The International Association for National Youth Service

9th Global Conference on National Youth Service

Bibliotheca Alexandrina Alexandria, Egypt 25-27 October 2010

Final Report

CONTENTS
About IANYS ..................................................................................................................... 3 Lifetime Achievement Award to Donald J. Eberly, IANYS Founder and Honorary President ................................................................... 4 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 10 1 Creating an enabling environment for youth civic participation.................. 15 Considerations for the youth civic engagement field ....................................................... 15 Supporting legal, institutional and social conditions for youth civic engagement ................................................................................................................ 18 Policy and youth service infrastructure as enabling factors .......................................... 20 Youth service and transitions to adulthood .................................................... 23 Youth leadership ............................................................................................................................. 23 Youth employability....................................................................................................................... 25 Youth social entrepreneurship .................................................................................................. 29 Youth service contributions to development and peace .............................. 32 Meeting community needs .......................................................................................................... 32 Promoting social cohesion .......................................................................................................... 34 Peace-building.................................................................................................................................. 37 Assessing the impact of youth service .............................................................. 39 How to measure impacts in NYS programs? ........................................................................ 39 Methods for assessing impact .................................................................................................... 41 How to measure the cost-effectiveness of NYS programs? ............................................ 43 The need for shared tools and experience ............................................................................ 44 How IANYS Can Respond to the Needs of the Field ........................................ 45 Strengthening the knowledge base for national youth service .................................... 45 Improving program design and practice ............................................................................... 46 Promoting strong policy for youth civic engagement ...................................................... 47 Facilitating the exchange of information and resources ................................................. 48

APPENDIX 1: IANYS 9TH GLOBAL CONFERENCE PARTICIPANT LIST ................... 51 APPENDIX 2: CONFERNCE AGENDA WITH SESSIONS AND PRESENTERS ........... 61 APPENDIX 3: Acknowledgements ............................................................................. 71 2

Preface
The International Association for National Youth Service (IANYS) is a unique global network of practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and other professionals actively working to encourage countries worldwide to implement policies and programs that support youth civic engagement. Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) is the permanent secretariat of IANYS. The Association was formed in 1996 at the third Global Conference on National Youth Service, and has grown to include participants from 48 different countries on six continents. Its steering committee, the Global Council, consists of 14 experts on youth service from 13 countries around the world. In 2007, Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) was selected as the permanent secretariat for IANYS on the basis of its experience and expertise as a leader in the global movement to promote sustainable development and social change through youth community engagement. Since then ICP has expanded the IANYS network and is working to strengthen the capacity of IANYS to support youth service professionals in increasing and improving opportunities for young people to participate in addressing critical national and community needs while building essential skills for future success. As youth civic engagement becomes increasingly recognized worldwide as a strategy for addressing critical social and development issues, IANYS has witnessed growing demand for technical assistance and expertise in designing, implementing, evaluating, and refining youth programs and policies. IANYS meets this demand by: Building the professional capacity of practitioners and policymakers; Facilitating the exchange of information, resources and program models; Promoting strong youth policy that supports youth civic engagement; and Connecting programs to experts and consultants worldwide. These activities have cultivated a global community of well-informed and resourceful practitioners, policymakers, and researchers dedicated to creating high-quality and effective opportunities for young people to pursue economic, social, and academic success while contributing to positive change in their communities. The IANYS Global Conference is held every two years in a different region of the world and provides a unique and stimulating forum for professionals to share information and current developments with other policymakers, practitioners, and researchers. It nurtures connections for developing future projects and explores the potential impact of youth civic participation on community and youth development. Past conferences have been held in France, Ghana, Argentina, Israel, the UK, Papua New Guinea, Nigeria and the US. This report summarizes the outcomes of the IANYS 9th Global Conference. For more information about IANYS, visit www.icicp.org/ianys. Susan Stroud, Director, IANYS and Jean Manney, Lead Conference Organizer, IANYS 3

Lifetime Achievement Award to Donald J. Eberly, IANYS Founder and Honorary President
On the first day of the conference a Lifetime Achievement Award was made to Donald Eberly, one of the founding fathers of National Youth Service. For over nearly six decades he has been steadfast in pursuing the national service ideal through writing and advocacy for national service and service-learning. As an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late 1940s, Eberly was active in a studentled project that brought several hundred young men and women to MIT from countries that had been devastated by World War II and from developing countries for a summer of study and research. Today he and his colleagues would be called volunteers in a service-learning program.

After being drafted to serve in the US Army during the Korean War from 1951-1953, Eberly decided to serve in a civilian capacity and compare which experience was most useful. He taught physics and mathematics at a college in Nigeria and helped organize projects to meet community needs. Upon returning to the United States in 1957, he wrote National Service for Peace, which articulated his conclusion that he contributed much more through civilian service than through two years of Army service. US Senator Hubert Humphrey used Eberly's proposal as a source for the legislation that would later lead to the Peace Corps. In 1967, Eberly launched the National Service Secretariat in the United States. He has since written many articles about National Youth Service and visited NYS projects in North and South America, Central America and the Caribbean, Africa and Europe, the Middle East and Far East, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

In 1966, Eberly began circulating the National Service Newsletter which grew to be distributed to several hundred people in 65 countries. From 1966 to 1994 he served as the Director of the National Service Secretariat in the US. In 1992, under Don's leadership, the First Global Conference on National Youth Service was convened to compare various NYS programs and explore NYS as a form of nation-building, the universal principles of NYS, the distinction between service and employment, and the learning potential of NYS. The conference concluded with a communiqu 'A Call to Service' that was strongly supportive of NYS. At the Third Global Conference on National Youth Service in Papua New Guinea in 4

1996, participants formally established the International Association for National Youth Service and unanimously elected Don Eberly as its President.

Eberly is the author of National Service: A Promise to Keep(1988); editor of A Profile of National Service(1966); and co-editor with Michael W. Sherraden of National Service: Social, Economic and Military Impacts (1982), and The Moral Equivalent of War: A Study of NonMilitary Service in Nine Nations (1990). From 2001-2005, he collaborated with Reuven Gal to write Service without Guns (2006).

In 1994, he moved to New Zealand to be with his children and grandchildren, where he continues to write and advise on national service issues. Don Eberlys dedication, vision and skill have influenced a number of nations to set up National Youth Service programs and still more are thinking through the implications. He has lit the torch and kept it glowing for over 50 years.

When governments, NGOs, and schools and universities challenge young people to serve in ways that make sense to the young people and to those in need, and when they provide proper financial and supervisory support, young people will step forward as they are doing in most of the countries represented here.
Donald J. Eberly, opening remarks at the 6th IANYS Global Conference

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The International Association for National Youth Service (IANYS) has a significant role to play in strengthening National Youth Service in countries across the globe and in advancing the youth civic engagement field more broadly. This sentiment emerged strongly from participants attending the 9th Global Conference, which was held at the world renowned Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt from October 25-27 2010. The event, organized by Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) the IANYS permanent secretariat in partnership with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo (AUC), drew a record 200 participants from an impressive 30 countries. Over three days, participants had the opportunity to learn about exciting new developments in the youth civic engagement field and see youth service as a critical component of youth empowerment more generally. Participants reflected on the successes and challenges across different regions and forged relationships with other practitioners, academics, policy makers, youth and volunteers from the field. As outlined below, the conference sessions identified a number of issues that participants currently face in their efforts to strengthen youth civic engagement in their communities, countries and regions. Conference participants stressed that in order to prosper, youth civic engagement requires an enabling environment. This starts with the need to embrace young people as full-fledged partners and affirm that their potential, abilities, skills and commitment can help to address the greatest global challenges of our day. Parents, practitioners, policymakers, entrepreneurs and celebrities should all take steps to encourage young people to become active citizens in their communities from an early age and to embrace civic engagement. Participants also stressed the importance of providing youth with diverse opportunities for civic engagement and leveraging a range of communication channels, including social media, the radio and mobile phones to make youth aware of these opportunities. A supportive policy environment is another factor required for youth civic engagement to prosper in a country. Policies that promote freedom of expression, freedom of association and freedom of information set the foundation for vibrant civil societies and in that way also support civic participation among youth. However, youth civic engagement also depends on adequate volunteer infrastructure being in place at the country level that is, policies, systems, mechanisms, resources and institutions that directly support and promote youth voluntary service. Conference participants pointed out that the need for volunteer infrastructure differs from country to country and that efforts to advocate for volun6

teer infrastructure at the country level have to take into consideration each countrys historical, social, cultural and economic context. High-level political leadership as well as leadership by volunteer-promoting organizations can be instrumental in creating the momentum for national youth service. Even in countries where youth service programs already exist, governments face the ongoing task of scaling up, renewing and sustaining programs, and ensuring that they are of high quality and exemplify good volunteer management practices. The establishment of multi-sectoral partnerships between civil society, government and the private sector can promote the sustainability of youth service programs. Participants also discussed the need to broaden participation in the programs by including young people from all sectors of society. Another key theme explored at the conference was the role of youth civic engagement in supporting the transitions that young people make to adulthood. This is a particularly salient theme for developing countries where young people face high levels of unemployment. As a result, they are often caught in a vicious cycle of poverty that exposes them to serious health risks and affects their well-being and employability. Conference participants stressed that youth service provides young people with opportunities to build their leadership capabilities, access positive role models, develop new skills and widen their social networks. Taken together, these various benefits of the service experience can help young people develop a sense of confidence in their potential and set them on a path towards accessing education, employment or other income-generating opportunities. Some youth service programs are explicitly designed to increase the employability of their young participants. This is often done through the accreditation of service programs, the provision of structured exit opportunities to program graduates, and by focusing on character-building and developing life skills and technical skills through program curriculums. Most youth service programs report that participants develop soft skills in the areas of communication, team-building, creativity, and critical thinking, all of which help prepare them for participation in the workplace. Many participants thus called on employers to consider participation in youth service and the soft skills acquired in that process when making decisions about hiring young recruits. At the same time participants stressed that we must not over-emphasize the relationship between youth service and em7

ployability because there is a risk that one might lose sight of the inherent value of civic engagement for youth and society more broadly. Participants identified the ways in which youth involvement in social entrepreneurship can help to cultivate greater youth civic engagement and vice-versa. Research conducted in the Arab region found that many youth with an interest in starting a business also expressed an interest in positioning that business to help their community. Community-based learning often involves students in developing business plans to address the community problems they are studying. The synergy between social entrepreneurship and youth civic engagement is an emerging area of interest that demands greater research and attention. Participants recommended that governments, the private sector, and civil society all invest more in social entrepreneurship opportunities for youth. Some suggestions for how to support the field included encouraging youth to explore social entrepreneurship, incubating the innovative ideas that young people want to develop, helping youth access start-up capital for small businesses, and establishing policy frameworks that enable social entrepreneurship.

The benefits of youth civic engagement extend beyond the individual participant to the communities and nations in which young volunteers serve. The conference bore witness to the myriad ways in which youth civic engagement contributes to meeting objectives for development and peace at the community level. A number of participants stressed the importance of viewing young people as assets in community development and providing them with community-based volunteering opportunities. The role of international volunteering in motivating youth volunteering for development at the grassroots level was also discussed as were the contributions of youth to state-building and national development through national youth service programs.

While youth across the globe help to combat poverty, illiteracy, gender inequality and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, many participants also attested to the ways in which voluntary service fosters peace and respect for diversity and equality across difference. Oftentimes, volunteers challenge stereotypes and discriminatory behavior in the communities in which they engage, as well as amongst their peers. A number of participants shared experiences of how volunteering offers young people a path away from negative activities such as involvement in religious extremist groups, crime, drugs and other unhealthy behavior, toward more positive and constructive activities. 8

Conference attendees stressed the importance of assessing the impact of youth voluntary service for program design and advocacy purposes, but expressed uncertainty about how to design and implement quality assessments. Determining which results or impacts should to be measured is the first hurdle that must be overcome at the initial stages of planning. Some issues that can be explored through impact assessments include changes in young peoples behavior and participation, their perceptions and attitudes, their access to opportunities, knowledge and experience gained, the degree of ownership they feel in youth service programs, and their acquisition of skills. While the methodologies for measuring impact are diverse and will change depending on the objectives of the research, it was agreed that young people need to participate in conceptualizing methodologies for measuring impact. It emerged that from the governments side there is strong interest in measuring the impact of voluntary service in financial terms. Lastly, there is a need to share assessment tools and results more widely so that youth service programs and the youth service sector more broadly can be strengthened.

In conclusion, there are significant opportunities for IANYS and its members to take a leadership role in advancing the youth civic engagement sector. Four key suggestions were made for the future development of the IANYS global network: strengthening the knowledge base for national youth service through research; improving program design and practice; promoting strong policy for youth civic engagement; and facilitating the exchange of information and resources. A broad research agenda was defined with suggestions for regionally-focused research as well as studies that would look more closely at the emerging relationship between social entrepreneurship and youth civic engagement. The conference clearly identified the need to place more resources behind strengthening the participation of young people in service program design, management and delivery. Participants also called on IANYS to take a more assertive role in lobbying for youth policy in countries that lack frameworks for youth service. Lastly, a number of suggestions were made on how IANYS could promote a wider exchange of ideas and experience about youth service and youth civic engagement through regional forums as well as channels such as listservs, websites and other virtual communications platforms. 9

Introduction
The International Association of National Youth Services (IANYS) 9th Global Conference was held at the world renowned Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt from October 25-27 2010. For the first time in its history, IANYS welcomed a record 200 participants to its biennial conference, including 65 participants from the host country of Egypt. The diverse mix of participants hailed from an impressive 30 countries and included youth leaders, policy makers, youth service practitioners, researchers and academics many of whom are at the helm of youth service and volunteer promotion in their country and region. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Together we can go far to advance youth service and youth engagement around the world.
African proverb quoted at the IANYS conference by Esther Benjamin, Associate Director for Global Operations, US Peace Corps

The Conference was organized by Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP), the IANYS secretariat in partnership with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo (AUC). The following organizations supported the conference organisers in convening a successful event: EQUIP 3 (a USAID project), Silatech, the US Embassies in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Egypt, Ford Foundation Cairo, Naseej, the Pearson Foundation, Open Society Foundation and United Nations Volunteers. Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which seeks to be a repository of global knowledge and a symbol of crosscultural understanding and learning, offered a unique space for global exchange on youth civic engagement and service. Conference attendees had the opportunity to share knowledge and experience gained from working and volunteering in their varied cultural and country contexts, and to learn from and inspire each other to continue their work in advancing youth civic engagement.

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From the outset, conference attendees voiced their expectations for the conference to the organisers and their colleagues:

I want to take home best practise in the field and see how you can help me [in my work].
Onesnus Katanga Upindi, Commissioner National Youth Service, Namibia

I want to learn and network with other NGOs to see how they involve youth and to exchange about opportunities and challenges.
Egyptian volunteer

I want to learn from others about how they are designing their programmes and how they work to sustain and include all sections of society in youth service.
Nhtuseng Tsoinyane, National Youth Development Agency, South Africa

In their post-conference evaluations, participants reported that the conference largely met their expectations and that they came away from the conference with greater contacts, knowledge and ideas to assist them with their work in the youth service and youth civic engagement sectors. The following excerpts from evaluation forms collected from participants demonstrate some of the main takeaways of the conference: I got inspired to play a role in the advancement of the civil society in Egypt, the region and the world I was inspired and got new ideas about youth civic engagement. Examples of work done in MENA and Africa reinforced the importance of civic engagement I learned that all youth all over the world are facing the same challenges, concerns, and hopes. the state of emerging national service programs. how important baseline information is in evaluation and the situation of youth in Egypt/Middle East. 11

the need to invest sufficiently in strategies and program design. that we have to change our criteria to youth development. about "asset-based" community development. about fostering youth-led action and removing red tape. about the multi-dimensional impact of youth service. that governmental policy can be made to increase the importance of civic engagement and the effectiveness of NGOs lobbying. that research has been done across the Arab world and internationally on volunteerism/youth services. that despite our differences, we are similar; media is not reporting reality; there are still good people in the world. scaling up [service] scenarios; this was very helpful. that Asian organizations are very active and have a lot to share; this was new to me. that advocating at the governmental level needs evidence-based research and partnerships for win/win opportunities. that young people need to be included more in these discussions; collaboration is vital. The objectives of the conference were to: Explore different experiences and models of youth civic engagement around the world;

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Explore the connection between youth civic engagement and issues such as youth employability, national development, peace building, regional co-operation and other issues of local and national concern; Explore the youth civic engagement and service-learning in formal and non-formal education settings; Gain practical knowledge in areas such as funding, impact evaluation, policy development and others; Network with other professionals working in the youth civic engagement field regionally and globally; Build a community of practice on youth civic engagement. A rich conference program offered a total of 30 conference sessions focusing on an array of issues pertinent to policy and practice for youth civic engagement and national youth service. A policy track offered participants the opportunity to take stock of new developments in National Youth Service Policy, reflect on the different pathways for developing policies and programs, and consider the challenges associated with sustaining, innovating and scaling up National Youth Service Programs. The relationship between employability, youth engagement and service was explored through the lens of skill building, social entrepreneurship, and transition strategies for youth approaching adulthood. The conference also looked at the factors that contribute to creating an enabling environment for youth civic engagement and service. The contributions of youth engagement and service to achieving peace, development and social inclusion objectives came under the spotlight, as did the role of technology in fostering youth participation, good practice in program design, impact assessment and evaluation, and the role of private sector funders, among others. These sessions were grounded in an opening presentation by Susan Stroud, Executive Director of Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) and Director of IANYS, which outlined the definitions and frameworks for youth civic engagement as a common platform for the discussion. At the Opening Ceremony, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave an inspiring message via video emphasizing the ability of young people to reshape our world and calling for greater engagement of the global youth population in solving local and global problems. 13 If we are going to tackle our toughest problems, from terrorism to climate change, we will have to tap your talents and passions.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, video message for the 9th IANYS Global Conference

This conference report provides a high-level overview of the key themes that emerged from the IANYS 9th Global Conference on National Youth Service. The first section explores the role of civil society, government, family and culture, and international institutions in establishing an enabling environment that can support and sustain youth service and civic engagement. The following section considers the value of youth service and civic engagement for empowering youth in their transition to adulthood, enabling them to gain insight into their potential, inculcating values of participation and democracy, cultivating hard and soft skills, and creating the space for youth to become innovative problem-solvers in their own communities. Next, the contributions of youth service to meeting regional, national and community needs are discussed along with the role of youth engagement and service in promoting nation-building, peace and cross-cultural understanding. The fourth section summarizes information shared at the conference on how to measure success and improve program outcomes to make the case for youth civic engagement programs more broadly. The concluding section sketches out priorities for IANYS moving forward with a view towards identifying concrete steps that IANYS and its global members can take to generate greater support and recognition of the youth civic engagement and youth service sectors among a broader spectrum of stakeholders.

Conference presentations can be accessed and downloaded at www.icicp.org/ianys/9thGC . A conference agenda with a list of sessions and presenters can be found in Appendix 2. 14

Creating an enabling environment for youth civic participation

Considerations for the youth civic engagement field

Establishing an enabling environment for youth civic participation rests first and foremost on changing perceptions about youth. This was a clear message throughout the IANYS conference. Too often, young people are viewed in negative terms, seen as problems in society rather than individuals with creativity, ideas, skills and energy to share. Experience shows that when civil society, the private sector and government see youth as partners rather than beneficiaries and afford youth the respect and support they need, young In 1998 Dr John D. Gerhart, newly people can make profound contributions to appointed President of the American University of Cairo (AUC), sensed a new the development and well-being of their energy among the young Egyptians and communities. Changing the mindsets of Arabs at the University. They wanted to adults as well as youth themselves is thus give back to society, but lacked sufficient critical to fostering greater participation by avenues for civic participation. Gerhart young people in their communities, their wanted the university to exemplify the countries and in global affairs. practice of service and expanded However, the conference also highlighted that in most countries, this approach to engaging youth is not widely practiced. Thus, it is important for those with experience in the youth development, service and volunteering fields to share their knowledge with individuals in civil society, the private sector and government. Designing and implementing effective youth-led and inter-generational models of engaging youth will be critical to producing the tangible outcomes that governments and funders seek in return for investing in youth programs. Given their diversity, youth need access to a multiplicity of opportunities and avenues to participate in their communities and countries. Conference participants stressed that far from being a homogenous group, young people represent every imaginable social, economic, and cultural background and each possess their own unique perspectives, challenges, dreams and skills. To appeal to the spectrum of youth then, the opportunities for voluntary service must speak to their diverse motivations and be relevant to the realities they face in their everyday lives. When offered a variety of options for voluntary service young people can then decide for themselves how and where to invest their time and skills, which is in itself an empowering act. 15 programmes for AUC students to experience civic engagement through community-based activities.

In order to get involved, however, young people need to know about the opportunities available to them and what steps they can take to participate. In the United Kingdom, for example, research by the Community Service Volunteers (CSV) found that 11 million volunteers want to do something, if only they knew where to go. It is thus crucial to raise awareness about opportunities for civic engagement where young people live, congregate, play and work. Numerous contributions at the conference stressed the potential of multiple communications channels that could be harnessed for this purpose.

In South Africa, 75% of 15-24 year-olds have mobile phones while only 10% have Internet access. In light of this, loveLife, a youth-led organisation that is educating youth around the country about HIV/AIDS prevention, created a revolutionary mobile-based social network, which enables youth registered with the program to access information about volunteer opportunities as well as HIV, workplace skills, bursary information and employment.

Participants from the US and the UK shared how the Internet and online portals are being used to reach a broad spectrum of youth. V in the UK has developed vinspired.com which enables youth to access volunteering opportunities that interest them, and uses various kinds of creative incentives to draw them to the online platform. Mercy Corps, on the other hand, uses Google AdWords, which links people with information on Mercy Corps based on their keyword searches on Google.

Communication strategies that aim to promote civic engagement among youth must also challenge the various misperceptions and stereotypes held by many young people about volunteering and civic service. When Hisham El Rouby, President and CEO of ETIJAH/Youth and Development Consulting Institute (Egypt) and founder of the first volunteer centre in Egypt asked youth in Egypt what the term volunteering means to them, young people demonstrated a very limited idea of volunteering and associated it mainly with the army, charity and rich people; they also saw it mainly as an activity for young women rather than for young men. In South Africa, some youth view the National Youth Service as a program for poor young black people who have no other options, while there is a concurrent view that volunteering is the domain of rich, privileged white people. By projecting a more inclusive conception of civic engagement, campaigns and advertisements can widen perceptions among youth about civic engagement and help break down the preconceptions that often discourage young people from getting involved in their communities. 16

Involving active youth in raising awareness about the opportunities for service and volunteering is another strategy for reaching out to a greater number of young people and Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, engaging them in civic activities on their own terms. Executive Director , Community Ruwwad, a Palestinian Youth Empowerment project impleService Volunteers; Chair of the mented by the Education Development Centre, Inc (EDC) IANYS Global Council involves youth in promoting rights-based sustainable development through a three-month internship that gives youth an opportunity to develop media skills and use their newly acquired skills to cover the activities of Ruwwad on local radio and TV. In doing so, they help to spread the word about the value of participating in the development of ones community through volunteering. Volunteering is still not a thoroughly good word in the UK.

Family members who demonstrate a commitment to civic participation in their own lives can be enormously influential in sending a positive message to youth about their own involvement in voluntary service. According to Elisabeth Hoodless, for example, research is showing that people who grow up in families where volunteering is normal are more likely to volunteer in the future. This points to the need for parents to expose their children to a culture of participation at an early age as a strategy for promoting a lifelong commitment to volunteering and service (without, of course, placing them in situations where they may be exploited as child workers).

In some cultures, however, it is the family unit that sometimes challenges the value of participation, particularly if it falls outside traditionally sanctioned forms of participation. While this impacts differently on young women and young men, it often constrains young women most strongly, owing to the traditional gender roles ascribed to women and girls. In cases like these, it is critical for youth service and volunteering programs to engage parents in their activities so as to cultivate an understanding of how their childs engagement can benefit his or her development and contribute to the wellbeing of the family, as well as making a wider social contribution.

No matter how many times I sit down with my parents, they dont understand what I am doing. They are resisting everything I do.
Young woman participant in ADWAR, a youth group in Alexandria, Egypt

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Influential champions of civic service and volunteering are also needed to help advance a positive image of volunteering and civic service. When celebrities, social entrepreneurs and other public figures share their stories of civic engagement through the media, it can inspire young people to take similar action and sends a message that giving back is cool. But young people also need direct exposure to the individuals in their immediate environment who are making a difference. Indeed, the most powerful and potentially transformative learning happens when youth have the opportunity to forge personal relationships with role models and gain the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned in a supportive environment.

Supporting legal, institutional and social conditions for youth civic engagement
For youth to become full and engaged members of society, certain enabling conditions must be in place. Most fundamentally, a robust and vibrant civil society must exist, where individuals have the freedom to form groups, participate in these groups and share information without fear of repression or arrest by the government. With the freedom to engage in civil society the space outside of the political and economic spheres citizens have the opportunity to come together in community-based groups, trade unions, charities, non-profit organizations, and religious groups as well as through the media to voice their different perspectives and influence social, political and cultural life. This allows for the plurality of ideas in a society to enter the public sphere and be discussed openly. Culture matters, but opportunities to participate can only come about if government and civil society do something.

In some countries, governments have passed legislation that restricts the formation and funding of civil society organizations as well as the ability for individuals to engage in activities that counter Heba Handoussa, Lead Author, Egypt Human Development Report 2010 entrenched norms or advocate for changes in public policy. These legislative actions diminish the space for civil society to operate and reduce the possibilities for citizens to engage as active members of their communities. For example, Egypts Emergency Law, which has been in effect since 1981, restricts freedom of association by giving the government the right to arrest individuals involved in gatherings, defined as more than three people convened together. In recent years, the Egyptian government has indicated that the Emergency Law will only be applied to counterterrorism and drug trafficking, but the law is still largely viewed inside and outside of the country as a mechanism to repress all forms of political opposition. 18

Conference participants made the further observation that while governments largely determine the legal framework within which civil society operates, individual citizens also have a responsibility to take advantage of the spaces available to them, whether small or large, to participate in their society. It is notable that even in contexts where civil society activity is restricted by law, individuals have leveraged even the smallest civic space to make remarkable and courageous contributions to their communities. In the process they have broadened the space for participation by others. For example, many conference attendees testified to the vibrancy of civil society in the Occupied Territories of Palestine where there is a high degree of insecurity, high levels of underdevelopment, and many restrictions on freedom of association, movement and expression. In the last five years, Egyptian society has witnessed the opening of more civic space, which has prompted a proliferation of new non-governmental organizations despite the continued existence of the Emergency Law.

Where the freedom to participate is protected by the government, but is not sufficiently practiced by citizens, the imperative then becomes engendering a culture of participation through the promotion of civic education. Through this process, young people can learn about their rights, understand better how to exercise them, and start to practice their right to active citizenship.

International organizations, the private sector and donors also have a role to play in promoting civic participation among youth. Through the provision of financial resources and building capacity, these entities can support smaller organizations working on participatory development issues. Support from an external entity can also lend legitimacy to an organization, thereby strengthening its efforts to mobilize funding from other organizations and helping it forge partnerships. In other cases organizations such as the United Nations can support efforts to create new entities that seek to involve people in addressing issues that have been neglected by government. Lastly, these global entities can support the promotion of youth civic engagement by using their influence to focus attention on the issue of youth participation. The annual Global Youth Service Day and the 10th anniversary of the International Year of the Volunteer (IYV+10) which will be celebrated in 2011, are two such examples. 19

A dominant view at the conference was that youth voluntary service flourishes most profoundly when multiple actors within society bring to bear their unique capabilities and perspectives on advancing the field. As previously discussed, players in each domain make unique contributions to supporting the growth of an enabling environment for youth civic engagement, and can play a leadership role in advancing the service and volunteering agenda among their peers and colleagues. However, cross-fertilization and collaboration within and across these different spheres is equally important. Taking a multisectoral approach can lead to significant advances in the youth service field and unleash the potential for transformation within individuals, institutions and society more widely. The next section will look at this issue in relation to policy and infrastructure for national service and volunteering at the country level.

Policy and youth service infrastructure as enabling factors

According to a variety of presentations made at the conference, there is no single pathway for establishing national youth service policy and programs. Sometimes government actors push forward a youth service agenda in keeping with critical national imperatives, such as youth development, social cohesion, nation-building, or human development. In other instances, civil society drives efforts to convince government officials about the need to establish youth service policy and programs, and supports the government in formulating policy and designing programs for youth engagement through service.

Success in establishing youth service policy and programs depends on number of different factors including political leadership, the appropriateness of advocacy strategies, and the particular historical, social and political environment of a country. While the strategies and arguments for youth service inevitably differ from context to context, certain key ingredients are necessary for the creation of a strong national youth service program. According to Susan Stroud, Executive Director of Innovations in Civic Participation, these include a combination of policy, investment and well-managed programs. The conference provided an opportunity to reflect on these different components of youth service in a range of country contexts where youth service has recently emerged, and also in situations where governments face challenges in sustaining meaningful and effective youth service programs.

High-level political leadership can be instrumental in creating the momentum for national service in a country and securing the passage of youth service legislation. In 2008, the Premier of Bermuda directed the governments Central Policy Unit to develop a National Service Plan, which was unveiled to the public for feedback in early 2010 and is cur20

rently in the process of being finalized. While the impetus for national youth service in Bermuda emanates from the political agenda of a national leader, political support is also critical when civil society is advocating for national youth service. For example, over the last fifteen years, the French non-governmental organization, Unis-Cit, led a nation-wide campaign to mobilize support for national youth service in that country. In 2007, the two leading presidential candidates in the French elections argued in favor of national youth service, thus signaling the impending success of their campaign. This was consolidated in 2009 by the announcement of the creation of the new French Service Civique.

It is important to note however, that changes in political leadership can also shift the national youth service agenda in a country. As priorities change and resources are reallocated or scaled back, government departments and civil society organizations must adapt to new scenarios. Elisabeth Hoodless, Executive Director of Community Service Volunteers (CSV), emphasized this point when she shared how the levels of political support for volunteering and service have ebbed and flowed over the past 20 years in the UK, with considerable impact on civil society organizations working in the sector. Following the changing political dispensation in the UK after the 2010 general election, CSV is in the process of adapting to yet another shift in the direction of national youth service. Under the new government, the approach focuses on giving 16 year-olds a six-week opportunity to engage with young people from different backgrounds through a combination of service and outdoor activities.

At the conference, the various sessions on national youth service policy helped shed light on the diverse reasons why governments buy into the idea of national service programs and how government priorities shape the design of youth service programs. Government officials from Mali and the Cote dIvoire cited high rates of youth unemployment as one of the key concerns of their governments. In both countries, service programs seek to contribute to the development of their youth populations while also engaging them in the countrys national development efforts to reduce poverty and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The justification for national service in France has less to do with human development and more to do with improving social cohesion in a country that is increasingly defined and destabilized by its religious, cultural and racial divides. In Germany the three-year old govern21

ment-funded Weltwrts service program seeks to give German youth an education in development and expects them to act as development educators among their peers and colleagues upon their return.

These contributions produced three key observations. Firstly, it is important to understand government priorities when devising campaigns and strategies to advance a national youth service agenda in different countries and different contexts. Representatives from Unis-Cit in France emphasized the importance of producing evidence-based research findings in order to convince governments about the impact of youth service, while the UK experience shows that it may be possible to demonstrate that enrolling young people in effective service programs can reduce public expenditure on youth in conflict with the law in the longer-term. A few participants suggested that it is important to involve young people in these conversations with government in order to strengthen advocacy efforts.

Secondly, it is critical to understand where the leverage points are in a country for promoting national youth service within the government (e.g. the Premier, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Defense, etc.). Finding these points of entry depends in part on whether or not youth service is viewed as a developmental strategy through voluntary participation or whether it takes place on the basis of conscription. And thirdly, it is important for civil society actors in the volunteering and service fields to position themselves as resources that can help to formulate policy, and design and implement programs in partnership with government. VSO Kenya, UNV, ICP and Unis-Cit have positioned themselves in this way with much success.

Conference attendees also reported a host of challenges associated with sustaining and scaling up national youth service programs. Governments in South Africa and Ghana are keen to expand their youth service programs so as to benefit a broader spectrum of youth and promote social cohesion, but are struggling to reach their goals because of misperceptions among some youth that service is only for poor youth. They are thus in the process of 22

developing new programs and strategies to promote wider participation, in some cases drawing on closer engagement with civil society organizations. Italys national service demonstrates how expanding the target group to include women helped shift perceptions about the nature of the program and its perceived value. Countries like Bermuda and France are using incentives to promote participation in their new programs, a strategy which could be adopted by more well-established schemes that are seeking to promote new, more innovative, directions for growth. Finally, countries such as Mali, Niger and France are facing funding constraints, which limit their ability to scale up programs. Establishing multi-sectoral partnerships between government, inter-governmental actors, civil society and the private sector may be a strategy for mobilizing the necessary resources whilst promoting greater sustainability of youth service programs.

Youth service and transitions to adulthood

A variety of conference sessions examined the role of youth service in supporting the transitions that young people make to adulthood. The context of youth unemployment featured high on the conference agenda given that global youth unemployment is currently at a record high of 13% and, according to a 2009 ILO report, is still expected to increase. In countries in the Middle East, youth unemployment rates of more than 20% are common and in sub-Saharan African countries, this rises to over 40%. The connection between employability and service is thus particularly relevant for countries struggling with high youth unemployment rates, but at the same time presents a range of challenges. For example, cultural practices may constrain the ability of young women to access employment it was noted that in Egypt gender equality in the workforce has regressed in recent years. Young people in many countries face a vicious cycle in which their weak social networks and lack of experience limits their access to the job market. In some cases this increases their vulnerability to crime, substance abuse and other risk behaviors, making it even more difficult to complete their school education or obtain post-school qualifications, thus reducing their chances of entering the job market even further. The extent to which youth service can help young people surmount these hurdles is explored in the following section. However, conference participants emphasized the importance of keeping a balance between the service goals of youth civic participation and its potential for grooming young people for employment through increasing their preparedness for the workplace.

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Youth leadership

A number of conference presentations showed that service and volunteer programs provide young people with the opportunity to discover their leadership potential and offer them space in which to practice their leadership abilities with their peers, community members and adults. To build leadership, however, Through youth service, we the experience must provide youth with the necessary supcan build a critical mass of port, guidance and opportunities to develop a sense of agency, new skills, and an understanding of ones rights young leaders that are enerand responsibilities as a global citizen. As a result of their getic and enthusiastic, who involvement in a voluntary activity be it arts, sports, are creative, capable and community development, advocacy or charity many committed to their communiyoung people go on to become role models who encourage ties and countries. others to seek out their dreams, become involved in their Esther Benjamin, Associate Director for Global communities and practice the values of diversity, equality Operations, US Peace Corps and participation in their day- to-day lives.

Building confidence in a young persons ideas and perspectives is fundamental to leadership development among youth. At the American University in Cairo in Egypt, Anne Schafer is employing a service-learning methodology to help her students and the youth in the communities where her students serve to give expression to their individuality: The making of art is not about the final product but about the process. And the process we are teaching is the process of finding ones voice. What do I want to say and how will I go about saying that and how will it be received? [Answering these questions] is the key to becoming an adult.

The ADWAR Youth Initiative in Egypt, which works on issues of youth identity, youth leadership, and inter-cultural exchange, has empowered many of its members to take on new leadership roles and responsibilities, which they were previously afraid to attempt. By building themselves by themselves, ADWAR members have inspired and supported their peers beyond the group to set up parallel youth initiatives and organizations.

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A number of presentations stressed that while young people have a lot to teach each other as well as older and younger generations, this is not adequately recognized in many cultures, nor is it sufficiently appreciated within the youth service or youth development and volunteering sectors. The Naseej Foundation believes strongly in the need to promote youth ownership in all aspects of its activities, including the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of projects. Ruwwad, a Palestinian Youth Empowerment project also believes in the power of youth and sees its role as providing a platform for young people to incubate their ideas and dreams. Conference participants argued that when viewed in this light by adults, young people can become drivers of their own transformation, learn new skills and form new perspectives that will assist them in furthering their own development process, as well as that of their peers and the communities in which they engage. I used to be very shy and I felt uncomfortable around people, so my participation was limited. Now here I am speaking in public and holding a microphone.
Basma Abd El-aziz Founding member of ADWAR Alexandria, Egypt

So far ADWAR has helped me realize many of my dreams and to approach the rest. I was extremely shy and I couldnt express myself in public but I became confident, distinguished.
Mayar Jacoub, 17 year-old Member of ADWAR

Structured service-learning programs help to transform youth into leaders with skills and knowledge relevant to their communities and instill a commitment to civic engagement that endures throughout their adult lives. This belief is at the core of the Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School in Panama City, Florida, US, which takes as its starting point the notion that all individuals, including differently-abled individuals, can learn from and contribute to their community. The value of service is enshrined in the schools Life-Centered Career Education curriculum, which enables students to help others whilst building their own skills. The school aims not only to contribute to the development of its students, but also to groom students for a lifetime commitment to civic engagement.

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Youth employability
The conference presentations demonstrated that there is an astounding amount of anecdotal evidence that points to a positive relationship between volunteering and service and employability among youth. Many service programs are in fact designed to link graduates to employment opportunities by preparing them for work within the private and public sectors. At the same time, participation in volunteering and service does not guarantee jobs for young people; rather, youth service can equip them with skills, knowledge and attitudes that will assist them with the job search and enhance their performance in the workplace. Managing these expectations can be a challenge for organizations and governments involved in the service and volunteering fields.

Practitioners and young people testified to ways in which involvement in youth volunteering and service help young people prepare for the workplace, help them access work opportunities, and enable them to pursue sustainable livelihoods. Through their involvement in service and volunteering, youth can experiment with different professional fields, develop critical skills needed for the workplace, and access new social networks and information, which open doors of opportunity. Innumerable governments and civil society programs are based on this premise, and even programs that do not explicitly seek to increase the employability of their participants report gains in this area.

When recruiting personnel, employers do not only consider the technical skills of potential new employees, they also look for so-called soft skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication skills and leadership within the context of diversity. This is confirmed by a survey conducted by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a USbased organization that advocates for 21st Century work-readiness among students. The study found that 2,115 managers and other executives of American Marketing Association member and customer companies in the US value the aforementioned soft skills but think that the majority of their employees do not perform sufficiently well in these areas. 26

Several conference participants showed that in various countries, Palestine and Egypt being two examples, there is a mismatch between the skills that employers are looking for in their employees and what students are learning in schools. It was suggested that informal and experiential learning that occurs when young people are involved in youth service and service-learning programs offer young people one avenue for acquiring the soft skills so desired by employers. This is of particular importance as employers seek to compete in an increasingly globalised, fast-paced and ever-changing economy. As the three examples below demonstrate, youth service provides young people in many different contexts with opportunities to test their interests and abilities in certain professional fields and to identify a career path that resonates with their particular passions and strengths.

Supporting students to link service to job searches in Lebanon The Volunteering Services Project at St. Joseph University of Beirut, Lebanon provides students with a variety of opportunities to volunteer in their communities and in student campus life, whilst also supporting them to develop skills in areas such as management and dialogue through training and mentoring. One participant is now employed with the Universitys medical centre, which she attributes to the skills, networks and opportunities she gained as a volunteer through the Universitys service-learning programme. Through two core programmes the ABC Action Bnvole et Citoyenne elective course and the Operation 7th Day student committee the university helps students to identify the competencies they gained through their service experience in order to develop a CV and a project portfolio, which they can use to pursue job opportunities.

Increased employability as an outcome of youth service in South Africa groundBREAKERS, the national youth service corps of South Africas HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention organization loveLife, provides some basic career guidance to its servers, but does not focus on linking its graduates with employment opportunities post-service. Despite this, a study conducted by VOSESA in 2007 revealed that while only 12% of groundBREAKERS were employed prior to the program, 59% are employed after having gone through the program. When compared to the national average, which shows that only 36% of their peers find employment, this suggests that participation in the loveLife youth service program may help youth to access employment opportunities. Ninety per cent of the graduates who were employed stated that the groundBREAKER programme had strongly influenced their ability to secure employment.

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In addition to the above-mentioned examples, the conference heard evidence that service among young people in employment can impact on their career advancement prospects and increase their income. A study conducted by the John D Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo, found that 95% of 200 young people that were in the workforce and spent 6-12 months volunteering had enjoyed a 30% increase in their income after they finished volunteering. The same individuals had also made at least one career change after their time volunteering. These results point to the role that voluntary service can play in setting young people on a career path and increasing their prospects for gainful employment. However, more research is required to convince actors outside of the youth voluntary sector, especially those in the private and government sectors, about the value of voluntary service in preparing youth for the workplace. In most countries, the empirical data on this issue remains thin, particularly in developing countries where the relationship between employability and service is particularly relevant, given the existence of structural unemployment within a wider context of underdevelopment. The accreditation of youth service programs provides another way of enhancing recognition among private and public sector players of the benefits of youth service. Experience has show that French employers still hold academic degrees in far higher esteem than nonformal experience or skills gained through service. The National Civic Agency in France is thus attempting to secure accreditation for its program through an existing process, which allows individuals to apply for a degree after completing I look for people who have three years of professional experience. If successful, graduvolunteer experience and ates of the French NYS program will be able to lobby for a prefer to give jobs to people degree with two years of professional experience and one who demonstrate that they year of service. In Namibia, the National Youth Service proare interested in giving gram has adopted a formal vocational training curriculum time to community and to used by other reputable training entities in order to increase developing themselves the chances of its recruits being hired by employers, who through training. generally prefer to hire individuals from accredited proMohammed Hanno, Alexandria grams.
Business Association (ABA), Egypt

Some youth service organizations have made deliberate efforts to align their skills development program components with the needs of employers. Examples were given of service programs that reached out to employers in both the public and private sectors to learn about their hiring needs. They then aligned their youth skills training component to these needs, educated employers about their service program, and successfully placed their graduates in a variety of companies, organizations 28

and government departments with whom they had built working relationships. For the Palestinian Education for Employment Foundation, this has proved to be a successful strategy: Employers now call us for our graduates because they see our graduates as assets.

A number of speakers shared examples of how the private sector is helping to prepare youth for the workplace by sharing human and financial resources to support volunteering and service programs. The Alexandria Business Association in Egypt draws on donations from its members to run its From School to Work program, which supports vocational schools to tailor their curriculum to the needs of the market and assists students in identifying markets for their projects. Another example came from V in England, which runs a program that encourages companies to invest in youth volunteering programs through donations and by participating in training workshops for youth. The program works well because V gets needed resources while the corporate players gain tangible benefits: they realize that they have something to offer young people and get a chance to learn more about youth with whom they would not typically interact.

Some speakers also indicated that the private sector could do much more to foster youth civic engagement. Ayman Shehata, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Director of Price Waterhouse Coopers (Egypt) noted that while it is encouraging to see large and small companies playing different roles in development, companies must first be persuaded that supporting youth service is in their best interest. In Egypt, 90% of employment takes place in small, medium and micro enterprises. Large companies can invest in the sector with financial and human resources, while small companies need to be persuaded to play a different role. More effort is needed to help companies understand how youth service can enable young people develop the crucial skills of communication, collaboration and teamwork, creativity and critical thinking so sought-after in young recruits entering the workforce. Corporate support of quality youth service programs can swell the opportunities for young people to Proposition: Civic engagelearn these skills in anticipation of their search for jobs. Ul- ment among young people, if timately the field needs more people like Mohammed structured correctly, can Hanno of the Alexandria Business Association, who pro- spark social entrepreneurmotes awareness about the benefits of volunteering and ship; and social entrepreneurship, correctly structured, can service among his peers in the business world. drive entrepreneurialism.
Scott Burnett, loveLife

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Youth social entrepreneurship

Youth social entrepreneurship is a burgeoning sector increasingly viewed as a critical strategy for promoting youth engagement, enhancing income generation among youth and developing innovative solutions to the social and economic challenges of the day. With the global youth population at 1.4 billion, accessing the traditional job market is not an option for all youth, nor is it necessarily the preference of youth today. When Silatech asked youth in 22 Arab countries about the skills they would like to develop, most youth wanted to gain more experience with writing a business plan. Of the 15% of Arab youth who reported to Silatech that they planned to start their own business in the next twelve months, 12% were from high-income countries in the region, 57% from middle-income countries, and 32% from low-income countries. Six percent of the respondents indicated that they wanted to start a business in order to help their community. This points to a demand among youth for social entrepreneurship opportunities and also hints to a mutually supportive relationship between civic engagement and social entrepreneurship. Although income generation is often cited as a criterion for defining social entrepreneurship, Ashok Regmi from the International Youth Foundation stressed that this is not a principle characteristic of social entrepreneurship. Instead, he offers the following simplified definition: Social entrepreneurship is an approach whereby young people have a passion and theyve started something to address something in an innovative way. The following story exemplifies IYFs conception of a social entrepreneur and the kind of approach IYF is looking to support: Bright Simmons is 16 and from Ghana. He decided he wanted to understand pharmaceutical fraud in Africa since this is a big problem on the continent. Government and other entities were taking action, but he didnt think their approaches were addressing the root cause of the problem. He felt he needed to give power back to the consumers. So he created a system to check the prescription bar codes using cell phone technology. Now consumers can go into a shop, type in the bar code into their cell and find out if a medicine is fraudulent or not.

The first step in creating an enabling environment for social entrepreneurship involves encouraging youth to start thinking unconventionally and to see the potential benefits of social entrepreneurship for their lives. Just like a plant needs an ecosystem to grow, so do youth social entrepreneurs need an ecosystem [in which to flourish], said 30

Dahlia Helaly from INJAZ Egypt, an organization that involves volunteers in providing training and support to young social entrepreneurs. In Egypt, youth are hesitant to explore the social entrepreneurship domain because of the strong culture of fear surrounding risktaking and failure. Parents put a lot of pressure on their children to focus on getting good grades and often see any kind of extra-curricular non-academic activity as a distraction to their childrens studies. INJAZ is attempting to combat this by raising awareness about social entrepreneurship among children at the primary level, supporting youth to articulate and act on their ideas and engaging parents to help them better understand how its program can set their children on a successful and meaningful path.

Innovative ideas for new businesses often grow out of informal conversations among young people in places where youth tend to gather. At this early stage, ideas tend to be undeveloped, but it is nevertheless important for youth to get started, even without a clear plan, so that the social entrepreneurship journey can begin. The International Youth Foundation supports young people to pass through the various stages of this journey and has identified the following areas where youth require support:

1. 2. 3.

Youth leadership you cant change the world until you change yourself Visionary leadership knowing how to think big, but act small Knowledge leadership the importance of having knowledge about the sector in which you are seeking to innovate

If you have a vision and you dont take any action then it is a daydream.
Dahlia Helaly, INJAZ, Egypt

4. 5. 6.

Collaborative leadership promotion of inter-generational collaboration across diversity Organization leadership the nuts and bolts of running an organization Societal leadership knowing when and how to go to scale and promote sustainability

Social entrepreneurs also need access to finance. INJAZ is trying to work with banks in Egypt to increase their receptiveness to investing in high-risk start-up businesses. A number of other entities such as Ashoka, the Skoll Foundation, Schwab Foundation and YouthAction are providing critical financial support to social entrepreneurs around the 31

globe and are playing a much needed enabling role. However, accessing enough finance to meet the demand continues to be one of the greatest challenges facing the sector. Governments can take a lead on social entrepreneurship by creating policy frameworks that encourage social enterprises to flourish. For example, in the United Kingdom, the Office of the Third Sector was set up to work across government departments to support voluntary and community groups, social enterprises, charities, cooperatives and mutuals. In 2005, the British government introduced a new type of company called a community interest company (CIC) under the Companies Audit Investigations and Community Enterprise Act 2004, designed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good. The law is designed to make it easier for these companies to be set up in the UK and enables companies to apply for charitable status so that they can more easily use their assets for the public benefit. A similar structure exists in the US called a low-profit limited liability company (L3C), which provides a structure for companies to facilitate investments in socially beneficial, for-profit ventures while simplifying compliance with International Revenue Service rules.

Youth service contributions to development and peace

Youth civic engagement and youth service programs are increasingly being viewed as strategies for promoting development and peace in communities, countries, regions and globally. Youth participation in development and peace efforts can be structured or unstructured and may involve a range of activities including charity, philanthropy, humanitarian work, service delivery, capacity-building, service learning, advocacy and awarenessraising. Given the opportunity, youth can apply their skills, passion, energy and knowledge to addressing the most pressing challenges of the day such as HIV/AIDS in South Africa, education in Ghana, unemployment in Egypt, religious tolerance in Philippines, peacebuilding in the Cote dIvoire, and religious fundamentalism in Pakistan. In the process, young people get to know themselves better and grow as individuals in environments that value engagement and helping others. In short, as youth develop their capabilities through participation, they also contribute to building healthier, vibrant and more cohesive communities and nations. 32

Meeting community needs

It was noted at the conference that far too often, people in developing countries look outside for expertise and experience when a range of assets already exists within their communities. By shifting the development perspective to include a focus on assets in addition to needs, youth can be engaged in development processes that unleash their potential to become change agents in their own communities. Hisham El Rouby, President and CEO of ETIJAH (Youth and Development Consulting Institute) in Egypt articulated the power of applying the asset-based community development approach to youth in his story about a small village in Upper Egypt: When I started to work with the youth in the village, I discovered that there was a small channel, which community members wanted to build a bridge over. So I asked around to find out who had studied engineering. I then asked these young people to design a safe bridge and asked them what materials they would need to build the bridge. The bridge that community members had waited over 25 years to be built was completed by this group of talented youth in one week." This story is a testament to the reality that, given opportunity and support, young people can contribute to overcoming the development challenges facing their communities.

The US Peace Corps also embraces an asset-based community International Peace development model. In the communities where Peace Corps volunteers serve, local youth are seen as critical partners in Corps volunteers can play the development process because they understand the devel- a role to inspire and supopment priorities and opportunities of their communities and port community members to volunteer. often impart invaluable language and cultural skills to Peace Corps volunteers. The Peace Corps has recently experienced a Kathryn Green, Expert Consultant, Overseas rise in requests from governments, NGOs, community memProgramming and Training bers and youth in the countries in which it operates to assist Support, US Peace Corps with the development of indigenous and particularly community-based volunteer programs. In response, the Peace Corps has developed the hand book V2 Volunteer Action Guide: Multiplying the Power of Service, which provides guidance to Peace Corps volunteers on how to work with youth at the local level to address the development issues that they think are important in their communities.

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Supporters of active learning often give the following average retention rates for the various instructional modes: Lecture 5%, Reading 10%, Audiovisuals 20%, Demonstration 30%, Discussion 50%, Practice by doing 75% and Teaching others 90%.

As quoted by Ashok Regmi, International Youth Foundation

Some of the conference presentations suggested that governments contending with large youth populations, high unemployment rates and poverty are increasingly looking internally and seeing youth as partners in development. For example, the Ghana National Youth Service Scheme deploys its participants (recent college graduates) to communities across the country based on the nations development priorities. Ghana is currently experiencing a deficit in teachers at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels of its education system and thus 60% of NYS participants are being incorporated into the education sector. Through the Community Improvement Unit service participants offer their skills where needed, help to develop income-generating skills among community members, and work with communities to design and execute relevant development programs that promote sustainable livelihoods.

Community-based learning (or service learning) at higher education institutions is an emerging strategy in many developing countries, including Egypt and South Africa. By linking the spheres of academic learning and practice, and asking students to reflect on situations and people outside of their normal day-to-day lives, service learning engages students in a rich and valuable learning experience that prepares them to be more effective development actors in touch with realities on the ground. While community-based learning can help shape youth into development actors, some youth are already taking action to address the needs of their communities. The youth members of the Gudran Association for Art and Development are Unlike their parents and promoting empowerment and development by involving grandparents, youth arent ordinary people on the streets of Egyptian communities in waiting for opportunities to the artistic process. Gudrans work in the fishing village of El be offered to them. They Max has spurred a sense of pride among community members in their village, encouraged them to take action to improve are beginning to form their their community, and promoted a respect for cultural diversity own initiatives and organiand gender equality, particularly among children. In South sations. Africa, the groundBreakers program involves youth volunteers Barbara Ibrahim, Director, John D. Gerhart Centre for Philanas peer educators for HIV prevention in their communities. thropy and Civic Engagement, This is another example of the power of youth-led initiatives American University of Cairo to impact positively on the development challenges of our day. 34

The private sector can also promote locally-owned development in the communities in which they serve and operate. This is the vision of Ayman Shehata, CSR Director of Price Waterhouse Coopers, who believes that the private sector can take a more significant lead in youth development. He argues that by recognizing young people as assets and taking a cross-sectoral approach to stimulating sustainable development initiatives, young people can be empowered to be the drivers of their own development and that of the communities in which they live.

Promoting social cohesion

Youth civic engagement and service work at a number of Ayman Shehata, CSR Director, different levels to promote social cohesion. Firstly, particiPrice Waterhouse Coopers (Egypt) pation in service and other civic engagement activities enables youth to counter the social exclusion that they experience personally in their lives. Often youth feel outside of the social, cultural and political structures that largely govern their lives. With unemployment affecting youth disproportionately, many young people continue to be marginalized from the mainstream economy through poverty and their struggle to secure sustainable livelihoods. This is felt most acutely by girls and young women, many of whom have missed out on a quality education and lack the skills and social networks needed to find a path out of poverty. Secondly, youth participation can contribute to alleviating the social exclusion experienced by others in society, such as people with disabilities, the elderly and foreigners. Thirdly, participation in youth service or Social integration is defined civic activities can provide a space for individuals to learn as a dynamic and principled about and collaborate with people who are different process of promoting the val- from them, and to develop shared values in the process. This is particularly relevant in countries that have experiues, relations and institutions enced civil war or have a history of violence, oppression and that enable all people to partensions between different religious, ethnic, racial and culticipate in social, economic, tural groups. cultural and political life on the basis of equality of rights, equity and dignity. At the conference, Scott Burnett, Group Programs Director of
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2009

Development is sophisticated and inter-related. You cant come from one sector and lead the rest of the economy: you must work with education, health, industry, economics and investment and inter-relate it all. You cant make the change by yourself. You must mobilize and synergise with other sectors, but need to trust that the people from other sectors are assets.

loveLife in South Africa pointed out that youth are constantly searching for a place to belong. This is not something specific to youth in South Africa, but rather something 35

common to youth around the world. Youth civic engagement pro- If you teach a young grams such as loveLife offer a safe space in which young people person to love oneself can gain a sense of belonging and develop themselves as indi- then they will love life. viduals. Through their involvement, youth are also exposed to Tebogo Ramotshadi, loveLife new experiences and this in turn creates opportunities for them youth volunteer and conferto challenge stereotypes and social boundaries and to build new ence participant relationships, sometimes across traditional divides. In this way programs can promote bridging social capital between diverse groups of young people in society.

V Talent Year, a program of V: The National Young Volunteers Service in the UK, seeks to enable 16-25 year olds to influence public sector services while also increasing their employability. The V program intentionally targets youth who are not involved in any form of training, education or employment and who are thus vulnerable to a whole host of risks such as unemployment, drugs, pregnancy, homelessness, and crime. V Talent Year participants are placed for 44 weeks in full-time volunteer positions in various organizations and have access to personal development grants of up to 1,500 GBP. A survey administered to young people who had completed the program in June 2010 found that 26% had progressed to employment; 48% had gone on to further education; and 15% had taken up another volunteer placement. Also, 85% of the youth reported being more aware of organizations they could call on for help and support (V: The National Young Volunteers Service; 2010).

Research conducted in the United States further supports the contention that youth service and civic engagement sets youth on productive paths. According to Elisabeth Hoodless, the US-based Family Planning Association conducted a study, which shows that involving young people in service is the most effective way of dissuading young girls from getting pregnant. This is because the youth service experience gives young girls an opportunity to discover their talents, reflect on their interests and broaden their vision of what they are capable of doing with their lives.

The Namibian National Youth Service (NYS) is committed to promoting national development along with a sense of patriotism and nationhood among its recruits who are drawn from different segments of Namibian society. The Namibian NYS has instituted special measures in the application process to ensure that the Himba and San peoples, who are indigenous minorities that have been marginalized in Namibia, can access the program. With36

out these affirmative measures, the NYS Commissioner, Onesmus Katanga Upindi, stressed that these people would be left behind. Other governments are also looking to their National Youth Service programs to break down the social and economic divides in their countries, which, if unaddressed, threaten to cause destabilization. Lastly, youth exchange programs, especially those that involve peer teaching and learning among youth, can be a powerful tool for stimulating cross-cultural understanding and respect. In 2005, an Egyptian youth initiative called ADWAR implemented an exchange program with German youth called the Building Bridges Project with the support of the Goethe Institute. By visiting each other, eating the same food as their hosts, living in each others homes, and working together, doors of understanding, empathy and respect were opened between the German and Egypt youth. As one young Egyptian conference participant shared: It was only when I sat with the German people that I finally understood the difficulties with talking about the Holocaust. One students mother had been a child in the concentration camp and couldnt bring herself to talk about the experience. And it was only when the Germans came to Egypt and talked to us, that they could really understand our feelings on the Palestinian issue.

In 2010, the French government launched its National Youth Service programme with the strong support of President Sarkozy. Many government officials view the programme as a key strategy for building social cohesion in a context where many immigrants, particularly those living in the French suburbs, are experiencing social and economic alienation. In South Africa, the National Youth Service recruited thousands of young people to support the hosting of two of the largest world events in the soccer calendar: the Confederations Cup in 2009 and the Fifa Soccer World CupTM in 2010. In the process, the NYS partnered with the South African Football Association (SAFA) to conduct a four-week youth mobilization campaign aimed at teaching communities about national symbols and the importance of national pride, as well as the value of welcoming foreigners into the country.

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Peace-building
Youth service and civic engagement programs can provide an effective means of fostering reconstruction and peace-building in countries that have been ravaged by war and conflict. Countries such as South Africa, Nigeria and Liberia are already employing national service as a strategy for building peace, social cohesion and development in their countries. In Cte dIvoire in 2010, the government initiated a pilot National Youth Service project with 200 young people, which aims to involve the youth population in rebuilding the country in the aftermath of its civil war (2002-2007). Young people are being deployed to assist with addressing education and urban health needs, as well Engagement is the as to counter inter-ethnic and inter-religious tensions that still linger in the country. A key aim of the program is to contribute to so- best tool for living cial cohesion in the communities where young people are experi- peacefully and encing marginalization and community action sites have been promoting peace. launched towards this end. Sabiha Shaheen,
Executive Director, BARGAD, Pakistan

The Philippines Muslims Volunteering Organization for Peace and Development (Kapamagogopa Inc.) works to promote cross-cultural relationships, community empowerment, and poverty alleviation in the southern Philippines, an area where there have long been tensions between Muslims and Christians. Young Muslim professionals as well as young Muslims with a Bachelors Degree can participate in the program and are trained to become peace weavers in Muslim and non-Muslim communities. Youth participants bring their skills, as well as a perspective of respect, tolerance, and understanding to the organizations in which they volunteer. In the process, they demonstrate that Muslims are not simply recipients of development, as thought by many in the Filipino community, but in fact have a valuable contribution to make to development and peace-building.

Youth participation can also provide a pathway for youth away from violence and religious fundamentalism and towards engagement in peaceful, productive and positive activities. BARGAD, a Pakistani youth development organization, has been promoting youth civic engagement on university campuses as an alternative to youth participation in fundamentalist and militant groups. When 38

BARGAD approaches young people who have joined militant Reconciliation is not about groups, they find that many of the young men and women do state and institution its not want to die and want peace, but feel that they do not have about the interaction beany other options. BARGAD has responded by establishing tween us. working relationships with more than 35 higher education inAly El-Raggal, stitutions all over the country to facilitate its work on camADWAR Youth Initiative, Egypt puses. Thus far, more than 74,000 students, faculty members and citizens have benefited from BARGADs Peace and Youth Cooperation program, which provides young people with opportunities to foster their personal development, promotes youth dialogue on challenges facing the country (e.g. extremism and the humanitarian crisis following the 2010 floods) and encourages youth action for the common good.

Conference speakers stressed that peace-building is not only about managing relations between and within nations, but is rather a never-ending process for which we as individuals must take responsibility in our own personal and professional lives. Youth national service and youth civic engagement activities provide youth with an opportunity to develop their skills as well as gain a better understanding of their rights, which in turn helps them to deal with the violence and conflict that they may face in their lives. Youth civic engagement can also help to build awareness among people of all ages about their power, and how the power they hold shapes and impacts on their relationships with others.

Assessing the impact of youth service

Throughout the conference, participants stressed the importance of impact evaluation for programming and advocacy, but also shared the challenges they face with designing, planning and implementing impact evaluations in their own organizations and programs. At the conference session on impact evaluation, participants raised a number of questions on the topic related to issues of methodology, scope, the timing and planning of data collection, categories for measurement, sharing of information and best practices, and the linkages between measurement and program design. The presentations (by Manon Bernier from UNV and Stephanie Desnogues from Unis-Cit in France) and discussions on good practice in impact assessment (facilitated by Ron Israel, Sarah Nogueira Sanca and Sarah Sladen from the Education Development Center, US) provided a range of insights into these questions, as outlined below.

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How to measure impacts in NYS programs?

Participants noted that while most programs achieve a range of outputs, the extent to which these can be considered results or impacts requires further investigation. For example, which change is being assessed? Is it the change in the volunteers, the host organization or community members? Did these changes have a broader impact on government or on individuals outside of the primary target group? Clarifying what results one is looking at and which ones should be measured should be clearly defined at the outset of an evaluation.

Questions from conference participants about impact evaluation We see social, academic, civil and skills development impacts on youth and on communities, but how do we measure them? What is a cost-effective strategy to collect baseline data? And when should this be done?

Lots of organizations are developing their own methodologies to measure the impact of youth service programs. Which practices are most useful? How can we share those and how can we avoid reinventing the wheel?

UNV has embarked on various initiatives to measure the results of volunteering. One such initiative, the Comparative Non-Profit Sector Project, being carried out in cooperation with Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and the ILO, measures the economic contribution of volunteering to national economies and their GDP. JHU has developed tools for National Statistics Offices to include this kind of data in satellite accounts administered in national statistics offices.

How can evaluation drive scale and quality? And what about the cost-effectiveness of National Youth Service? For every dollar, dinar or pound, how much do you get back? How do you measure the benefits side?

What are the most effective ways of assessing the snowball effects of a youth civic engagement initiative on a campus?

UNV has also developed what they call the V-methodology, a participatory process that involves stakeholders and volunteers in defining their contributions to development by looking at changes in behavior, relations, attitudes, perceptions, etc. In this sense, the methodology is a process evaluation rather than an impact assessment, and provides a structured, participatory method to reflect on how volunteers contribute to agencies that are responsible for social change: what went well, what was unsuccessful and how pro40

grams can improve their activities to increase their impact. The process enables people to be open about what worked and what did not, and also produces ownership of the results. These tools will soon be published by UNV on their website (www.unv.org) and will be available for wider use.

In general, youth service program outcomes may include increased participation, behavior change, and access to opportunities; increased civic engagement and responsibility; the ability of youth to replicate what they personally experienced and spread it out to others; and developing a career path.

Conference participants shared a variety of perspectives on their experience of developing indicators for youth change. In South Africa and many other countries, youth change needs to focus on taking young people from a position of ignorance to a place of knowledge and awareness when they leave the program. In other cases, youth change may focus more on giving young people the skills and experience to develop their potential and increase their ability to get a job after the period of service. One example from the US described youth change occurring for young people with severe psycho-social handicaps, where participation in youth service programs can help improve their health and wellbeing.

Methods for assessing impact

What methods do programs use to measure these indicators? Small to medium size programs differ in what they measure and how. One small project in Kuwait works with children aged 9-13, using volunteers who are older youth. The volunteers stay in continuous contact with the youth who complete the program to see how well they retain knowledge gained through the program; in some cases, program graduates may be rehired into the program as volunteers. An organization in Sri Lanka tracks whether youth go on to lead their own projects and asks them to report back on what they have done. In Senegal, a youth service program in the agricultural sector checks participants bank accounts for accumulation of funds in order to measure their savings and uses community surveys to measure youth change more broadly. 41

In other cases, projects may not focus on the youth service process, but rather emphasize and seek to assess the extent to which young people internalize change in themselves, no matter what their service experience.

There was unanimity among conference participants that youth need to take the lead in conceptualizing monitoring and evaluation strategies to measure the impact of youth service on community change. It was suggested that participatory methods can play a role where community members themselves identify how youth service has changed their communities, and the young people engaged in service are trained in these methods in order to facilitate the consensus around what change means and how it should be assessed.

A different kind of methodology is required if the aim is to compare program designs to find out which are most efficient (as is the case in France). In this case, baseline and/or comparative data should be collected in terms that can later be used to analyze impact across programs. Sharing such instruments more widely could help NYS programs evaluate themselves in relation to each other, provided a bank of scales and measurement tools were available that could be used to compare and aggregate results.

The importance of collecting baseline information at the start of programs was stressed, as it provides a basis for comparison, tracking progress and improving the program as it develops. This information can provide program managers with significant insights, but too often programs do not make available the resources needed for this step.

42

A youth civic service program in France, Unis-Cit, embarked on a five-year monitoring and evaluation process to demonstrate the impact of its approach to youth civic engagement. It tracked the programs impact on the social, economic and political integration of volunteers, on NGOs and on local public policies (tracking whether local government officials felt that civic service volunteers could make a difference). Quantitative methods were used to survey participants at three points in their service experience: when they start their period of service, at the end of their first period of engagement (after 6-9 months), and then a final survey six months after completion of service. The program also used qualitative methods to track impact on the volunteers and beneficiaries. Unis-Cit found that by using the Internet to administer the surveys, it could double the response rate and also save costs. The Education Development Center in the US has also used text messaging on mobile phones as a survey technique, although this limits the research to a maximum of 5 questions. Various examples of how incentives can increase response rates were shared, including monetary incentives whereby respondents can make a small donation to a charity of their choice in return for completing the survey or offering respondents a text messaging service that puts them in line for job matching, and enables the researchers to track their progress. One participant indicated that when researchers send the message I want to learn about you and hear from you what has happened in the last six months, this may be sufficient incentive for many respondents to participate. In Sri Lanka, for example, researchers found that a survey tracking instances of stigma and discrimination with people living with AIDS enlisted exceptional participation from respondents, none of whom requested compensation despite a demanding and lengthy questionnaire.

How to measure the cost-effectiveness of NYS programs?

With the help of a leading French business school and a partner in the Netherlands, UnisCit assessed its program impact in financial terms in order to demonstrate to donors and local communities the monetary value of the volunteer contribution. The study demonstrated that for every input of 1 to the program, the output of the volunteers amounted to 3.49. However, while this provided a measure of financial effectiveness, it was not necessarily the best way of assessing the programs comprehensive value. NGOs are usually more interested in the qualitative nature of program assessments, while companies tend to seek more pragmatic assessments of return on investment in the short-term as part of their corporate social responsibility agenda. However, despite its attractiveness to donors, UnisCit has chosen to focus more on its qualitative and quantitative assessments in order to 43

demonstrate program impact, given the complexity of assumptions behind the costeffectiveness calculation. In assessing the social return on investment in the UK, the government has focused more on what it is saving by involving young people in community service. If GBP1 improves the employability of a young person, making him/her more economically and socially engaged, it reduces state expenditure on health, unemployment benefits, crime diversion, etc. However, Tracey Herald from V pointed out that any claims of this nature need to be very carefully considered before programs can be confident that they are helping people avoid risk behavior. As is the case in France, the UK experience still shows that companies are mostly concerned with their corporate social responsibility agenda and the extent to which the youth service program matches private sector aspirations and shareholder interests. The assessment of the social return on investment thus remains a subjective exercise. Participants advised that by focusing on percent change in pre-defined indicators, programs can contribute to learning about what works and does not work in youth service programs, and avoid the trap of claiming to be the best.

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The need for shared tools and experience

Participants indicated the need for assessment tools to be shared more widely in order to build the field of youth service. There is a particular need for simple tools that NGOs can use to assess aspects of youth service such as leadership and team work.

Unis-Cits experience of cost-benefit analysis suggests that instead of distilling impact assessments to a single number as an indicator of effectiveness, it may be more beneficial to create indicators by means of which youth service programs can compare themselves to others in a particular sector, within a region or across continents.

A robust conversation ensued about best practice for the monitoring and evaluation of youth service programs and how to make the case for service as a cost-effective measure. The discussion also helped inform the development of a document (forthcoming) entitled Guidelines for Best Practices for Youth Service Programs in Developing Countries. The publication will also address issues of program design and implementation in relation to impact assessment. For the first time, we can see the members of IANYS pushing us to do more and we are hearing requests and advising us on initiatives.
Reuven Gal, member of the IANYS Global Council

Participants also stressed the need to look at the different impacts of youth service programs on gender as well as its impact on community-youth relations. For example, one measure of success might be the ability of a program to get the community to view young people as assets instead of solely as people with special needs.

How IANYS Can Respond to the Needs of the Field

The closing plenary session of the conference focused on how IANYS can support the growth of National Youth Service in countries around the world, and how it can strengthen the field. Participants commented that attendance at this 9th IANYS Global Conference has increased significantly over previous conferences, indicating that in-depth discussion on the various aspects of national youth service and civic engagement is of keen interest in many countries. 45

One theme that emerged clearly was the desire for stronger participation by organizations (possibly as formal members of IANYS) and regions in shaping the IANYS knowledge base, learning from the varied experiences that were showcased at the conference, and influencing future conferences of this nature.

Four key suggestions were made for the future development of IANYS: strengthening the knowledge base for national youth service through research; improving program design and practice; promoting strong policy for youth civic engagement; and facilitating the exchange of information and resources.

Strengthening the knowledge base for national youth service

Participants identified the role of research and documentation as being critical to efforts to advocate more strongly for increased investment in national youth service as a form of youth civic engagement and youth empowerment. It was suggested that IANYS could play a role in sensitizing researchers, particularly in developing countries, to opportunities for focused studies on different aspects of the field. The research agenda for national youth service could focus on issues such as: Baseline information on youth service in different regions in the world and how the age of youth involvement is changing; Youth service policy scans and an analysis of what regional and sub-regional structures and institutions are doing about youth civic engagement; Document the diverse impact of youth service on community development and social values; Rigorous studies that interrogate propositions such as if structured correctly, civic engagement fosters entrepreneurship; The impact of stipends on youth civic engagement in different contexts; The extent to which concerns about youth unemployment can undermine the role of national youth service in fostering civic consciousness among young people; The role of youth service in building social cohesion within and between diverse communities; The nature, scope and impact of asset-based youth service program designs; Clearer differentiation between youth service and service learning. 46

There is a need for IANYS to play a role in packaging and disseminating information about the role that youth service can play in the broader sphere of youth development. While there is currently a strong focus on youth education as a means of increasing productivity and employment, preventing youth from falling prey to extremism, and fostering youth leadership, youth service has been underutilized and can feature much more prominently as a strategy within each of these areas. IANYS could help to pull together a body of work that demonstrates the role of youth service in other facets of youth development, and makes a compelling case for how service can inculcate social values and transform individuals and communities. IANYS may also have a role to play in sharing research instruments to help NYS programs evaluate themselves in relation to each other. This could involve providing a bank of scales and measurement tools that could be used to compare and aggregate results.

Improving program design and practice

Learning from each other about good practice in program design was a key area of interest among the participants. Issues of particular interest include how to make youth service programs more effective, how to sustain youth service in fast-changing country contexts and how to include all sectors of society in youth service.

A major challenge flagged for youth service is how to strengthen youth participation in program design, governance and delivery. IANYS was encouraged to further strengthen the participation of young people at the next conference by creating additional opportunities for them to take a lead in designing, organizing and facilitating sessions.

Recognition of good practice in youth civic engagement was felt to be an area in which IANYS could play an instrumental role, both at future conferences and between conferences. For example, it was suggested that a prize could be awarded at each conference for the best or most innovative youth service program. 47

Promoting strong policy for youth civic engagement

Advocating for strong youth policy between conferences is a key area of interest. It was suggested that in the future, IANYS should consider issuing a conference resolution that can be used to encourage national governments as well as international and regional bodies to strengthen their support for programs that encourage youth civic engagement through service.

IANYS should also engage with funders to sensitize them about the socio-economic returns that investments in youth civic engagement can produce. Furthermore, IANYS could monitor the countries in which youth service policies are in place, but not yet implemented, and create momentum to persuade countries in which no youth service policy exists to move in that direction.

It was also suggested that IANYS encourage the youth service sector in different countries to spearhead campaigns that make young people keen to participate in service programs because it is perceived as cool.

However, in order to ensure that IANYS is responsive to the needs of different countries it was suggested that participants convene IANYS-type events in their own regions, use these to reflect on the nature and state of youth civic engagement, and relay the outcomes of these discussions to the IANYS Secretariat with the aim of informing others more widely.

Facilitating the exchange of information and resources regionally and internationally

For the first time, the IANYS conference drew substantial participation from the Arab region, where public space has been historically restricted, and facilitated a robust exchange/ conversation about the state of youth civic engagement in Arab countries. This highlights a recent upsurge in the number of NGOs in the Arab region, which some argue exceeds the number of NGOs in developed countries. Participants also indicated that the increasing involvement of young women in youth programs is particularly important for this region, given the gender-sensitive issues in the region.

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African country participants advocated strongly for more regional discussion on youth service and youth civic engagement between IANYS conferences. Youth service is growing in African countries and the potential for evolving a uniquely African perspective on youth civic engagement thus becomes more tangible. These participants indicated their interest in convening a panAfrican regional meeting on youth service prior to the next IANYS Global Conference. Many participants stressed the importance of regions taking the initiative to convene such discussions in order to examine youth service issues of a regional nature. Regional discussions could then feed into the planning of the 10th IANYS conference, which will again be convened at the global level.

At the same time, the value of networking face to face with people from different countries and regions was stressed. In the words of one young volunteer from Egypt:

I know the importance of civic engagement and its importance for completing the circle of development to serve the community and to teach the youth how to communicate effectively and advocate for their causes. So I want to learn and network with other NGOs to see how they involve youth and to exchange about opportunities and challenges.

The importance of creating more effective vehicles for sharing information with others was also emphasized. A listserv for updates would be one way to provide people in the field with access to information. Another example mentioned at the conference was the collaborative online platform launched after the UNESCO International Conference on Youth and Climate Change in South Korea (unitedforclimate.org), with members from 40 countries. The initiative was embraced by UNICEF, who agreed to provide an intergenerational group of regional advisors to run the interactive platform. Participants at the IANYS conference expressed that a platform for youth and civic engagement along these lines would be enormously beneficial to the global youth service movement. ICP has been taking steps to develop this type of interactive networking platform (see below).

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ICP, which serves as the IANYS Secretariat, has been gathering and disseminating information on NYS and other youth civic engagement initiatives across the globe for the past several years. It continues to develop the IANYS website www.icicp.org/ianys to include detailed proceedings from previous conferences, country profiles on youth civic engagement programs and policies, research and other relevant resources, and the latest news and reports on youth civic engagement from countries around the world. ICP also launched a social networking site for IANYS in advance of the 9th Global Conference.

At the 9th Global Conference, ICP announced its new live publication that features brief snapshots of youth civic participation programs and policies in 101 countries on six continents. Each country snapshot provides insight into the current state of youth civic engagement, including descriptions of youth service initiatives, national youth policies, youth ministries, committees or commissions that work on youth-related topics, and movements to create new or improved policies. The publication also offers an overview of different youth civic engagement program models such as those implemented by government, civil society, international organizations and/or higher education institutions. Finally, the snapshots provide rationale and background information on the establishment of youth service programs and identifies how youth civic engagement contributes to meeting country needs. The snapshots are not meant to be comprehensive, but instead to provide a glimpse into the status of youth civic participation in the countries examined. The country snapshots can be accessed at http://icicp2.org/ycpworldwide2010/.

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IANYS aims to channel the momentum built at the conference into its efforts to foster a dynamic community of practice on youth civic engagement around the world. As the IANYS secretariat, ICP will launch a new virtual community of practice that integrates existing resources and creates improved networking capabilities, including member profiles, a listserv, and resources and discussions by topic and region. Additional activities and strategies for the network will continue to be assessed in the months following the 9th Global Conference. As IANYS enters its 15th year of advancing youth civic engagement in countries around the world, it is uniquely positioned to harness the international momentum for youth participation through service and to meet the needs of the evolving and growing field.

For more information on ongoing IANYS and ICP initiatives, please visit: www.icicp.org/ianys New ICP PublicationCountry Snapshots on Youth Civic Participation in Action: www.icicp2.org/ycpworldwide2010

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APPENDIX 1: IANYS 9TH Global Conference Participant List

First Name Zulfiyya Calvin Marisa Yao Abdalla Adly Ahmed Ahmed Ahmed Aly Amal Amina Amira Amira Amr Ann Ayman Barbara Basant Last Name Mustafayeva Blankendal Sharpe Kouadio Daif Hassanein Ashmawy El Sheikha Maher El-Raggal Ehsan Jaheen Hossam Nafea Abdel Ghany Shafer Shehata Ibrahim Hassan Organization World Vision International Bermuda Government, Cabinet Office Bermuda Government Cabinet Office Ministry of Youth Gudran Association for Art and Development USAID/OMEP Plan International Egypt, Youth Program Step Up Youth Initiative Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement Adwar Youth Initiative Nahdet El Mahrousa British Council Egypt, Social and Cultural Partnerships Naseej - Community Youth Development Initiative Alashanek Ya Balady - Association for Sustainable Development The American University in Cairo, LEAD Program American University in Cairo Nama' Initiative The American University in Cairo, Gerhart Center The American University in Cairo, LEAD Program Country Azerbaijan Bermuda Bermuda Cote d'Ivoire Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt

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Dahlia Defne Dina Dina Ehaab Ghada Hakim Hassan Heba Hisham Hossam Injie Ismail Janine Jawad Jehan Kareem Khuloud Kira Leticia Maha

Helaly Abbas Sherif Shoukrey Abdou El Shimi Abdel-Na'em Fayed Handoussa El Rouby Hassan Ibrahim Ali Gadou Swailam Alexandrani El Gamal Nabulsi Agha El Sharoud Saiid Kumagai Troncoso Fayed

Injaz Egypt American University in Cairo The American University in Cairo, Gerhart Center Naseej - Community Youth Development Initiative Middle East Youth Initiative American University in Cairo Eskenderella Youth African Council Egypt Human Development Report ETIJAH/Youth and Development Consulting Institute Global Xchange Institute of International Education Adwar Youth Initiative The American University in Cairo, LEAD Program Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement Institute of International Education The American University in Cairo, LEAD Program Adwar Youth Initiative Cairo Economic Livelihoods Program; Aga Khan Foundation Egypt UNV-Egypt The American University in Cairo, LEAD Program

Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt

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Mai Mary Maryam May Mohamad Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed Mohammed Mohammed Naglaa Noor Rana Reham Riham Safa Safaa Salma Salma

Yousef Ishak Saifee Mostafa Abdullah Abo El-Enen Fathy Hassanin Kadry Ibrahim Kamal Ashraf Kamel Hanno El Bakri Abdelhafez Sabry Adel Abdel Hamid Beitawi Saleh El Sayeh Wahba

The American University in Cairo, LEAD Program USAID/Cairo US Embassy in Cairo The American University in Cairo, Gerhart Center Adwar Youth Initiative Bdaya The Cyber Peace Initiative The American University in Cairo, LEAD Program Social Contract Center Plan International Egypt Aga Khan Foundation- Egypt Alexandria Business Association UNV-Egypt Step Up Youth Initiative Step Up Youth Initiative Entrepreneurs Business Forum Bibliotheca Alexandrina The American University in Cairo, Gerhart Center Garidat Al Esboa' The American University in Cairo, Gerhart Center UNICEF, Adolescents Development and Participation

Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt

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Sameh Sarah Sarah Sherine Shiani Sohair Suzan Waleed Yousra Claire Marie Trellu Stephanie Maia Manon George Vincent Senam Reuven Elisabetta Pierluigi Davide Hania

El Halawany El Nashar Saleh El Taraboulsi Korat Saad Adel Mohamed Zaki Hassanein Sadek El Nemr de Mazancourt Kane Desnogues Tavadze Bernier Gado Kuagbenu Gal Zuccaro Consorti Pesce Aswad

Gudran Association for Art and Development The American University in Cairo, LEAD Program - Student Life The American University in Cairo, LEAD Program American University in Cairo Entrepreneurs Business Forum The American University in Cairo Global Xchange Youth Activist and University Professor The American University in Cairo, LEAD Program National Civic Service Agency Unis-Cit Unis-Cit Eurasia Partnership Foundation United Nations Volunteers, Development Division National Service Scheme National Service Secretariat Samuel Neaman Institute University of Pisa, CISP University of Pisa, CISP CESAVO Naseej

Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt Egypt France France France Georgia Germany Ghana Ghana Israel Italy Italy Italy Jordan

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Loay Ma'en Reem

Al Shawabka Rayyan Al Odwan

Naseej - Community Youth Development Initiative Questscope, Working Kids & Education Future University Network, Zain Jordan Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development, Princess Basma Youth resource Center Future University Network- Zain Jordan VSO Jitolee, National Volunteering Women's Committee Social Reform Society Women's Committee Social Reform Society Women's Committee Social Reform Society Women's Committee Social Reform Society Women's Committee Social Reform Society Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Social Service Office Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Social Service Office American University of Beirut, Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Social Service Office American University of Beirut, Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service Association for Volunteer Services Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Social Service Office Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Social Service Shirley Ann Sullivan Educational Foundation

Jordan Jordan Jordan

Suha Zena Carol Abrar Dalal Ghadeer Ma'aly Suad Gloria Jessica

Syouf Asfour Kiangura Humod Al Roomi Al Tawheed Al- Sabej Al Falah Aljarallah Abdo Daghfal

Jordan Jordan Kenya Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Kuwait Lebanon Lebanon

Lina Abou Mohamed

Farraj El Hariri

Lebanon Lebanon

Olga Patricia Rachelle Raphael Rhonda

Safa Mojzoub Nabti Hleihel Checri Staudt

Lebanon Lebanon Lebanon Lebanon Liberia

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Issoufou Ibrahim Onesmus Kayode Anila Fahad Fauzia Iqbal Mary Maxwell Omesh Parveen Sabiha Bisan Haifa Lama Lina Munia Mu'tasem Xuan-Trang Catherine

Boubacar Ag Nock Katanga Upindi Akintola Zahid Rizvi Tariq Butt Nilanthi Hewagamage Hewagamage Rahamat Shaheen Saidi Shawwa Arouri Tannous Dweik Abu Daqqa Ho Inid

Centre National pour la Promotion du Volontariat Centre National pour la Promotion du Volontariat National Youth Service, Office of the Commissioner VSO - Global Xchange Pakistani Youth Young Social Reformers VSO - Pakistan Independent Consultant Catholic Board of Education Catholic Board of Education Catholic Board of Education Catholic Board of Education Bargad-Youth Organization Ruwwad Palestine Education For Employment Foundation Ruwwad Ruwwad Ruwwad Naseej - Community Youth Development Initiative UNICEF Saceda Youth Lead

Mali Mali Namibia Nigeria Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Palestine Palestine Palestine Palestine Palestine Palestine Panama Philippines

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Dave Guarin Jeziel Jill Caron Junifer Kriszai Leilani Kris Ma. Lourdita Mariam Ritchell Riza Sieglyn Ahmed Fahad Ekaterina Gueye Souleymane

Saceda Amit Kawamura Malaque Ruta Forinas Dinopol Barandia Oghayon Villarin Canton Younis Al Nahdi Korolkova Diame

Saceda Youth Lead Saceda Youth Lead Saceda Youth Lead Saceda Youth Lead Saceda Youth Lead Saceda Youth Lead Saceda Youth Lead Kapamagogopa, Inc. Saceda Youth Lead Saceda Youth Lead Saceda Youth Lead Silatech Qatar Foundation International Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee National Civic Service, Ministry of Youth National Youth Development Agency, National Youth Service & Skills Development Department of Defence Department of Defence Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa

Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Philippines Qatar Qatar Russia Senegal

Clayton Elgien Evert Helene Karena

Peters Ngema Jordaan Perold Cronin

South Africa South Africa South Africa South Africa South Africa

58

Khanyisile Mfankhona

Litchfield Tshabalala Hlatshwayo

Department of Defence Ministry of Defence National Youth Development Agency, National Youth Service & Skills Development National Youth Development Agency, National Youth Service & Skills Development Department of Defence loveLife Ministry of Defence loveLife loveLife Equal Ground University of Peradeniya Code-X International CODE-X International Qatar Foundation International New York University Abu Dhabi, Campus Life International Award Association Community Service Volunteers V International Award Association, Programme Team VSO - Global Xchange

South Africa South Africa

Nthuseng

Tsoinyane

South Africa

Patrick Samuel Scott Stephen Tebogo Vutshilo Aarthi Aravinth Myeisha Willem Damon Renee Alison Elisabeth Hannah Jenny Laura

Mphale Mkhwanazi Burnett Tiba Ramotshadi Mashau Dharmadasa Nallathamby Benshemesh de Boer Mallory Dugan Berks Hoodless Wright Jacobs Smith

South Africa South Africa South Africa South Africa South Africa South Africa Sri Lanka Sri Lanka The Netherlands The Netherlands USA UAE UK UK UK UK UK

59

Sarah Tracey Adam Amie Ashok Carl Cynthia Donna Esther Greta Heather James Jean Jim Joe Jonathan Katherine Kathryn Kathy Kelly Kevin

Hitchcock Herald Patterson Wells Regmi Hagen McCauley Woolf Benjamin Saloman Hay Jackson Manney Kielsmeier Follman Pham Jernigan Green Hurley Fox Vaughn

VSO - Global Xchange v Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School Mercy Corps, Global Engagement International Youth Foundation Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School Middle East Partnership Initiative Peace Corps Bay District Schools Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School Innovations in Civic Participation National Youth Leadership Council Florida Learn and Serve Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School Bay High School Peace Corps, Overseas Programming and Training Support Pearson Education and the Pearson Foundation Innovations in Civic Participation Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School

UK UK USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

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Lauren Lisa Magdi Marcis Michael Michelle Noel Robert Ron Ryan Sahara Sana Sarah Sarah Shira Steven Susan

McCollough Schofield Azab Goodman Buscemi Smith Stafford Cain Israel Robertson Peters Munasifi Sladen Nogueira Sanca Mazor Culbertson Stroud

Qatar Foundation International Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School Lions Clubs International Bay High School Lions Clubs International Smithsonian Institution Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School Vista Education Development Center Chautauqua Learn and Serve Charter School Bay High School Open Society Institute, Youth Initiative Education Development Center Education Development Center, International Development Division Qatar Foundation International Youth Service America Innovations in Civic Participation

USA USA Egypt USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA

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APPENDIX 2: Conference Agenda with Sessions and Presenters

Day 1- Monday October 25th, 2010 Welcome and Overview Session: What do we mean by youth civic engagement, and what are the different models; Why is this an important and timely topic in the MENA region and globally; How will this conference advance the youth civic engagement field and participants initiatives This session will introduce objectives and themes of the conference; highlight the benefits and outcomes of youth civic engagement (YCE); discuss the regional situation of YCE and the global context, including the youth bulge as an opportunity, the relevance of employability and YCE (skill building, social responsibility, personal growth, academic growth, leadership), the benefits of YCE and thus the importance of supporting and enhancing YCE. Susan Stroud, Executive Director of Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP), Director of IANYS Katie Green, Expert Consultant, Youth & Volunteerism Initiative, Overseas Programming and Training Support, Peace Corps Hania Aswad, Regional Director, Naseej - Community Youth Development Initiative (Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, WB/G and Yemen)

Site Visits and Case Studies with Community-based organizations and initiatives in Alexandria Reflection & Networking with Peers Opening Ceremony Susan Stroud, Executive Director of ICP, Director of IANYS Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, Executive Director, CSV; Chair; IANYS Global Council Barbara Ibrahim, Director, John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, American University in Cairo Keynote Speaker: The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State - by specially recorded video message

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Day 2- Tuesday October 26th, 2010 Special Presentation - Lifetime Achievement Award to Don Eberly, Founder and Honorary President of IANYS Presented by the IANYS Global Council Youth Civic Engagement and the Connection to Employability Plenary Session This plenary session introduces a multi-session track exploring different issues in the connection between youth civic engagement and employability. This introductory session will explore what constitutes employability and how it relates to youth civic engagement and will begin to discuss the sub-themes for track: Skill-building, Social Entrepreneurship and Transition strategies. It will address the youth bulge, high unemployment rates, structural unemployment, and the need for experience and relevant skills. Presenters will also emphasize the many other benefits and merits of civic engagement for youth and communities, including cultivating civic responsibility and meeting community needs. Chair: Clayton Peters, Head of Division for National Youth Service and Skills Development, National Youth Development Agency (South Africa) Panelists: o Ahmed Younis, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Communication, Silatech (Qatar) o Ashok Regmi, Global Director for Social Innovation and Citizenship, International Youth Foundation (Global) o Claire Demazancourt, Special Advisor, National Civic Service Agency (France) Breakout Sessions A 1A: Youth Civic Engagement and Employability track Skill Building How participation in youth civic engagement program helps young people acquire necessary skills both practical and soft skills (leadership, teamwork, communication) for gaining and succeeding in employment and livelihoods. Chair: Kathy Hurley, Senior Vice President for Strategic Partnerships, Pearson Foundation; Chairman, Partnership for 21st Century Skills Panelists: o Tracey Herald, Head of Policy and Development, The National Young Volunteers Service (England) o Souleymane Diam Gueye, Director, National Youth Service (Senegal) 63

2A: Policy track - New Developments in National Youth Service Policy/Government Programs (First in a multi-session track led by Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) for policymakers or others interested in national policy and program development.) This session will highlight exciting new developments including the creation of National Youth Service (NYS) policies or programs, significant expansion of programs, or commitment from governments to instituting policies supporting youth civic engagement. It will provide a snapshot of the growth and momentum of the NYS field in countries around the world. Chair: Susan Stroud, Executive Director, ICP; Director, IANYS Panelists: o Claire Demazancourt, Special Advisor, National Civic Service Agency (France) o Marisa Sharpe, Policy Analyst, Government Cabinet Office (Bermuda) o Elisabeth Hoodless, Executive Director, CSV (UK) o Kouadio Yao, Head of Project, Ministry of Youth (Cote dIvoire) 3A: Youth service meeting community and national needs/contributing to development This session will highlight the contributions of young people and discuss how service is a strategy in addressing critical social and environmental issues and meeting community needs. Chair: Marie Trellu, President, Unis Cite (France) Panelists: o Tebogo Ramotshadi (South Africa) and Vutshilo Mashau, GroundBREAKERs, loveLife

o Vincent Senam Kuagbenu, Executive Director, National Service Secretariat, (Ghana) o Lama Arouri, Youth Development Manager, and Munia Dweik, Regional Media Center Manager, Ruwwad (Palestine) o Abdalla Daif, Program Manager, Gudran Association for Art and Development (Egypt)

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4A: Contributing to the Development of Guidelines for Best Practices for Youth Service Programs in Developing Countries: A two-part participatory workshop sponsored by the USAID EQUIP3 program. Part I, Design & Implementation In this interactive workshop, participants will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of a field guide for youth service programs by drawing on their experiences and designing ideal program models for various contexts. Key components will include methodology, program strategy, activities, youth recruitment and selection, program management and capacity. Facilitators: Ron Israel, Vice President, Education Development Center (EDC); Sarah Nogueira Sanca, International Program Manager, EDC; and Sarah Sladen, EDC (USA)

Breakout Sessions B 1B: Youth Civic Engagement and Employability track: Social entrepreneurship This session will explore what makes an entrepreneur, what conditions foster social entrepreneurship and what role youth civic engagement plays. Chair: Ehaab Abdou; Special Advisor, Middle East Youth Initiative; Co-Founder, Nahdet El Mahrousa (Egypt) Panelists: o Ashok Regmi, Global Director for Social Innovation and Citizenship, International Youth Foundation (Global) o Dahlia Helaly, Deputy Director, Injaz Egypt (Egypt) o Amr El Abd, Chairman, Entrepreneurs Business Forum (Egypt) o Ahmed Essmat, Project Manager, Alex Agenda (Egypt) 2B: Policy track: How to Develop NYS policy/government programs and how to build support for strong NYS policy This session will explore the process of developing NYS policy and programs, including internal governmental efforts and technical assistance from other organizations. It will also explore how to build support for youth civic engagement at the policy level, including the role that civil society organizations can have in building this support. (Questions addressed will include Why are governments investing in youth service? What are the arguments that work in convincing governments to invest in youth service? What are the barriers?) Chair: Susan Stroud, Executive Director of ICP, Director of IANYS

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Panelists: o Issoufou Boubacar, Chief Technical Advisor, National Volunteer Scheme, UNV volunteer (Mali) o Katie Green, Expert Consultant, Youth & Volunteerism Initiative - Overseas Programming and Training Support, Peace Corps (USA) o Marie Trellu, President, Unis Cite (France)

3B: Technology Facilitating Service Opportunities and Connecting Youth This session will explore the use of technology in facilitating opportunities for young people to get involved in their communities and in innovative ways of connecting young people to learn about issues and take action. Chair: Scott Burnett, Director of Youth Programmes, loveLife (South Africa) Panelists: o Hannah Wright, v the National Young Volunteers Service (England) o Amie Wells, National Co-Manager, US/Coordinator, Global Citizen Corps International, Mercy Corps (Global) o Michelle K. Smith, Director, Publications and Digital Media, Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies (USA) 4B: Youth Civic Engagement and Peacebuilding/Post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation This session will explore the role that young people can play in peacebuilding efforts and the role that youth service can have in rebuilding post-conflict communities and in promoting reconciliation. Chair: Helene Perold, Executive Director, VOSESA (South Africa) Panelists: o Mariam Barandia, Executive Director, Kapamagogopa Inc. (Philippines) o Aly El-Raggal, Adwar Youth Initiative (Egypt) o Pierluigi Consorti, Director, Interdisciplinary Center for Peace Science (CISP) University of Pisa (Italy) o Sabiha Shaheen, Head, BARGAD and Iqbal Haider Butt, Senior Partner, Development Pool (Pakistan) Breakout Sessions C 66

1C: Youth Civic Engagement and Employability Track: Transition strategies This session will examine how to support youth participants in transitioning from youth civic engagement programs to jobs or livelihoods, including promising practices and challenges. Chair: Ehaab Abdou, Special Advisor, Middle East Youth Initiative; Co-Founder, Nahdet El Mahrousa (Egypt) Panelists: o Onesmus Katanga Upindi, Commissioner, National Youth Service (Namibia) o Scott Burnett, Director of Youth Programmes, loveLife (South Africa) o Haifa Shawwa, Training & Job Search Coordinator, Palestinian Education for Employment Foundation (Palestine) o Gloria Abdo, Social Animator, St. Joseph University of Beirut (Lebanon) 2C: Policy Track: Sustaining and Innovating Established National Youth Service Programs This session will explore lessons learned, current experience, challenges and future plans of NYS programs that have been implemented for several years. It will discuss how government programs can respond to changing times, and how can they re-invent and innovate to meet evolving needs. Chair: Susan Stroud, Executive Director, Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) (USA) Panelists: o Nthuseng Tsoinyane and Patrick Mphale, Senior Program Managers, National Youth Service and Skills Development, National Youth Development Agency (South Africa) o Vincent Senam Kuagbenu, Executive Director, National Service Secretariat, (Ghana) o Pierluigi Consorti, Director; Elisabetta Zuccaro, Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Center for Peace Science (CISP), University of Pisa (Italy)

3C: Evaluating the Impact of Youth Civic Engagement This session will explore evaluation methods, challenges, promising practices, and ways to build a better evidence base for the impact of youth civic engagement. Presenters will

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share how they did their studies and engage in discussion with participants about impact evaluation of youth civic engagement programs. Chair: Helene Perold, Executive Director, Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA) (South Africa) Panelists: o Stphanie Desnogues, Head of National Projects, Unis Cite (France) o Manon Bernier, Portfolio Manager and Youth Programming Focal Point, United Nations Volunteers (Global) 4C: Institutionalizing service into schools and universities: Options, Challenges and Promising Practices This session will explore effective practices for integrating and institutionalizing service programs into schools, including the value and challenges of having a mandatory service policy. Chair: Patricia Nabti, President, Association for Volunteer Services (Lebanon) Panelists: o Elisabeth Hoodless, Executive Director, Community Service Volunteers (CSV) (UK) o Mary Nilanthi, Principal and Parveen Rahamat, Principal: Pakistan Catholic School Board (Pakistan) o Jim Kielsmeier, Founder and President/CEO of the National Youth Leadership Council (USA) Day 3- Wednesday October 27th, 2010 Special plenary remarks Egypts Youth: Heba Handoussa, Lead Author of the 2010 Egypt Human Development Report (Egypt) In the context of Egypt, the messages of the National Human Development Report concerning Youth are that two government interventions are key. The first is supporting job creation via reforms in the education and training systems, and the second is engaging youth in civil society so as to provide them with a civic identity and secular responsibilities.

Strategic Investment in Youth Community Engagement Plenary Session This moderated panel discussion will feature different perspectives from foundations and 68

the private sector. In addition to exploring reasons for and the importance of investing in youth civic engagement, the session will also explore different funders approaches or specific focus areas, relationships with partners, trends in the funding sector, and recommendations for practitioners, policymakers and other funders in the audience. Chair: Barbara Ibrahim, Director, John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, American University in Cairo (Egypt) Panelists: o Kathy Hurley, Senior Vice President for Strategic Partnerships, Pearson Foundation o Ayman Shehata, CSR Director, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (Egypt) o Mohamed Hanno, Alexandria Business Association (Egypt) o Hisham El Rouby, President and CEO, ETIJAH/Youth and Development Consulting Institute (Egypt) Breakout Session D 1D: United Nations agencies support for youth civic engagement This session will explore how different UN agencies are supporting youth civic engagement globally, including current strategies and new initiatives. Chair: Manon Bernier, Portfolio Manager and Youth Programming Focal Point, United Nation Volunteers Panelists: o Heba Handoussa, Lead Writer, 2010 UNDP Human Development Report (Egypt) Trang Ho, Programme Officer for Adolescent Development and Participation, UNICEF- The Americas and Caribbean Regional Office (Panama/LAC region) Breakout Session D 1D: United Nations agencies support for youth civic engagement This session will explore how different UN agencies are supporting youth civic engagement globally, including current strategies and new initiatives. Chair: Manon Bernier, Portfolio Manager and Youth Programming Focal Point, United Nation Volunteers 69

Panelists: o Heba Handoussa, Lead Writer, 2010 UNDP Human Development Report (Egypt) o Trang Ho, Programme Officer for Adolescent Development and Participation, UNICEF- The Americas and Caribbean Regional Office (Panama/LAC region)

2D: Policy track: Going to scale This session will explore taking programs to scale how to scale up a program, the necessary conditions and factors, and the challenges. This will be in the context of national service programs but relevant for NGO programs as well. Chair: Susan Stroud, Executive Director, Innovations in Civic Participation (USA) Panelists: Clayton Peters, Head of Division, and Nthuseng Tsoinyane, Senior Program Manager, National Youth Service and Skills Development, National Youth Development Agency (South Africa) Steve Culbertson, President and CEO, Youth Service America (USA) 3D : Community Engagement and Higher Education The session will focus on the outcomes continuum for service and community engagement. On one end, we have community needs being addressed through service and on the other we have strong student learning outcomes. Ideally, there is a good balance of community benefit and learning. The presenters on this panel will focus on the program elements that ensure success in different aspects of the program (student learning, community partnerships, benefits of service, building skills for employment etc.) Chair: Dina Sherif, Associate Director, Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, American University in Cairo (Egypt) Panelists: o Gloria Abdo, Social Animator, St. Joseph University of Beirut (Lebanon) o Mohamed Al Hariri and Jessica Daghfal, Students, St. Joseph University of Beirut (Lebanon) o Ann Shafer, Assistant Professor and Director of the Art Program, American University in Cairo (Egypt) o Ghada Elshimi, Writing Instructor, Department of Rhetoric and Composition, American University in Cairo (Egypt) 70

o Sohair Saad, Director, Leadership for Education and Development (LEAD) Program, The American University in Cairo (Egypt) o Sherine El Taraboulsi, Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, American University of Cairo (Egypt) 4D: Contributing to the Development of Guidelines for Best Practices for Youth Service Programs in Developing Countries: A two-part participatory workshop sponsored by the USAID EQUIP3 program. Part II, M&E and Making the Case for Cost In this interactive workshop, participants will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of a field guide for youth service programs by drawing on their experiences to examine evaluation methods for varying contexts and to create the story for how to identify, justify and fund costs. Facilitators: Ron Israel, Vice President, Education Development Center (EDC); Sarah Nogueira Sanca, International Program Manager, EDC; and Sarah Sladen, EDC (USA)

Breakout Sessions E 1E: Global Organizations supporting service locally This session will explore how a global model of youth civic engagement is created to fit or adapt to local contexts, and will also explore how global organizations, through local initiatives, support the development of youth civic engagement within the civil society and policy sectors. Chair: Mike Buscemi, Senior Youth Advisor, Lions Clubs International (Global) Panelists: o Laura Smith, Head of Global Xchange, VSO (UK and Global representation) o Steve Culbertson, President and CEO, Youth Service America, Global Youth Service Day (US and Global) o Magdi Azab, Past District Governor, Lions Clubs International (Egypt) 2E: Service and Transitions to Adulthood: the role of contribution for young people The time period between childhood and full adult responsibility has become extended worldwide. This session will explore how service and service-learning can impact this extended transition to adulthood period. The session will explore service in several cultural contexts and across different institutions, from formal education settings to communitybased settings. Participants will leave with access to a global community of practitioners. Chair: Jim Kielsmeier, Founder and President/CEO of the National Youth Leadership Council (USA) 71

APPENDIX 3: Acknowledgements
Report Authors Helene Perold, Executive Director, Volunteer and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA) and Karena Cronin, Projects and Outreach Manager, VOSESA Editing and design: Jean Manney and Lyndsay Hughes, Innovations in Civic Participation

Conference Organizers Lead Conference Organizer: Jean Manney, Innovations in Civic Participation Innovations in Civic Participation: Susan Stroud, Kelly Fox and staff Bibliotheca Alexandrina: Heba El Rafey, Perihan Amin, Noha Fahiem and staff Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, American University in Cairo: Barbara Ibrahim, Salma El Sayeh and staff

Conference Sponsors Equip3, a USAID Funded Project Ford Foundation Cairo Naseej Open Society Foundations Pearson Foundation Silatech United Nations Volunteers US Embassies in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Egypt 72

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