Day 4 in the 7th UNESCO Youth Forum in Paris:A happy ending!

Welcome to the 4th and last day of the 7th Youth Forum live from UNESCO headquarter in Paris.

IFMSA  was missing one powerful member: Our LO to SCORP Nassima as she had to leave the previous day  but the delegation was still as effective as before.

In the morning session, every region had a meeting to discuss the final report written by the drafting committee. After 2 hours of suggestions and amendments, the delegates gathered all together to agree on the final draft.

As I said before” EFFECTIVENESS ” but also “SATISFACTION” were the key words of the day.

I was extremely happy to see that my recommendation for the National Commissions to advertise the participation program in their countries and prioritize youth initiatives was adopted in the report.

We even succeeded to include the recommendations about sexual education and HIV/AIDS to which Joško, our SCORA-D contributed  during the ‘cafe discussion’ on HIV-related issues and AIDS activism. For instance, IFMSA was part of the interview and the article published in UNAIDS website http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2011/october/20111021unescoyouthforum/

In the afternoon ,me and Josko had a meeting with the HIV/AIDS UNESCO section that were very helpful and open to our questions and suggestions. We discussed new opportunities that lie ahead such as externals for the Regional Meetings and General Assemblies, collaboration on sexuality education programmes, creating a publication of good practices on sexuality education programmes driven and led by youth organizations (hint – SCORA and IFMSA!). They were very interested in that idea that definitely must be followed upon!

Later, I met the people from the Climate Change section and gathered UNESCO interesting publications about both topics.I also tried to get UNESCO send us some hard copies for our next meetings.

Last night and of course last adventures of the forum: Lamia loosing her hat and gloves that she finds back  while waiting for the metro in the possession of a youth delegate from Uganda. Joško experiencing the Magheb culture in a nice Algerian restaurant with Tunisian and Algerian delegates. And last but not least Josko forgetting the IFMSA posters twice in the way to our way back home.  This time we did take the right metro direction

Dear IFMSA friends, this is the end of the IFMSA participation to the 7th UNESCO Youth Forum. Being both an IFMSA observer and a Tunisian young delegate was a rewarding learning experience: Exchanging of leadership experiences, identifying youth problems and advocating for change, contributing to the recommendations, observing the intercultural interaction…

The youth forum is organized every 2 years and the delegates are selected by the National Commissions. Therefore,I’d invite all of you to be in contact with your national commissions so that you may get the chance to be part of the next big adventure.

And as s LO to UNESCO,I would like to emphisize on the importance of UNESCO as one of the main partner of our Federation.I encourage all of you to seek for more information about what this UN agency is doing and how you can benefit from it.

Hope you were pleased to read this report and thank you very much for you trust. Also big thank you to my fellow IFMSA delegates Joško Miše (SCORA Director) and Nassima Dzair (SCORP LO) in being part of this amazing adventure and for giving input for the blog.

Your devoted LO to UNESCO Lamia Jouini.

Day 3 of the 7th Youth Forum in Paris:That’s just the begining!!!

Proceeding with the tremendous Youth Forum in Paris !!!

Today, our small but very efficient delegation was more and more active.

From IFMSA observer,I moved to the double status of IFMSA observer/Tunisian delegate.Now I feel unique and powerful:)

To become so,I met with the UNESCO ambassador of UNESCO here in an other UNESCO building for member states representatives.He was very happy and enthusiastic to meet me and assign me as Tunisian delegate and very proud when I told him about my position in IFMSA and what we are doing.He was very eager to help and put me in contact with the UNESCO chiefs of sectors and invited me to visit him again after the Youth Forum.

And here I found my self sitting with another Tunisian, Lebanese and Iraquian delegates making the final draft of the recommendations of the Arabic countries (Just forgot to mention that the night before we had a meeting with all the Arabic delegates to discuss our recommendations to this draft and that I was using my IFMSA skills as facilitator to moderate discussion:).

So I explain you what I meant by POWERFUL. As Tunisian delegate I could provide my inputs to the Arabic countries draft which will be taken in consideration in the final draft and I advocated for NGOs to be more heard and have our own session during the next forums with our own recommendations.Yes I’m kind of a double agent :p

So let’s hope this will work somehow!!!

After a meeting with the President of IPSF (International Pharmaceutical Students Associations) where she clearly expressed her wish to renew our Memorandum Of Understanding that expired last August, I spent some part of the afternoon with an another Tunisian UNESCO assistant working in the Youth section trying to understand how UNESCO works and how it’s structured.

   They call it ‘the big house’ here!!!

The last but not least part of the afternoon, Joško and me participated in the HIV/AIDS parallel session organized by UNAIDS and UNESCO about youth involvement in HIV/AIDS issues.

Our SCORA-D was one of the main contributor to the session and he promoted everything what IFMSA is doing in this field. He even lead the small working group that drafted the recommendations from the sessions and he presented them to the drafting commitee of the Youth Forum who decided to take into account five out of seven recommendations made!

Our LO to SCORP attended again the ongoing “conflict resolutions “workshop with Forest Whitakers and she introduced him IFMSA.He was definitely interested and impressed!

I’m so proud of the IFMSA delegation!

“Pour le rapport:
Today was the second day of the Conflict resolution workshop of Forest Whitaker and his team: Rashjree Patel and Aldo Civico.
It was on two parts that took the whole day, and it was very intensive.
Intensive in amount of information, intensive in quality, intensive in the rising of awareness it brought.
I think I experienced a paradigm shift today.
We touched upon everything from Leadership, Perception, Communication, Conflict Management, Problem-Solving to Awareness, Power of the mind, and breathing&meditation.
This has brought me a new model of a workshop that could be brought to the IFMSA.
I have been talking to Rashjree, Aldo and Forest, and will stay in touch with them to see how they could help implement this in SCORP, or in IFMSA in general.This workshop was so so inspiring and empowering, and the paradigm shift lies in this. You start perceiving things differently and you are aware of how much your personal leadership when founded on the right values can bring to the collective leadership.

This has truly been a defining experience that brings even more positivity and inspiration into IFMSA work” NASSIMA sharing her experience.

We are really lucky to be here and meet such an inspiring people,people that are changing the world, young leaders that are striving for a better future, activists that are fighting every single day to promote a culture of peace and equality…and I can see in this heroes all of you: IFMSA members and medical students all over the world.

In the end of the day, Joško and me again sitting in the metro talking about the meeting we are having tomorrow with a HIV/AIDS sector in UNESCO when suddenly Joško asks: Are you thinking what I am thinking? – Yes, we realized that we again took the wrong metro direction…”Jamais 2 sans 3 “as we say in French!! Hopefully , Josko’s computer is for sure in his bag this time!!!

Hope you are enjoying sharing this exciting adventure with us!

Keep checking out our blog!!

We’ll tell you absolutely everyhting you need to know!!

Your faithful but sleepy report from Paris

 Lamia,the UNESCO girl

day 2 in the 7th Youth Forum in Paris:Here we go!!!

Live from Paris, here is the update of our 2nd day in the Youth Forum ‘How youth can drive change’.

Before reporting what happened yesterday, our LO to SCORP Nassima wants to share with you her personal experience and feeling from  the first day:

“First day of youth Forum..

I arrive to the UNESCO venue in the fresh morning breeze.. only to enter the venue and find a warm buzz of young delegates from all the world.

I already feel my heart being warmed by this international atmosphere where I feel so much at home.

We start the day by a welcome from the UNESCO DG- Irina Bokova, and then… what was about to give me an even bigger heartwarming feeling and some extra excitement..: A workshop on conflict resolution and reconciliation by Forest Whitaker and his team. Did you read that? Forest Whitaker!!!

I am such a fan of him.. No, not because he is famous…but because he is a brilliant actor that chooses his roles really well.. Ever seen: Ghost dog? Last king of Scotland? (Winner of an oscar and a golden globe!) The great debaters???

Then you absolutely should!!!

And not only this, he is socially committed and is now the good-will ambassador of the UNESCO and organizing workshops for UNESCO.

The workshop on conflict resolution and reconciliation had an uplifting effect and really good content. It was co-facilitated by an amazing woman: Rajshree Patel.

This workshop will go on the upcoming days, and I can not wait to get back to that energy and learn as much as possible.

I am taking notes and trying to engrave everything in my memory in order to be able to reproduce a workshop in this spirit for SCORP.

Later that day we had a training on leadership. I think it most be the best I have ever been to.

We concentrated on personal leadership that leeds to collective leadership, and we even found out what kind of leader profile we had.

After the training, both Joško and I approached the trainer for ressources and contact. We know have that

We are all working our networking magic

I am collecting cards, hehe

We also had a session on social media, and a session on youth agents of change.

We ended the day with Peace child: a live interactive musical that was really good. It was surprisingly critical of the system, and I guess it was surprising because it was being  presented in the headquarters of the UNESCO. I guess that is the power of culture, and since UNESCO represents that, the youth is speaking their minds. It was truthful messages of hope and a source of inspiration for all the international delegates before the beginning of their work on the draft that will be presented at the end of this forum, and that will be taken into consideration by the UNESCO General Conference.

Our little trio delegation enjoyed the day and each others company!

These were the highlights of day1 ..

So what about today?

After a short night discussing with Joško about the past collaboration between UNESCO and IFMSA regarding HIV/AIDS and debriefing of the day,we went again full of excitement and willingness to the UNESCO headquarter in Rue de Suffren near the Tour Eiffel.

The key word of the day was NETWORKING, NETWORKING and NETWORKING!!! During the expo time we met a lot of other NGOs working on common fields of action.The president of IPSF (International Pharmaceutical Students’ Associations) even told us that she came to the forum with the main aim of meeting IFMSA.

So many ambitions and ideas flowing in the air. Young delegates are getting more and more excited about sharing theire problems and discussing solutions. Regions are transmitting resolutions and supporting other’s recommendations in order to have a common draft. Imagine the United Nations Assembly but from a young perspective with new fresh minds full of hopes for a better future.

Our well organized IFMSA delegation, trying to benefit from the forum as much as possible, was split between the intensive Conflict  Resolution workshop that Nassima attended in the perspective of bringing it to our Human Rights trainings, meetings with organizations working on reproductive health and HIV/AIDS and attending the plenaries to be in the loop of what’s going on.

“Sharing the booth with UNAIDS and UNFPA was very helpful as it gave me the possibility to talk a lot (when I say a lot, it means almost all day) with the representatives from both organizations. They updated me with the UNAIDS plans in the upcoming year which encouraged me a lot because we all realized that IFMSA can engaged a lot and enhance the collaboration between IFMSA and UNAIDS.

UNAIDS is in the crossroad, seeking the new strategy and they want to involve youth as much as possible in shaping that strategy expecting that the strategy will make UNAIDS more youth-friendly. They are crowd-sourcing youth in order to get as much as input as possible from young people. One of the ways how they plan to do it is by holding online moderated discussions in all the regions with young people on how they see UNAIDS should work with youth and what can be improved to be more youth inclusive. One of the online discussion moderators will be our former SCORA Director, Imene Ben Ameur!

UNAIDS representatives asked us, as IFMSA, to join the online discussions, to give our input and to make sure our voice and position and ideas are heard! That is why, I want to encourage all of you to engage in the discussions! The online moderated discussions will start next week, and we in IFMSA will promote the discussions via our social media tools.

We need to make sure that young people working on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health rights can reach UNAIDS and that youth can be more involved in decision-making.

One very interesting lady I met, is Anne Domatob, from UNFPA African region, who was very delighted to hear about IFMSA and our activities. She was reading our SCORA Magazine from page to page! We agreed on collaboration on the upcoming MM in Ghana and with projects on maternal health in Africa.Joško“

I was disappointed to see that there were no Tunisian delegates in the Youth Forum to face the Tunisian Young voices in the UNESCO recommendations and express the last revolutionary changes we lived the last months.

NETWORKING again in the evening reception  hosted by Mr Nizan Guanaes,UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and president of Grupo ABC.We had the chance to  take a picture with Irina Bokova the Director General of UNESCO. “She was so happy and patient spontaneously meeting with all the youth from different parts of the world. Taking pictures, listening their thoughts and ideas. I couldn’t help but asking myself how come other UN bodies aren’t so opened to youth and including young people in decision making processes as UNESCO is? And that is what I asked the DG Ms Bokova. She answered that it is a good question and that she never thought about that but that we should advocate for that right here, right now putting that recommendation in the final youth report that is to be adopted in the UNESCO General Conference 2 weeks from now! I answered: That’s what we’ll do! Joško“

So,here we are, by the end of the day -23pm-, me and Josko wandering in Paris underground, getting lost in the wrong direction as deep involved as we were in IFMSA related passionate discussions and that’s not the end…Yes Joško realized that he forgot his computer in the plenary room Can you imagine how excited he was about UNESCO when he forgot the computer?

Thank you for following us and wait for more interesting updates of the next day!!!

By your devoted reporter Lamia