Basseterre, St. Kitts (January 28, 2005): The Small Islands Voice (SIV) essay winners Fadil Imo and Kenn-edy Pemberton recently returned to the Federation after representing the youth at the Sustainable Development meeting in Mauritius from January 10 to 14, 2005.
Imo said that the Caribbean in general was quite prepared for the meeting. He explained that the youth from the Caribbean were the only regions representatives who attended a preparatory meeting. As a result of that, the youth from the various islands already know the main issues of their neighbours and so were in a sense more prepared.
Pemberton said that some of the issues mentioned by the Caribbean region included youth employment and safeguarding the environment which included monitoring beaches, parks and solid waste management. He added that particular issues would have more relevance to specific islands.
For instance, in the British Virgin Islands youth employment was not an issue but in St. Vincent and the Grenadines it was, since an increasing number of youth are unemployed and as a result carry out illegal activities. He explained that although the Caribbean preparatory meeting brought out a diverse mix of views it had enabled participants to share solutions.
The youth ambassadors noted that despite the full day plenary sessions they were able to tour Mauritius and were rather impressed with a cyber tower which showcased the latest technology.
Imo said that for him the highlight of the Mauritius experience was being on the declaration and press conference teams. He said that as a participant of the declaration team, he was able to contribute to the drafting as well as travel to Melrouge to the Grand Meeting Hall and read the declaration before the general assembly. As a member of the press conference team Imo said that he was able to interact with the global leaders, ask challenging questions and air his opinion.
Pemberton said that he was in no way intimidated by the magnitude of the meeting. He said rather, he was excited about the experience and happy for the opportunity to represent his country.
He beamed that one highlight for him occurred when the youth were allowed to speak with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan who answered questions. Pemberton expressed that in his mind, this demonstrated the commitment of the United Nations to the youth and the importance of their contribution to development.
Imo and Pemberton said that they are now in the process of developing a resource base which will pool expertise from the Ministries of Youth, Environment and Education as well as the National Youth Council, UNESCO and SIV. Pertaining to their connection to SIV, Imo said that the UNESCO sponsored initiative is the major resource entity for activities to be undertaken by himself, Kennedy and their committee. He added that because the trip and follow-up activities took place under the auspices of SIV they are accountable to the initiative and so communicate frequently with Secretary General of the UNESCO National Commission Mr. Antonio Maynard.
As such, SIV, Imo and Pemberton working together with their implementation committee and its resource base will undertake programmes and projects pertaining to youth entrepreneurship and employment among other issues affecting youth.
