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  Today Online 13 Sep 06
Youth with a global view
Derrick A Paulo derrick@newstoday.com.sg

SINCE it awarded Singapore the rights to host its annual meetings with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank has taken great interest in working with one particular group here: The youth.

It has met members of this group on no less than 50 occasions, with some meetings involving as many as 500 students. It has held open houses and sponsored forums so students can get access to speakers on development issues.

And before a single meeting begins, the World Bank hopes it has gone some way already in achieving its goal of getting youth familiar with its workings and its work.

Over the weekend, it was the organisation's turn to glean some insight from the youth when about 250 young people, including some international students, participated in a two-day dialogue to identify topics of concern to them.

Elitism in education, the widening income gap and issues facing the disabled were some of the concerns close to home.

However, the group found issues such as minimising poverty in Third World countries, helping these countries cope with globalisation, fair trade and child rights to be even more pressing.

And top of the agenda? Bringing global issues to local youth.

From the World Bank's perspective, said representative Peter Stephens, it was what set the event apart from the four similar forums it has conducted in the region since July.

"It's not about me and my education, or me and my job. (The youth at this forum) were more interested to connect with the world. One thing that isn't different is that desire to make things better," he said.

The previous forums were held in the lesser developed countries of Cambodia, East Timor, Laos and Papua New Guinea, where issues such as corruption, police violence and national divides took priority.

Among the Singapore participants, there was a general sense of idealism that improvements can be made, said National University of Singapore student Natalie Morris, 22.

"Bridging the income gap, for example. We believe it can still narrow further, including between countries," she told Today.

The discussions will be compiled into a booklet and distributed to World Bank offices, and the potential is there for the youths to follow up with the World Bank on the key issues.

Mr Stephens explained: "On child rights, for example, we have an entire department that looks at social protection. So, we can connect the people who raised this issue with the work that we do."

Even so, Ms Morris is not waiting for this to happen before she takes action. After discussing the issue of youth advocacy and activism, she intends to connect youth through a database. "I've been thinking about this previously. Today, I just got that further push to follow through on the idea," she said.
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