Stay Alive Youth Support Group is a youth based organization in Eastland’s part of Nairobi. It was formed through the initiative of MAMA NA DADA a Non Governmental Organization as a result of the youths using the VCT center located in the institution.

The motive was to create a forum where youth infected and affected by HIV/AIDS could come together and freely share their problems with their fellow youths in a friendly and conductive atmosphere devoid of any stigma, discrimination and rejection.
Stay Alive Youth Support Group (SAYS G) was founded in 2005.The group members are all aware of their HIV status.

The Mission of Stay Alive Group is to empower youths in the fight against HIV and AIDS by involving them actively and directly, through the advocacy of positive behavior change among them, at the same time building their capacity economically through the creation of sustainable income generating activities with the aim of eradicating poverty.

Online with achieving the millennium development Goal 6Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases we have focused on reaching out to both infected and affected youths in our community by forming support groups for young people living with HIV/AIDS to have interactive group therapy by sharing problems, holding peer education reach outs to young on advocacy and behavior change programmes

All these will not be possible if we are not networking with other youths groups ( FAMILY ROCK, MILES AHEAD etc), development partners (UN HABITAT), Government offices (MINISTRY OF YOUTH, MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT,LIVERPOOL VCT CENTER,SOS YOUTH GROUP) and stakeholders (KYBT) in our community in our community in essence to capacity building, sharing information, ideas and reaching out to tap resources back to the community to enrich us economically and building our capacity. This is online to achieving both Goal 1. Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty and Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

It has not been easy its challenging and since we all know that youth is a transitional stage and we wish to show a good example to our young followers and also our siblings its has been taxing but with determination and pressing on we are committed to aspire and engage the systems in doing all right at our capacity. The network of groups also do undertake income generating activities like drama, cultural dances, organizing environmental clean up day and educating the members of the community the importance of preserving our environment online with Goal 7 Ensure Environmental Sustainability this has been online with Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women by advocating for equity amongst us in all activities that we undertake in the community, ensuring that especially the rights of women, children and youths are put at the fore front in all our activities. As we know to educate a man is to educate a country while to educate a woman is to educate the nation.

UN-HABITIAT views young people as effective advocates of change and sees them as catalysts in making a difference on the ground. It is within this spirit that UN-HABITAT, under the scope of it Global Partnership Initiative (GPI) for Urban Youth Development in Africa, engages youth and youth organizations in order to develop a strategy to engage them in human settlements work and programmes.

The Global Alliance for ICT and Development ( GAID), is organizing a Global Forum on Youth and ICT for Development: Youth and ICT as an agent of change, that will help harness the creativity and dynamism that the youth has in exploring and exploiting ICT for their own benefit and for the benefit of their peers and communities in advancement of the United Nations Millennium Development goals (MDGs). The forum aims at actively engaging youth in debates and discussions with peers representatives,policy makers,private sector, technology and thought leaders and other in exploring ways to empower the community and to participate more fully in society through appropriate and responsible use of ICT

The Global Partnership Initiative (GPI) for Urban Youth Development in Africa is an initiative of UN-HABITAT in cooperation with selected cities in Africa and others around the world. The Initiative was started with the aim of learning from best practices regarding how to address the diversity of challenges facing youth in urban communities. This partnership acknowledges the need to meaningfully involve and engage young people at the city level in creating solutions to the issues they face, and creating enabling environments for them to take action. In this regard, one of the strategies of the GPI is to create youth friendly centre’s that have Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a major component in its youth empowerment efforts.

EXPECTED OUTCOME:
Promoting ICT access in slums could be a win-win strategy for youth employment. The knowledge value of expanded ICT access would support increased social awareness, availability of educational opportunities, and access to information on employment openings. At the same time, fostering the development of ICT facilities, such as internet cafes and computer training centers can provide high quality jobs within the slums themselves. If combined with direct employment promotion programmes, such as the “One stop youth information resource centers” suggested above, ICT initiatives can act as a springboard for significantly improving the lives of slum dwellers.

It is expected therefore that this forum will initiate collaboration between UN-HABITAT and the cities represented by the youth at this conference to explore opportunities for the replicating the establishment of “One Stop Youth Information and Resource Centers” in those cities.

Instructions:
The E consultation will take place over 3 weeks from the 27 August to the 15 September, 2007.

Every Monday, two questions will be posted on the discussion forum youth page http://www.unhabitat.org/forum/default.asp?catid=463 and participants are requested to respond to the questions on the forum stating their experiences, best practices and recommendations.

The moderator will summarize the discussions of the previous week and send a report to all subscribers by Tuesday of the following week.
Kindly focus your comments on the discussion topic.

When you communicate on the forum, please introduce yourself, country and the organization.

UN-HABITIAT views young people as effective advocates of change and sees them as catalysts in making a difference on the ground. It is within this spirit that UN-HABITAT, under the scope of it Global Partnership Initiative (GPI) for Urban Youth Development in Africa, engages youth and youth organizations in order to develop a strategy to engage them in human settlements work and programmes.

The Global Alliance for ICT and Development ( GAID), is organizing a Global Forum on Youth and ICT for Development: Youth and ICT as an agent of change, that will help harness the creativity and dynamism that the youth has in exploring and exploiting ICT for their own benefit and for the benefit of their peers and communities in advancement of the United Nations Millennium Development goals (MDGs). The forum aims at actively engaging youth in debates and discussions with peers representatives,policy makers,private sector, technology and thought leaders and other in exploring ways to empower the community and to participate more fully in society through appropriate and responsible use of ICT

UN-HABITAT will host a round table session at the Conference that will focus on Youth, ICT and Governance. This session will bring together youth as well as representatives from the eCities alliance including the United Cities Local Government, Oracle, Cities Alliance, the World Bank, UN-HABITAT, USAID, the City of Dubai and Tejari to discuss and map out strategies on how young people can be effectively integrated into eGovernance processes for better planning and development of policies and programmes for the running of cities. The session will specifically highlight the eCities programme’s City to Youth (C2Y) initiative, which focuses on engaging young citizens in the process of governance of their cities as well as in building their capacity to fully engage their mayors and city officials through ICT. An overall aim of the session, is to demonstrate how the City to Youth programme can support cities, youth parliaments and youth councils to design and implement eTools that integrate young people and their concerns into eGovernace processes, and where necessary, provide technology and tools for the same.

E-governance and its forms of e-democracy are opportunities for change in the near future. Technology, if well used, powers interactions and is also an excellent agent to reform the relationship between the public and private sectors, as well as an opportunity to generate virtual interaction. This is more so with the most important segment of the urban population, the youth. While taking advantage of the lack of universal access, technology can be used to create a base for virtual participatory models in real and interactive parallel worlds. This could involve the adoption of new roles and instruments in which the local authority, maybe the most important player in urban governance, no longer occupies a central role.

EXPECTED OUTCOME:

The overall expected outcome of this event is the development of strategies to engage and integrate young people and their concerns through ICT
and eGoverance into the decision and policy making processes related to the running of cities. UN-HABITAT expects to launch the Global Youth
Technology Challenge towards this end. This initiative will serve as a vehicle for the young citizens of the world’s cities to develop strategies,
programmes and mobilize resources to eliminate the digital divide, while working towards improving the quality of life and poverty alleviation in their
respective cities. By uniting the two strong enablers of urban development, youth and technology, cities create a constituency to:

Communicate with other cities, creating a network of youth more connected, better trained, empowered with new ideas for urban development
Improve the reach, physically and with the use of technology of essential social services like child care, education, information dissemination on health, water, opportunities and training tools in the most vulnerable areas i.e. slums, orphanages and other temporary settlements
Creates the on-line lobby for youth as stakeholders in their own future, giving them a collective voice towards participating in the strategic plan for their future and therefore the future of their cities.
The forum findings and recommendations will be summarized into a report, which will be presented at the plenary session of the GAID. As a follow up to the GAID UN-HABITAT will feed round table outcomes into the planning of the World Urban Forum IV, which will be held in Nanjing, China in 2008.

Instructions:
The E consultation will take place over 3 weeks from the 27 August to the 15 September, 2007.

Every Monday, two questions will be posted on the discussion forum youth page http://www.unhabitat.org/forum/default.asp?catid=463 and participants are requested to respond to the questions on the forum stating their experiences, best practices and recommendations.

The moderator will summarize the discussions of the previous week and send a report to all subscribers by Tuesday of the following week.
Kindly focus your comments on the discussion topic.

When you communicate on the forum, please introduce yourself, country and the organization.

Im curently working on modertrating this eforum and this is one opportunity that a young person has been given and am going to show case how young peole can help make things move when given an opportunity

International Youth Day Exhibition ends at the United Nations in Kenya
13 - 24 August, 2007, Nairobi, Kenya

United Nations Agencies and Programmes in Kenya launched an inter-Agency Exhibition showcased activities and programmes on issues concerning young people marking International Youth Day 2007. (For more information http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=5103&catid=531&typeid=6&subMenuId=0)

Some 100 young people from youth organizations were joined by representatives from the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs, Kenya, United Nations Specialized Agencies and Programmes, the diplomatic corps and private sector representatives to inaugurate the exhibition, entitled, Be Seen, Be Heard: Youth participation for development.

This inter-agency initiative offered unique opportunity for members of the UN family in Kenya to embark on joint work for developing programmes for young people. It also presented a great platform for youth to network and make new contacts for partnerships and practical action towards their greater participation in processes and decisions that affect their lives.


Eric Falt, Director of the Division of Communications and Public Information at UNEP and Director of the United Nations Information Office in Kenya, welcomed the participants and Youth Representatives to the launch of the Inter Agency exhibition related to this year’s theme of the International Youth Day which represented a unique opportunity for support and collaboration for young people in various youth groups.

He stressed on the fact that there was continued commitment on the part of the UN agencies and he urged the youth to take advantage of the commitment desk, to discover the world of the UN agencies’ mandate in relation to the youth and interact with the various representatives.

He highlighted that this event would be an ideal opportunity for the youth to interact with one another.

The UNEP’s TUNZA programme for children and youth nurtures and takes care of not only of the planet and the environment but also the youth of the world that works actively like the other UN agencies’ youth programme. TUNZA will be having a youth conference in Germany having over 200 youths where Kenya will be well represented by 3 young people.

In conclusion, he asked the youth to come up with a plan of action enriched by the commitments and actions in all areas represented at the exhibition because a lot still needs to be done, with less talk and more action to be put in place in making International Youth Day – 2008 a success.

Acting United Nations Resident Co-ordinator, Kenya, Mr. Alexander Varghese,

In addition to the Secretary General’s speech (this can be found on http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/iyd2007.htm) Mr. Alexander Varghese, reiterated the United Nation’s commitment to work with youth of Kenya in order to carry out a variety of technical assistance programmes in order to empower the youth generations that we have.

He emphasized on the ‘Lighting up of Kenya’ programme UNIDO is launching for which the United Nations would require utmost commitment from the youth. He requested the youth of Kenya to support the United Nations in this initiative to reach out to the furthest corners of the country and be able to provide opportunities for young men and women to empower themselves for sustainable livelihoods. In addition, they would be able to use renewable energy for employment and income generation.

In conclusion, he urged the youth to visit the UNIDO offices for more details in relation to the ‘Lighting up of Kenya’ programme.

Mrs. Susan Njau, Deputy Director, Youth Development, Ministry of State for Youth Affairs, Republic of Kenya reminded the participants on the launch of the Peace Campaign dubbed ‘Zuia Noma’ on the 12th of August 2007 celebrations to mark the International Youth Day. This campaign was launched to request especially the youth to maintain peace during this election year. In addition, she urged the young people not to be misused and to make the right choices.

She reminded the young people that the future is not theirs, but it is the present that is with them and they must take responsibility. As per the theme, ‘Be Seen, Be Heard’, she stressed that it is important for the young people to be seen and heard for the right reasons, and not to be heard when there are riots, violence and problems. In addition, she emphasized the need for the young people to be seen at these kinds of exhibitions where they can show what they have done.

She acknowledged the collaboration between the Ministry of Youth and the United Nations agencies in undertaking various youth initiatives and programmes. In this way, the Ministry of Youth has recently come up action plans on working with the youth, in areas such as employment, environment issues, crime and drugs, leisure, recreation and community service, and expect the UN to be present in implementing them.

She believed that the old and the young need to partner and work together. It is time that the young people cease to work in isolation and partner with the old, and specifically requested the United Nations to assist in developing action plans, especially for gender and youth with special needs.

In conclusion, while conveying the Permanent Secretary’s message she urged the participant and youth alike to use the exhibition and art work to preach the message of peace.

Professor Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Director Monitoring and Research Division, UN-HABITAT

In a speech read on her behalf, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, who also serves as the Director General of the UN Office in Nairobi, told the young audience that over 200 million youth live in poverty, 130 million of them illiterate, 88 million living with HIV/AIDs and that the case for a renewed commitment for working with young people to attain the Millennium Development Goals was vital. She said the agency’s Global Partnership Initiative sought to empower youth through One-Stop youth resource centers, that have been set up in four African cities to help young people learn about employment, computers, education and other prospects for the future. (For more details http://www.unhabitat.org/list.asp?typeid=8&catid=531 )


Mr. Mutua Kiuh, Representative from Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), acknowledged that he was not a youth but was for the youth. He also emphasized on the need for the youth to partner with the elders and quoted an old African proverb that “A young person alone can run very fast, but together with an old person they will go very far”.

KEPSA is associated closely with the youth and especially with the Youth Peace Agenda. KEPSA works through stakeholder partnerships and is in the process of establishing a Ministerial Stakeholders Forum with the Ministry of Youth and the Ministry of Gender, which will join 26 other ministerial stakeholders.
The private Sector is specifically attached to the issue of peace, because peace is a direct contributor to the bottom-line; anything that affects the bottom-line negatively affects the Private Sector negatively, and vice versa.

He acknowledged that the youth are the majority among the employed and the micro and small enterprises, who are the future of this nation. He admitted that there are a number of youth still unemployed; thus KEPSA is looking to all the stakeholders to ensure that they support the youth to establish businesses, in particularly with the Ministry of Youth, through the Youth Entrepreneurship Fund in mainstreaming the youth agenda.

The Private Sector also needs to support the youth through their corporate social responsibility.
In conclusion he reminded the young people attending the launch that this is their country, this is their world, he was once a youth and he thought that he was always going to be one, and challenged the youth to work on a succession plan as there are children who are coming up after them with the same kind of zeal and enthusiasm shared by the youth

Mr. Robert Njoroge, Youth Programme Manager, Africa Youth Trust (AYT) and Ambassador of Peace, Zuia Noma Campaign
Commented on the focus on youth and development and how they are all in participation.
He commented that for young people, the drive towards increased participation has led to development of youth parliaments, youth councils, parallel meetings and forums publications of thousands of papers, reports and policy documents and inclusion of youth programmes in several development agencies concerned with sustainability.

The word has spread – but has all of the talk about youth participation been effectively translated into genuine inclusion and empowerment of young people as active citizens? He acknowledged Yes: youth affirmative policies have come path ways to good practice n several cities and countries around the world, He stated that clearly the question is no longer whether to include young people in matters that affect the, but how best to include youth in participation

Mr. Joseph Ogidi, UN-HABITAT Messenger of Truth
The exhibition, was coordinated by UN- HABITAT, in partnership with the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya, UNEP, UNAIDS, UNV, and runs from 13 to 24 August, 2007 at the United Nations Headquarters in Nairobi.

The young people attending the event renewed their commitment to partner with the government and organizations to foster into youth led activities.
This was an opportunity for members of the groups listed below who participated in the event committed themselves to follow up on all the said above to be able to have a bigger and better IYD 2008.

• COSMOS EDUCATION KENYA
• YAFNET
• TAKING IT GLOBAL (TIG)
• STAY ALIVE YOUTH GROUP
• DAKAHUMAS YOUTH GROUP
• HEEP
• FORTRESS OF HOPE
• NAIROBI YOUTH CENTER
• YOUTH FOR HABITAT
• YOUTH MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRACY
• SODNET /INFONET
• BADILI MAISHA
• SOS
• SLUM CODE YOUTH GROUP
• EEP
• ONE STOP YOUTH CENTER
• ECO SANDALS
• YEP
• GYCA
• NOPE
• SOWETO YOUTH GROUP
• GROWEING UP IN CITIES
• JERICHO ARISE
• LIVERPOOL VCT

For more information, please contact Christabell Opudo,UN-HABITAT Partners and Youth Section, Nairobi, Kenya; Tel: +254 020 7262 3710 copudo@gmail.com UNHABITAT.Intern113@unhabitat.org

Introduction:
In support of International Youth Day (IYD) 2007 and action-oriented programmes and activities that focus on youth-led initiatives, UN-HABITAT is planned in partnership with sister agencies, youth organizations and Ministry of State for Youth Affairs, Kenya UN-wide IYD celebrations at the UN Headquarters in Nairobi during the 2 weeks of 13 to 25 August, 2007.

Background:
The International Youth Day celebrations at the Gigiri Complex offered an opportunity for United Nations Agencies and Programmes to collaboratively feature their youth programmes, best practices and lessons learned from the local, national and global levels. Moreover, the IYD celebrations presented a platform for recognizing the potential of youth and youth initiatives to advocate for youth concerns, achievements and solutions. It also offered an opportunity for dialogue and exchange of ideas on the way forward in promoting effective engagement of young people in their development and that of their communities at large. This occasion further presented a unique opportunity for all key actors working with youth and on youth issues in Kenya to rally together in support of the inclusion of young people in the development and implementation of programmes and activities. Ultimately, it showed support the participation of young people in decision-making mechanisms related to their empowerment.

I will be sending link that highlights the speaches and commitmenst that came up during the celebrations.