United Nations Global Youth Leadership Summit

United Nations Global Youth Leadership Summit (GYLS), organized by the United Nations Office of Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP) took place in October 2006. The Summit sought to encourage and engage young leaders from all the five regions of the world to explore how they could better the future of their communities, regions, and the emerging global society through achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). One young man and one young woman between the ages of 18 and 30 from each of the 192 Member States of the United Nations met in New York to share both ideas and plans on ways to overcome poverty and create positive change.

This October they met altogether in New York for the First ever Global Youth Leadership Summit, to talk about how best young people can help their government implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

So on the 28th October, together with Alan Hayes, we set of across the big blue sea to New York, to participate in this wonderful event.

We spent a lot of time listening to organisations connected to the UN talking about how much they are doing to help with the implementation of the MDGs. Rather than listening to and discussing with other young people, their experiences and how we can play our part in this vital process. I guess, I expected to hear more real life stories, and really get into how we as young people can help. However this was an incredibly experience one that I would not have missed. It is not often that you get the chance to sit in the general assembly hall in the UN headquarters. I met amazing people from all corners of the world, who where keen to share their stories and experience.

Together we all realised how important it is that we start working together as a united world rather than separate entities if these goals are going to be reach by their set date. Moreover, this gave me the enthusiasm to start working even harder to promote the importance behind the MDGs.