The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) United Nations (UN) Team in New York City wants to bring to the attention of young girls in NYC and around the world opportunities to get involved in global youth actions to combat hunger, poverty, climate change and social injustice.
Want to get involved in International Youth Day on August 12? WAGGGS is hosting a social media campaign to raise awareness about the actions girls worldwide have taken in their communities!
What have you done in the past year to contribute to your community? How are you engaged in your neighborhood or with global issues?
Opportunities, especially for young women, to be involved politically, economically and socially in their communities, countries and on a global level are few and far between.
International Youth Day is an opportunity to acknowledge the achievements of girls and young women as agents of change and as volunteers on the ground. It also gives us the chance to celebrate girls' contributions to development of their communities and governments.
Tell your story!
Did you do the Global Action Theme (GAT) badge? Did you participate in or organize a World Thinking Day event? Did your Gold, Silver, or Bronze Award address issues such as hunger, poverty, or social injustice? All of these actions contribute to civic engagement and actively contributing to your community.
Help raise awareness that young people make an essential contribution to these goals! Share your story of civic engagement. You could tell your story to your school, your teacher, at an assembly with your community, your friends, your workplace, your local council, your Government! Share who you have told your story to on social media using the hashtags #Itoldmystoryto and #YouthDay and don’t forget to tag us @wagggs_world.
Youth in action: 12 stories of change
Look out for 12 stories of change from Girl Scouts and Girl Guides from Member Organisations of all five WAGGGS regions, working towards the Millennium Development Goals, which were goals established by the UN in 2000 that are coming to a close now (you can read about the new Sustainable Development Goals, or Global Goals, here).
WAGGGS will be sharing a story of change every two hours starting Tuesday 11 August. This will end on International Youth Day 12 August with exciting findings from our research on the Global Action Theme badge, which focused on ways in which girls and young women helped to deliver the Millennium Development Goals.
Follow the stories and our research results on our Twitter and Facebook pages and on our website here.
Have you done a lot of work in your troop around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the last few year? Maybe you have participated in World Thinking Day, did a GAT (Global Action Theme) badge, or completed one of the YUNGA badges (see the resources tab above for more information about these!)?
Are you familiar with the new goals coming out this year, called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? The United Nations (UN) is going to declare the official, new SDGs in September, and they will determine the direction that international aid will go in. As a result, these goals are very important to everyone around the globe. For example, for the last MDGs, violence against women and girls was not made a priority--and so a lot of funding opportunities by the international community were lost. However, the new goals hope to be more inclusive and address more systemic issues in the global poverty and inequality chain. If you're interested in learning more about the SDGs, check out this great interactive Guardian site: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jan/19/sustainable-development-goals-united-nations
These goals may seem very large and 'out-there,' but they affect the lives of people around the globe, especially those of girls and boys. That is why UNICEF and the World We Want are asking that children and young adults to think about the current draft for these goals and think about how they could be more engaging and understandable to YOU! You can check out the draft of the SDGs (known as the "Zero Draft") here, then head to the World We Want websitebefore June 17 and think about the following 5 questions they are asking children to answer to help them to make the SDGs declaration more child-engaging:
Do you think the Declaration of the SDGs is important for you or other children and young people around the world? Why or why not?
If you could prioritize the 5 most important goals which could help achieve a world you want to live in, what would they be?
Does the SDGs Declaration tell you about your rights and inspire you to help human rights be recognized and respected?
What would you add or take out of the Declaration to make it better, simple, understandable and child-friendly?
What do you think is the best way to raise awareness of these goals among children and young people?
Troop leaders: This could be a great way to engage your troop in the global community. I suggest reading more about the MDGs & SDGs, finding some activities provided by the GAT, YUNGA, or World Thinking Day badges, and then reading the Zero Draft on your own before the meeting. Then use what you learned to engage your girls on what the SDGs are, why they are important, and what they mean for children around the world. Conclude your meeting by hosting some discussion around the five questions and then help your girls to answer the questions online (or have them write down their answers and they can post it online with their parents after the meeting).
Here is the full release:
IT IS OUT! - Zero Draft of the outcome document for the UN Summit to adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda has been released publicly.
We invite children and young people
to comment on the Declaration to help make it inspiring to you and your peers!
What if you were the lead writer of it – what would it say?
We need your views and ideas to make the SDGs Declaration better, understandable, child-friendly and inspiring!
At the United Nations, governments have consulted with people all over the world to come up with a set of 17 goals to achieve over the next 15 years on issues such as improving health, providing children with a good education and fighting the damaging effects of climate change. If these “sustainable development goals” are a success, you and other children and young people across the world will live in a world that is fairer, safer, more prosperous for all people and where our natural environment is healthy and well-protected.
To introduce the goals, government negotiators have worked on a “Declaration.” Think of it like an essay that introduces the goals to world and explains why they exist and why they are so important.
A number of UN Ambassadors they have requested for children and young people to proofread the Declaration and provide inputs, recognizinghow important it is for children and young people to understand this declaration and the goals. Your inputs will be summarized and presented to the governments towards the end of June. The governments have called for your help – let’s together make sure that they know what the most important issues are for children.
Spread the word – to individuals, organizations, children and youth networks - every child and young person should have an opportunity to be part of this consultation!
We look forward to your ideas, views and suggestions!
WAGGGS kicked off the Global Action Theme (GAT) badges in 2008 to draw attention to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs were established by the UN in 2000 to address global poverty. While each year, the World Thinking Day theme addressed a different MDG. However, the GAT badge allowed children and troop leaders to look at all of the MDGs in one badge. You can find more info about the GAT badge here.
Did you earn the GAT badge? WAGGGS wants to know what you thought about it! Did you feel that this badge made a difference? WAGGGS is interested to learn more about the impact of the programme and to obtain your views on it. Fill out the survey here!
If you are active on social media, particularly Twitter, you may have noticed the #Action2015 hashtag. Action/2015is a new global campaign to call to action, a movement to demand change and to work to ensure world leaders adopt truly ambitious goals and agreements on addressing climate change, poverty, inequality and injustice. This year is a pivotal year: the 2015 Millennium Development Goals are coming to an end and a new set of goals will be determined for the years to come! These new goals are important: they determine what key development issues get international support and funding, whether it's gender equality, infrastructure, government anti-corruption measures, and more.
January 15 was a big day to call our leaders to action, but you can still get involved-- leaders will be meeting throughout the year to decide these future goals, and every action you take in your local community and share with our global community makes a difference.
What Can I Do to Get Involved?
Check out the NEW WAGGGS Take Action Backpack, an interactive online "backpack" that will help you on your journey to understanding and taking action on child and maternal health. Why did WAGGGS pick these to focus on? Because Millennium Development goal 4 is on child health and Millennium Development goal 5 is on maternal health, and countries still have a way to go in ensuring that children and mothers have save and healthy lives! Check out the backpack here (be sure to click the play buttonn above the backpack to get started!): http://www.wagggs.org/en/take_action/mytakeactionbackback
Fill out the My World 2015 Survey and see what other people are saying. The My World 2015 Survey gives everyone around the globe the chance to have their voices heard in what they think are important goals as we look to the future! Fill out the survey here: http://vote.myworld2015.org/?partner=WAGGGS
GenUN also has a list of actions you can take to make 2015 a year of action. And remember, it is never too late to take any action and get your leaders' support! Check it out here: http://genun.unausa.org/action_2015_global_digital_rally
Check out the Action/2015 website for more information on what this big push for action in 2015 is all about: http://www.action2015.org/
This past summer at the WAGGGS World Conference, while delegates representing their countries cast votes about WAGGGS budgets and future initiatives, the UN Team was working to get everyone to cast their My World 2015 vote! The UN hast started the My World 2015 vote to engage the general public in what they want for the next round of development goals for the coming years after 2015. According to the My World 2015 website, "The votes matter. The UN is working with governments everywhere to define the next global agenda to address extreme poverty and preserve the planet. The data from MY World continues to inform these processes and be used by decision makers around the world." So far, 4.5 million votes have been cast-- and counting!
At the WAGGGS World Conference this past summer in Hong Kong, we asked girl scouts and girl guides to share their vote and tell WAGGGS and the UN about what matters to them:
Get involved! You can cast your My World 2015 vote here: http://vote.myworld2015.org/?partner=WAGGGS
Also, consider bringing the My World vote to your girl scouts/girl guides troop and start some dialogue about the role of the UN, the importance of voting, and why the voices of women and girls matters! You can also use the interactive survey results to see trends and have a discussion on the importance of data in research: http://data.myworld2015.org/
Today marks 500 days remaining for United Nations Member States at achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)! In case you missed it, in 2000 the UN established 8 clear goals that are expected to be reached by 2015-- which is now just 500 days away! Here is a short video from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that helps to recap what the MDGs are:
Tell Us YOUR Story!
Success in the next 500 days will not only help improve lives for millions, put more girls
in school, save mothers’ lives, fight diseases, ensure a safe start in life for children: it will
add momentum as the world is developing the new global development agenda after the
MDGs expire in 2015. This is known as the Post-2015 development agenda.
For every day in the remaining 500 days to MDGs, we want to hear
a story from you – a story on what you have done to help the world
achieve the MDGs, on what you have done to make an equal and
just world a reality for billions of people around the world.
Share your stories on social media via the hashtag #MDGMomentum #500stories or email them to comms@wagggs.org!
Get Involved!
It's never too late to get involved in and raise awareness about the Millennium Development Goals! There are some really helpful and amazing resources you can use to help educate young people and children in your community about the MDGs:
My World 2015 Vote: The United Nations wants to know: What do YOU want to see as part of the post-2015 development goals? The result of this vote will influence the UN's Post-2015 Agenda, or Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), so cast your vote now!
Resources
The World We Want for Girls Policy Paper: The policy paper from the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts reviews the gaps in the Millennium Development Goals and suggests how the voices and aspirations of girls and young women should be reflected in the next development agenda beyond 2015.
MDG +10 Report: A 2010 report on how girls and young women worldwide are taking action on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
