The Wellspring

The United Nations Youth Association is calling for applications for the position of 2010 Australian Youth Representative to the UN General Assembly.

They remark: ‘Each year since 1999 the United Nations Youth Association and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has (sic) chosen one young Australian to be the Youth Representative in Australia’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.’ (Though this isn’t strictly true, as in 2008 there were two representatives.)

The Australian Youth Representative is responsible for representing the views and interests of Australian young people to the United Nations. They are tasked with consulting with young Australians before traveling to New York during the General Assembly’s session to work with the Australian Mission and other nations’ youth representatives to advance youth issues at the UN.

Expressions of interest (the first step in a three-phase process with long-form applications and interviews to follow) are being solicited from young Australians aged 15-24 with ‘a strong knowledge of the United Nations and of international affairs, as well as displaying a strong involvement in youth affairs’.

For further information and to apply online, see http://www.unya.org.au/youthrep/.

Expressions of interest close 2 November, 2009.

As an additional note: it seems that many of the problems noted three years ago persist. Despite having the responsibility of determining the successful applicant, UNYA provide scant support in terms of developing or overseeing multi-year fundraising, consulting, media or other strategic planning, instead leaving it up to each Representative to develop their own each year. (For example, UNYA notes: ‘It must be noted that although assistance is offered by UNYA, the prerogative will be firmly placed upon the Youth Representative to be able to meet the financial demands of the position.’) You’d think that after 11 years of managing the role UNYA would have built some institutional support for it.

In fact, despite listing those that have held the position since its inception, UNYA have not even provided links to their final reports (effectively preventing others from suggesting ways that institutional support could be built.) Perhaps that’s because, way back in 2001, Kirsten Hagon recommended that responsibility for selecting the Representative be taken from UNYA and given to an organisation who might be better placed to offer broader support and oversight: the national youth affairs peak. And as we know, we once again have one of them.

Update (18 Sep 2009): I’ve had some inquiries from UNYA members, and I think it would be worthwhile clarifying my comments: Obviously, I think there is real value in having a youth representative position, which provides not only the opportunity for young Australians to have their concerns and aspirations voiced at the UN, but also a unique and extraordinary personal experience for the representative. Naturally, UNYA deserves credit for establishing the position and working with DFAT to ensure its continuation.

But such an exceptional opportunity should be utilised to its fullest. Over 11 years of management, one could reasonably expect that UNYA would at least be able to offer administrative and institutional support and planning. I’ve been asked to provide specific ideas, so here are a few:

• A yearly project plan detailing the scope of responsibilities, project phases (including consultation, time in New York, reporting and evaluation, and handover), key performance indicators, activities and deliverables, and a multi-year developmental plan for the position.
• A Memorandum of Understanding with DFAT and DEEWR outlining a multi-year commitment to providing certain administrative support both domestically and in New York, in order to facilitate longer-term planning and development of the position.
• A stakeholder engagement plan outlining key relationships with state and national youth affairs peaks, national and international youth organisations, and UN youth agencies, as well as those organisations responsible for managing the youth representative position in other nations.
• Established relationships with a number of key youth organisations that could provide timely advice and research on issues arising from work in the UN General Assembly’s 3rd Committee.
• A fundraising plan, with multi-year fundraising agreements already in place, which would allow the representative to dedicate their time to the more important task of consulting with young Australians and developing plans for their time in New York.
• A database of funding organisations and successful fundraising applications that could be used as a basis for further applications.
• A media and communications plan, outlining common key messages, strategies and deliverables, a database of key media outlets, and a system for developing and disseminating media releases.
• A pro-forma website / blog and social media strategy which would allow the youth representative to communicate directly with young Australians, and relieve the representative from having to develop these individually each year.
• A library of reference material consisting of previous reports from youth representatives, key UN youth declarations and documents, and guides to help the representative understand the UN system and its complex decision-making process.

The idea is that, whilst each representative should be able to bring their own personal plans and ideas to the table, the basic infrastructure of the position and its multi-year development should be established and ready to go. At 11 years, the position should be organisationally mature – instead it’s still grappling each year with pretty basic challenges. Whilst some of these mechanisms are in place, conversations with previous youth representatives confirm that support of this nature has been variable and mostly disappointing.

In short: the position, its utility to young Australians, and UNYA’s involvement in maintaining its existence is to be commended. But UNYA should also be open to people – especially young Australians who the position is supposed to represent – casting a critical eye over its management, given that it has maintained responsibility for it, unchallenged, for over a decade.

Update (23 Sep 2009): Naturally, as always, these opinions are my own. As far as I know, the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition has not had any discussions around the youth representative position, and has never expressed a desire to participate in the selection and management of the position.