Evolving the Handshake: Global Youth as Citizen Diplomats

8/20/13 10:17 AM

EVOLVING THE HANDSHAKE: GLOBAL YOUTH AS CITIZEN DIPLOMATS

Jul 08, 2013 Written by Morgan McClain-McKinney

Forty-three percent of the worlds population is currently under 25and the number of young people is rising fastest in the developing world. Todays youth are more connected and tuned in to the world than any generation before. Youth see the challenges before them in fresh ways and are responding with enthusiasm and imagination, and have maximized cultural exchange, social media, video, and journalistic platforms for outreach and advocacy. Citizen diplomacy provides a unique opportunity for young people who often feel marginalized by decision-makers, allowing them to have a voice and forge lasting relationships with a diverse community of civic actors. Critics argue that citizen diplomats support a very narrow issue area, and have a difficult time articulating a broader catalogue of strategic foreign policy priorities. This has created tension and debate within the diplomatic community about the role of citizens in the space. But young people especially tend to be much more in tune with a broader landscape, and connect with the world in different ways. Especially in relations between developed and developing countries, the focus for young citizen diplomats has shifted from a primarily humanitarian mandate to include doing business, e-commerce, skills transfer, and sharing of solutions in sectors including health and agriculture. This concept resonates with an engagement I had with young leaders in Washington DC. In 2010, I had the opportunity to support a Model United Nations event at the Department of State. The delegates, ranging from elementary to high school levels, were all very dynamic as they clamored about the Harry S. Truman Building. After spending the day watching them take votes, draft resolutions, and play the role of a member country, I was truly impressed at the level of engagement.

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Evolving the Handshake: Global Youth as Citizen Diplomats

8/20/13 10:17 AM

Following the sessions, I raised with a few of them the opportunity to apply for the UNESCO Youth Forum, held just before the annual meetings each year. This event, scheduled to take place next in Paris in October 2013, allows young people to voice their ideas and concerns and feed directly into the proceedings of the UNESCO General Conference. Many of the students were shocked at the existence of such of forum, expressly stating that, Adults just want them to pretend to take decisions, not actually make them. We discussed the need for a landscape change, to better align with global youth for the future; the first suggestion was to connect via Facebook and Twitter for follow-up on actions. That instance illuminated the sheer power of citizen diplomacy and the passion that young people, both students and professionals, have to address critical foreign policy issues. Often citizen diplomacy is raised in the context of Twitter Revolutions on the continent of Africa, where the by 2020 it is projected that 3 out of 4 people will be on average 20 years of age. Currently, the average age of a Federal Minister is approximately 70 years of age, and survey data demonstrates that governments are often viewed as not incorporating the needs of young people or not involving their inputs to develop sustainable solutions. The sentiments that youth policy is developed by leadership alone, based on what they deem the needs are, is pervasive. They are perceived as not taking stock of the thoughts and opinions of youth. This provides an opportunity to take up nontraditional methods of connectingweb-based or otherwiseand demonstrate need for a rapid rise of social networking for social change. The UN World Youth Report is a great example of how this is landscape is changing. In 2011, it focused on youth unemploymentone of the most pressing issues of our time, which affects both developing and developed economies. To prepare this report, the UN collected data almost exclusively through web-based discussion with youth-led groups and individual activists. It also incorporated the use of mobile technology, which is a preferred avenue of engagement. Another example is the launch of the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy. In 2010, along with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy hosted the U.S. Summit for Global Citizen Diplomacy, which featured over 600 participants and more than 200 speakers and panelists from every facet of citizen diplomacy. Attendees represented 39 U.S. states and 41 countries around the world. The discussions were wide ranging and covered topics from the use of new media to advance citizen diplomacy, to the role of the U.S. military; from innovative practices to engage youth as citizen diplomats and enhance global education in our schools, to how businesses can leverage their unique skill sets to expand engagement. These youth should not have to go at it alone. Coordination is key, and aligning U.S. Government efforts with citizens to ensure that interventions are maximized should be the goal. There are some inherently diplomatic efforts that have proven to work well when executed by private citizens, but would be more scalable and effective if facilitated by government counterparts. As a development professional I have had the opportunity to engage regularly with NGO, private sector, and civil society actors, including youth who often laud USG efforts to engage them, but are often dissatisfied with the follow up and ongoing engagement after the program. There is certainly room for citizen diplomats to carry these efforts forward, nurturing and expanding the global networks of young people, who are the leaders of tomorrow, and the future of diplomacy. Morgan McClain-McKinney currently serves as Program Analyst for the Private Capital Group for Africa at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a unit committed to leveraging private investment in a range of sectors including agriculture, financial services, health and energy in support of development priorities that include both social impact and financial returns. She is passionate about supporting vulnerable populations by developing and implementing sustainable solutions for economic growth and entrepreneurship. Prior to her experience with USAID, she spent time on Capitol Hill and with the U.S. Department of State, engaging with International Organizations. The views in this article reflect only those of the author and in no way represent the United States Government. This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's July/August 2013 print edition.
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