First-ever world summit of youth leaders planned at UN headquarters this fall

In an effort to mobilize young people to work toward international development goals, delegates from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean have agreed on plans for an unprecedented world summit of youth leaders at United Nations Headquarters in New York in October.

“You need roots in the reality of the tremendous challenges that our world faces and wings to seek imaginative solutions to those challenges,” UN General Assembly President Jan Eliasson told the youth delegates as they assembled last week to plan their support for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the internationally agreed-upon set of targets to reduce poverty and other ills by 2015.

“You also need passion to mobilize your generation in support of the MDGs and the search for peace and compassion for those suffering from poverty and injustice,” he added, volunteering to facilitate an inter-generational dialogue between global leaders and youth at the Summit.

Two representatives aged 18 to 30, one man and one woman, from each of the 191 Member States of the UN will be nominated to attend the summit by their UN country offices, according to the UN New York Office of Sport for Development and Peace, which organized the planning meeting along with the Global Peace Initiative of Women, a New York-based non-governmental organization (NGO).

Leaders attending the summit, which follows a series of regional summits, are expected to use the themes of sport, culture and peace as entry points to reach out to youth worldwide about the goals, the Sport and Development Office said.

According to that Office, the Summit has received a strong pledge of support from private sector sponsors, including Mohan Lal Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Ispat Group of Companies of India, John Gage, Vice President and Chief Researcher of Sun Microsystems and Hiroshi Matsumoto, President of Inner Trip Reiyukai International, a Japanese foundation.

The three sponsors have agreed to form a Council of Mentors that will bring together prominent international leaders to advise the youth leaders on Summit preparations and implementation of activities decided on at the event.