MIAMI—The Inter-American Development Bank will hold a forum entitled “Youth as Agents of Change” to showcase successful initiatives for youth development in Latin America and the Caribbean and to present ongoing programs, in association with strategic partners.
IDB President Luis A. Moreno, MTV Networks Latin America President Pierluigi Gazzolo, Senior Director for Community Affairs at Microsoft Akthar Badshah, Ashoka Youth Venture Director Gretchen Zucker and youth leaders will present ongoing projects, discuss lessons learned and highlight the importance of intersectoral partnerships, which enhance youth development and engagement for poverty reduction.
The Youth as Agents of Change initiative is a partnership between the IDB Youth Development and Outreach Program and MTV Networks Latin America. It was launched over a year ago through an open call for proposals. Some 7,000 project proposals were received from young people contributing to the development of their communities in such areas as environmental protection, poverty reduction and housing. Six hundred were published, 25 were selected for filming and those stories were broadcast by MTV Networks Latin America. During the Miami forum, several of these 25 agents of change will meet for the first time.
The forum will consist of three consecutive plenary sessions:
1. Generation Engage Roundtable, a youth leader debate through i-Chat, coordinated by Generation Engage, about civic engagement by youth, sponsored by the Knight Foundation;
2. Partners for Youth Development in Action, a panel on strategic partnerships, with Microsoft, MTV Networks Latin America, Youth Venture and other partners; and
3. Youth as Agents of Change, with the IDB and MTV presidents and young agents of change from the region.
The event will end with a musical performance by the band Origen.
During the closing session of the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors, one of the young agents of change will address the governors, presenting a Declaration of Youth to reaffirm the commitment of young people to actively contributing to the development of their communities.
Since its foundation, the IDB has recognized that youth is a key sector for development. In 1995, it established the IDB Youth Program to respond more effectively to the needs of youth in the region and to promote their participation in the development process.