The Wellspring

It’s time again for the incredible application process to select Australia’s Youth Representative to the United Nations General Assembly.

At the end, after a five-month journey that requires an online expression of interest, full written application and video-ed interviews conducted by the United Nations Youth Association and assessed by UNYA and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, one young Australian aged 15 – 24 will get to spend two months in New York with the Australian Mission to the 62nd UN General Assembly (not the 61st, as indicated on the UNYA website).

UNYA and DFAT are looking for young people who are able to “articulate the concerns and opinions of young people” and work “with other youth representatives to advance the youth agenda and formulate new projects for young people around the world.” Additionally, the “successful applicant will possess a strong knowledge of the United Nations and of international affairs, as well as displaying a strong involvement in youth affairs.”

Applications close 30th November, 2006.

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

As an additional note: traditionally, UNYA have seemed to prefer young people who have worked in and with local communities over those with a strong background in policy development and reform, or with prior experience working in the UN system.

Despite playing a large role in selecting the Youth Representative, it also seems that UNYA do not take a large role in supporting the position: there is seeming little long-term development, with each Representative adopting new methods of consultation and management each year with little guidance from UNYA. This year, for example, Elise Klein’s consultations and UN activity have received little attention on UNYA’s website. Additionally, and quite shamefully, reports of previous Representatives are no longer publicly available online.

More on this soon…

Update (23 Oct): I received an email from UNYA National Webmaster Alexander Toop this afternoon informing me that the errors I pointed out earlier have now been fixed (on reflection, the comment about the 61st / 62nd session mixup was a cheap shot, anyway - it was pretty obviously an error in changing over the information from last year. I apologise.) More importantly, they now link to Elise’s blog at http://eliseklein.blogspot.com/ and provide the reports of previous youth representatives, all the way back from the beginning of the position in 1999. Huzzah!

In preparation for the 40th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Board of Governors in May 2007, the ADB is holding an essay competition for university students aged 18 - 29 in the region.

Students are invited to submit an essay of no more than 2,000 words on one of three broad topics:

1. Do economic growth and environmental conservation go together?
2. How should we develop human resources and institutions?
3. What are the priorities for industry and infrastructure?

A jury of development experts will choose 25 winning essays, whose authors will be invited to Kyoto in March 2007 to participate in the week-long Asian and Pacific Youth Forum on Sustainable Development. The winning essays will also be assembled, published, and widely disseminated in order to amplify the voices of the region’s students.

For more information, including details on participating, see http://www.adb.org/AnnualMeeting/2007/Essay-Competition/.

Submissions close 31st October, 2006.

UNSG.org is reporting that, following today’s straw poll, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has emerged as the Security Council’s nominee for the UN Secretary-General position. With 14 encouraging votes and 1 ‘no opinion’, Moon will now almost certainly succeed Kofi Annan, who retires at the end of 2006.

Each of the five other remaining candidates received at least one discouraging vote from a permanent, veto-wielding member.

A formal, confirmation vote will be taken by the Security Council on Monday, 9th October.

For more information, see http://www.unsg.org/wordpress/archives/170.

The 61st annual session of the United Nations General Assembly (UN GA) opened on Tuesday, the 19th of September. Issues on the agenda this year include violence in Darfur, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and global poverty and health. While each of the UN’s 192 member states will be allowed to make a 15-minute speech, diplomats say much of the key work will take place in the many meetings along the sides of the summit.

For more information, see the official website at http://www.un.org/ga/61/.

Peculiarly, the United Nations Youth Association of Australia, which organises the participation of a young Australian in the UN GA each year, has remained largely silent with regards to the activities undertaken by this year’s representative, Melburnian Elise Klein.

UNSG.org is calling for questions to pose to any of the seven candidates for the UN Secretary-General post at the upcoming Candidates Forum to be held in New York on the 26th of September, 2006. All submissions will be carefully reviewed, and the organisers will identify a a select number to be put to the candidates.

Questions should be brief, clear and related to the candidate’s background, qualifications, or his or her vision for the United Nations or the office of UNSG.

It would be great to see a few questions around young people’s issues and representation at the United Nations, especially given young people’s recent, strong showing at multilateral processes like the World Summit on the Information Society and UN Commission for Sustainable Development.

For more information, and to submit a question, see http://www.unsg.org/wordpress/archives/148.

UNSG.org reports that Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga has become the sixth candidate and first female to enter the race to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Jointly nominated by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Vīķe-Freiberga is not expected to pose a serious challenge to current frontrunner, South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki Moon, as she is Eastern European, whilst most nations (with the notable exception of the USA) have stated that they will only back an Asian candidate.

The decision as to Annan’s successor is expected within the month.

For more information, see http://www.unsg.org/wordpress/archives/141.

The United Nations has opened its 61st session of the General Assembly, and for the first time, there is a Muslim woman at its helm. Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain, who replaces Sweden’s Jan Eliasson as president of the body, has promised to focus on women’s issues and overall reform efforts during her tenure. She is only the third woman to lead the UN General Assembly.

For more information, see the UN News Centre article at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=19809&Cr=general&Cr1=assembly and official UN biographical information on Sheikha Haya at http://www.un.org/ga/president/61/presskit/president.shtml.

The World Bank has just launched the Moving Out of Poverty study website. Moving Out of Poverty: Understanding Democracy, Freedom and Growth from the Bottom-Up is an ongoing global study to learn retrospectively from men and women who have moved out of poverty over the last decade. A follow-up to Voices of the Poor, the study explores from the bottom-up processes that shape peoples access to economic opportunities.

The website presents the study purpose and design, offers reports on mobility from different disciplines and on the study’s international research workshops, and contains links to related sites on economic mobility and mixed method research. The study reports will be posted as they become available.

For more information, see http://www.worldbank.org/movingoutofpoverty/