Regional Youth Stakeholders Coordination Meeting 2008

Youth sector specialists from around the Pacific met at SPC headquarters in Noumea during March 2008 to discuss how to improve regional coordination in the area of youth development. Representatives of regional, international and civil society organisations, as well as donors and inter-governmental agencies, shared information on issues such as current and planned youth programmes, gaps and duplication in their work, and support for Pacific regional youth organisations. They also discussed a coordination and monitoring mechanism to improve youth development in the region. Read more here.

Copies of the various presentations made at the meeting can be downloaded here.

Commonwealth Youth Programme Pacific Centre

The Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) is an international development agency that is dedicated to empowering young people (aged 15-29) in its member countries. The Commonwealth Youth Programme Pacific Centre is located in Honiara, Solomon Islands and is one of four Centres established to serve the member countries of the Commonwealth. The Pacific Centre responds to youth development for 14 countries, small states and territories of the Commonwealth. These 14 countries together have a total population of 31,082,298 million people.

Afu Leah Billy is currently the regional director of CYPPC.

The Commonwealth Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment 2007-2015 is the Commonwealth's guiding strategy to support youth empowerment and participation. Download here.

Human Development Programme SPC

SPC's Human Development Programme (HDP) has a particular focus on bringing gender, youth, culture and community education to the forefront of development. The programme aims to nurture an all-inclusive approach across all sectors to maximise the development potential of the entire community and help people achieve a better quality of life.

Rose Maebiru is the Youth Adviser within the HDP. The youth section of the HDP website has an excellent collection of documents and links related to youth issues in the Pacific.

Land Resources Division SPC

Land Resources Division (LRD) is the newest division of SPC and brings together two previously separate programmes dealing with agriculture and forestry. LRD’s goal is to strengthen livelihoods of Pacific islanders by improving food security, increasing trade and assisting the Pacific Community to be more prosperous and healthy and manage their agricultural and forest resources in a sustainable way.

How LRD functions is largely governed by SPC member countries through the regional Heads of Agriculture and Forestry Services (HOAFs). At the last HOAFs meeting in 2006 it was recommended that LRD:

Develop with relevant partners a strategy to promote agriculture among young people

LRD is made up of a number of Thematic Groups and is guided by its Strategic Plan.

French Polynesia Union for Youth

In 2008 the French Polnesia Union for Youth (FPUY) celbrates its 30th birthday. Exclusively made up of non-governmental associations from French Polynesia, the FPUY today has a membership of 79 federations and associations representing over 40,000 youths.

FPUY has a website in French and English.

Additional background information regarding the activities of the FPUY, and youth issues in French Polynesia, can be found here.

Pacific Youth Council (PYC)

The Pacific Youth Council (PYC) is a regional, non-governmental, voluntary association of Territorial and national youth organisations established in 1996. It aims to encourage, support and strengthen territorial and national youth organisations and to promote a regional identity for Pacific youth. The PYC is very well placed as a representative body for Pacific youth as it has membership from 22 Pacific island countries and territories that cover all the geographical and political sub-regions of the Pacific. The current president of the PYC is Jacque Sekoula Koroivulaono.

Read more about the role of the Pacific Youth Council here.

Pacific Youth Charter

The Pacific Youth Charter was the outcome of the massive gathering of Pacific youth at the 1st Pacific Youth Festival in Tahiti in July 2006. One thousand young representatives of 25 countries and territories of the Pacific came together and had an opportunity to reflect, interact and debate through workshops, conferences and seminars addressing nine themes of crucial importance for the development of the Pacific region. It is a document that complements the Pacific Youth Strategy 2010.

The nine themes of the Pacific Youth Charter are: Good Governance; Active Citizenship; Education and Training for all; Social and Professional Integration; Sustainable Development; Cultural Diversity; Health; Equality for all; and Peace Promotion.

Full details can be found here, Pacific Youth Charter.