies in relation to the (urgent) issues in South-East Asian region. Various issues were proposed; then, we classified the issues into five major headings:

1. Education: education for remote area, education about disaster prevention, and strengthening the education system through public policy advocacies, and youth leadership empowerment;
2. Environment: eco-friendly policy/lives as well as sustainability program advocacies;
3. Social issues: human trafficking, women empowerment and gender equality, religious tolerance, and freedom of speech (youth and social media);
4. Economic: economic development, health (and living cost), and discussion especially youth employment; and
5. Cultural preservation, creating understanding toward the cultural diversity and difference within the globalization.

I see the issues are very prospective for Indonesian delegates for the summit in December such as social issues in religious tolerance, cultural preservation (e.g. PlayPlus), sustainability program, and education about disaster. The method in selecting the delegates will be discussed later, especially within the alumni coordinators of each country.

Besides that, we also had great surprise visits by US Ambassador for ASEAN David L. Carden and US Secretary of State John Kerry. During the conversation with the two prominent figures, we could share our ideas and experiences in youth engagement. Ambassador Carden emphasized on inviting more youths into more serious and honest discussion for betterment, while Secretary Kerry talked about consistency in making different efforts in the heart of common people. I had an opportunity to deliver a question in relation to the US Government’s commitment dealing with sustainability program, especially in relation to tropical forest and global warming.

As the follow-up of this workshop, the twenty-five delegates and the event’s organizer keep discussing on the proper facilitation and other aspects for the summit in December. We really hope, during the summit, the youth delegates will be able to share their experience and perspectives in youth engagement they have involved as well as sustainable projects in regional scale. Can’t wait to see and share with other delegates in Manila!

“Your voice, Youth Voice!”

Bandar Seri Begawan, October 10^th, 2013