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STORY: SOMALIA / PEACEBUILDING AND YOUTH
TRT: 2:31
SOURCE: UNSOM
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 13 SEPTEMBER 2019, MOGADISHU, SOMALIA
1. Wide shot, meeting
2. Med shot, youth talking
3. Med shot, Swan, Fernandez-Taranco and Ahmed, Chairman of the Youth advisory board listening
4. Wide shot, meeting
5. Med shot, Swan and Fernandez-Taranco, Ahmed taking notes
6. Close up, young woman speaking
7. Close up, Swan taking notes
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support:
“Not many missions have this type of organized engagement and the fact that you have been selected to represent the wider constituency, reflects very much the spirit of how the United Nations, the SRSG and his team together with the agencies, funds and programs can be benefiting from your wisdom, from your engagement from your opinions about what it is that the UN is doing and could be doing much better.”
9. Med shot, youth listening
10. Med shot, Swan speaking
11. SOUNDBITE (English) James Swan, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia
“Clearly Somalia is a young country with a significant part of the population that is youthful and it is important that you be engaged; that we hear from you and hope that through you, we can have a better understanding of what the youth throughout the country are thinking and what they believe we should understand, as we are engaging Somalia officials and trying to make decisions that could affect the future of the country.”
12. Various shots, Swan with youth
13. SOUNDBITE (English) James Swan, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Somalia:
“We also see the Youth Advisory Board as underscoring that the youth are really an important partner for the United Nations and we want to be sure that our thinking and our programming and our decisions , are informed by consulting you and hearing your input.”
14. Wide shot, youths at the discussion
15. Med shot, Swan interacting with Mohamed
16. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Shaima Sallal Mohamed from Somaliland:
“I am really happy to be part of YAB (Youth Advisory Board), the first YAB that has been selected to work for the youth of Somalia and I am really proud to represent my colleagues and other youth in Somalia and be a voice for them,”
17. Wide shot, Swan interacting with youths
Somali youth representatives were recently told of the importance that the United Nations attaches to young people’s role in national peacebuilding initiatives, and how political inclusion can enhance this.
The members of the United Nations Somalia - Youth Advisory Board were hearing from one of the world body’s senior officials, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, who was in the Horn of Africa country to see first-hand the linkage between humanitarian, peacebuilding and development efforts.
“The fact that you have been selected to represent the wider constituency, reflects very much the spirit of how the United Nations, the Secretary-General’s envoy to Somalia and his team can benefit from your wisdom, your engagement and your opinions about what the UN is doing and could do much better,” Fernandez-Taranco said at their meeting.
The UN official added that in a country like Somalia – where approximately 80 percent of the population are young, where youth unemployment is high, and where drought and conflict have fuelled displacement and rapid urbanization – they had a unique opportunity to shape the delivery of youth programmes.
The Youth Advisory Board was recently established following an open nomination process. It is made up of 18 young people, nine women and nine men from across the country, and was created to advise the UN system on youth issues in Somalia. The Board aims to strengthen the UN’s engagement with young Somalis and their involvement in political processes and peacebuilding initiatives as part of the world body’s Youth, Peace and Security Agenda. The Agenda is tied to the UN Security Council’s Resolution 2250, which was adopted in 2015 and emphasizes the importance of youth as agents of change in the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.
Also present at the meeting was the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, James Swan.
In his remarks, Fernandez-Taranco told the board members that the UN was interested in “benefitting from the knowledge that you have from your communities and the regions that you are coming from, your experience as professionals or as community organizers.”
During their meeting, the youths raised a wide range of views and recommendations related to policy and programming in education, women’s empowerment, people with disabilities and peacebuilding, among others.
Board member Shaima Sallal Mohamed, founder of Golden Girls Sports Centre, an organization that fights against gender-based violence and promotes the education of young women and girls through sports activities, said that being a member of the Youth Advisory Board allowed her to be a voice for other young people in Somalia.
The need to have a quota for youth representation in Parliament as a way of including young people in the country’s decision-making processes was also one of the key points discussed.
For his part, Swan told the participants that it was important that UN thinking, programming and decisions are informed by consulting with youth and hearing their thoughts.
“We hope that through the Youth Advisory Board we can have a better understanding of what the youth throughout the country are thinking and what they believe we should understand,” he said.
