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.