I was able to make an intervention about the Global Youth Coalition on AIDS (GYCA) after a video screening at the World Youth Congress (WYC), which was held this August in Scotland. I stood up after a video was shown and made an announcement, I asked who in the room was a member of GYCA-- two people raised their hands.

The WYC was hosted by the Scottish Executive Government and the NGO Peace Child International. The Scottish Executive went all out - there were huge video screens, nightly entertainment, two free t-shirts and one free sweatshirt for every participant. There were about 600 participants, about 100 from the United Kingdom, as well as many local staff facilitators from the UK. The event focused on the “action projects,” where young people were sent out into Scotland to do a variety of community service projects, ranging from painting murals to exchange with youth NGOs in India, to packaging computers for schools in Africa, to local environmental clean up.

Besides the "youth action" projects in the community, the WYC had two outcomes, a team creating a "Tool kit" for youth action, and a drafting team struggling over language to put in an outcome document. Because the "outcome document" of the last World Youth Congress in Morocco became so politicized when each country was allowed one vote, this time there was no selection process for the drafting of the document, and nor real process to ratify the document on the final day. While voting can be divisive and counter-productive, ensuring that the drafting process is representative is very important, and should be planned and facilitated with care. Because there was never any direction to the youth delegates about how the drafting would be done, the most of the youth initially involved in drafting were from European and developed country perspectives. If the WYC is not an opportunity for the youth of the world to work together, at least in one small group, then what is it for?

In regards to the third outcome, the Tool Kit, it honestly seemed strange that Peace Child was creating a new tool kit while a hot of the presses tool kit on youth and the Millennium Development Goals had been expressly shipped to the Scottish campus from Global Youth Action Network, Taking IT Global and the Millennium Campaign. The Congress would have been a great time to have small groups of youth plan how they would use the Tool Kit they were already able to hold in their hands.

It would have been great to have a meeting on just the Global Youth Coalition on AIDS at the World Youth Congress – there were a lot of excellent young people in attendance, but it seemed the focus of the conference was to keep us entertained, not get us to work together. I don’t like to be negative – I made some friends, got some new contacts, saw the Scottish country side and officially aged out when I turned 25 on the closing day. But I can’t help but think about the resources that were put into that conference ($4 million USD!), while I know so many young people that struggle for the tiniest amount of funding and recognition.

See my article about WYC 2003
http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/16937/