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Posted: Aug. 04 2006,17:44 by David from
INTERNATIONAL - Fundacion Cultura de Paz |
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(can
be quoted, see below)
Vidar Ekehaug, MDG Coordinator, Global
Youth Action Network, New York
vidar@youthlink.org, tel:
1.212.661.6111
1. a) If funds were available, what youth
activities related to a CoP would you like to do as an
individual?
I would tell people around me what a culture of
peace means. For this, to go beyond your immediate network,
you need resources and you need information about what others have
done, a strategy and resources.
You need conference rooms,
t-shirts, brochures so that you can reach out to your community and
across to other communities in other countries.
You need to
be able to link up with others in order to apply for larger-scale
projects.
Funding is always a limitation when you try to do
something.
b) What non-financial support do you need to do
these activities?
Having a fund for youth and culture of
peace can give access to knowledge, to the best practices of others,
to stories and exchanges of experience which give you inspiration
and ideas on what YOU can do.
A fund should also help provide
training in project management, how to get things done, tool kits
and other resources for implementation so that ideas are turned into
practice.
c) If funds were available, what youth activities
related to a CoP would your organization like to do?
We could
get our member organizations involved at the national level in
campaigns to raise awareness of the culture of peace.
We
would offer mini-grants to organizations so they can organize
workshops, media-campaigns, capacity-building for youth to take
action at a local level.
GYAN would develop a global plan
that would integrate national and regional actions, using it as a
lever to get media coverage.
We would facilitate the
exchange of experiences across continents, from Brazil to Nigeria,
etc., a global connected network.
Resources are needed for
youth organizations to work on this scale.
d) What
non-financial support does your organization need for CoP
activities?
The support of the United Nations, by itself,
would be motivational. Too often youth organizations are not
taken seriously, and this would give us credibility.
2. a)
What changes in youth policies do you think the
government/leadership in your country should make to promote a
CoP?
I will speak first about Norway where I am from.
The government should focus more resources on young people,
with a conceptual view of development from the perspective of a
culture of peace. They should help to empower young people and
develop youth leadership, as education and empowerment are the best
safeguards against youth being recruited into violent
conflict.
Youth organizations should receive resources, and
youth should be partners with governments. Governments need to
think in the long-term; youth are tomorrow's leaders. If we
understand and invest in a culture of peace today, the country will
reap the benefits 20 or 30 years from now.
In general,
governments could help youth overcome the visa restrictions that
keep so many youth from being able to travel. Visa-free zones
should be developed like what exists now in Europe. The
European Union has completely changed and empowered European youth
to travel and study in other countries. I would say that the
freedom of travel of European youth has contributed greatly to
tolerance and mutual understanding. Can you imagine how
similar developments could help in Africa? Right now it is
easier for our African interns to go to Europe than to go to other
African countries!
b) What CoP youth activities/initiatives
do you think the UN should do?
With the conflict in Lebanon
we are frustrated by the impotence of the United Nations and its
Member States. I'd like to see a UN that can protect people
from war and war crimes.
The UN should provide information to
young people, because today young people don't know how the United
Nations work, and what declarations and treaties their governments
have committed to and can be held accountable for. They don't know
enough about the culture of peace. It is in the UN’s long-term
interest to educate young people about its work.
OPTIONAL
QUESTIONS
3. Do you have any
suggestions or recommendations for improving youth participation in
CoP activities on any levels (UN, government, civil
society)?
Any process in the UN, or in national and local
governments should involve young people. Over the long-term,
in 20-30 years this will bear fruit. Young people today
constitute a critical mass that is vital to involve in order to
succeed in building a CoP, and they will have ownership if they are
included in the decision-making process and have an interest to
ensure implementation.
4. What
could be done to improve/ensure transparency and flow of information
in promoting the CoP?
Transparency is an essential aspect of
the culture of peace and needs to be in all youth activities.
Lack of transparency causes conflicts. We need to set a
good example of transparency for others.
5.
To ensure the best possible benefit of a UN Voluntary
Fund for youth and CoP, how should it be
managed/administered?
It is necessary that young people are
included in the decision-making about who gets money. There
should be a steering committee or council that meets annually or
semi-annually to read applications and make decisions. At
least a third of them should be representatives from youth
organizations and youth constituencies and it must have regional
balance.
A secretariat could do the daily work of
administering and handling the applications, but who is accepted for
support should be left to the steering committee with adequate youth
representation.
Divide the responsibilities into a
secretariat ("bookkeeping responsibilities") and a non-bureaucratic,
non-permanent committee or council with decision-making powers and
youth representation.
It is important that the
decision-making body is composed of people who are themselves
involved in culture of peace activities so that they understand what
is involved. For this reason they cannot be a permanent
bureaucracy, but only convene once or twice a year to do the
applications and then return to their work in the field. What
I would not like to see is that decisions were taken by people who
are far from the field of practice.
6.
How can youth not yet involved in CoP activities be reached
and motivated?
Design programs and activities that engage
youth, so that they learn by doing. Make available to them
activities that they can take part in and tool kits to help them
start new activities.
Mostly, it's a question of
"getting the word out" about what is a culture of peace and why it
is relevant to daily life.
7. a)
Which other organizations do you know of, that work for a CoP?
b) Would you be willing to contact them or may we contact them
with the questionnaire? Please specify.
[here we looked over
the message being sent out to Taking It Global]
8.
My response to this questionnaire is my
personal opinion.
Interview made August 1, then corrected by
email August 4
*****************************
From:
Vidar Ekehaug vidar@youthlink.org
To: mail@decade-culture-of-peace.org
Date: Friday, August 4, 2006 4:05:59 PM
Subject: RE: Notes
from interview
Hey David,
I made a few changes (in
bold), but other than that I think it is good. And it’s perfectly OK
to quote if it is indicated it is my personal opinion. |
