Sharing Workshops on Rio+20 : Flash Back-Youth Perspective, Pokhara

-By Kabita Gautam

On 13th August 2012, the regional level sharing program was organized in Pokhara in collaboration with HRELIC-Kaski with support from UNESCO, SEN and ICIMOD. In the program, a representative from youth organizations, media persons, human rights activists, and students were involved. Nepal’s green economy sectors and their status, Nepalese youth position as compared to the international youth, Nepal’s voice in Rio+20 and major achievements from the Conference were shared among twenty six participating youth.

Mr. Sanjay Sapkota from HRELIC-Kaski, the MC of the workshop, invited the chair of the workshop Mr. Jhalak Pokharel, the president of HRELIC-Kaski. Similarly, he invited the district president of Press Chautari Kaski, INSEC representative, Nepal Youth Task Force on Rio+20 members on the dias. He gave a very brief glimpse of the workshop. He recalled the past activities of HRELIC-Kaski among youth and by youth. He shared that the organization is very interested to work in environmental and climate change issues and expressed his deep satisfaction to host this workshop even though as a post Rio+20 activities in Nepal. 

Mr. Jeebann Panthi, Core Team Member, Nepal Youth Task Force on Rio+20, started sharing program with a short brief of that day’s program, its objectives along with welcoming the participants. Mr. Panthi shared the idea of Rio+20 as it was organized just after 20 years of the UNCSD Earth Summit held n 1992 in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. The Earth Summit has been a milestone for sustainable development in this globalization and global warming context. He highlighted the objective of the workshop as that was organized to share the Rio+20 outcomes on youth perspectives and let them know what were the national issues and Nepalese youth advocacy for Rio+20. National issues were revolving towards mountain so were the youth issues too. Nation identified green economy sectors as sustainable agriculture, eco-tourism, NTFPs and other forest products and renewable energy. Youth issues were same but in youth perspective like involvement of youth in green entrepreneurship, establishment of ‘Green Youth Fund’ for green entrepreneurship, training, capacity building activities for youth, involvement of youth in every decision making processes by the nation as the decisions made today will impact future generations the most. 

Followed by Mr. Panthi’s session, Ms. Kabita Gautam, Core Team Member of Nepal Youth Task Force on Rio+20, highlighted on youth participation in Rio+20 preparation processes and during the Rio+20 Conference itself. She urged Nepalese youth to get involved in such negotiations from the ground level so they can make their voice strong at global level. Moreover, she requested to pressurize government to take youth in their coordination during the preparation phase of such negotiations which may help to trigger different issues regarding youth. She also said that youth from other countries were highly supported by their government and were included in Government Delegation which made youth from other countries to get updated with the things those were included in and excluded from the outcome document as well as involved in the decision making processes. 

She also shared her experiences from her participation as a UNCSD MGCY Social Media Focal Point during Rio+20 preparation processes and in different events during Rio+20. She acknowledged that due to time variation, being highly populated by youth, Asia has been less active during such negotiation. Moreover, youth from developing countries like Nepal were seemed to be very less active during preparation phase (Conferences call and meetings). She also expressed awfulness that due to technical problem like load shedding, Nepalese youth has been deprived of different opportunities. She explained about the Mountain agendas as well as how it has been a success from Rio+20 Conference along with some other issues regarding Youth Employment and Education. She was disheartened by the education system of Nepal which has been a kind of business for the institutions. “This time is so critical to just think about, we need to secure our future by action”, she further added the importance of Education for Sustainable Development as well as youth involvement in decision and policy making processes. “It is not about participation of one youth in Rio+20 but about those youth who are behind that one youth to make his/her participation fruitful and worthiest. For this we need to spread the messages to every corner of our country”, she then emphasized on the importance of tracking the government for the implementation of their commitments, “What Next after Rio+20?” 

The participants were more curious about the major issues that have been triggered in Rio+20 conferences. They showed their due interest to work in the field of those major issues. As Rio+20 was a new topic for them, they requested the organizing team to organize such events frequently so that they can get involved in such negotiation and get informed about what the country is up to in global level regarding sustainable development as well as what are the opportunities for the youth in coming days? 

The workshop was then resumed with the thanks giving session by Mr. Jhalak Pokharel. He expressed his vote of thanks for the team of Nepal Youth Task Force on Rio+20 and said that it was a great opportunity to get informed about Rio+20 Conferences. He further hopes that such programs will be held frequently in coming days and it will be easier for strengthening Nepalese voice for change for a sustainable world and the future we want.

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