The charge of this document is to describe the fragmentation of youth movements and illustrate the potential of their cohesion. To this end we define the term "youth movement", map disconnected movements, chart major events, and list milestones. We conclude by urging bottom-up and top-down cooperation, presenting an integrative technology solution to facilitate collaboration, and describing initiatives that will empower youth groups to do more together than they can do alone.

The problem is territoriality, competition, and operating in isolation. These problems reduce the efficiency of youth organizing, prevent critical mass, and inhibit real change.

The goal is to increase youth participation and opportunities through wise communication, collaboration, and de-fragmentation.

The vision is effective youth participation in global decision making.

This analysis will define criteria and support selection for the August 2001 MOW / GYAN conference on collaboration.

What characterizes a youth movement? Young people organize themselves to solve social and environmental problems. There is no single youth movement. There are many youth movements.

Youth movements change over time and quickly adapt to new challenges and new technologies. Diversity and global awareness particularly mark movements of today and the past decade and constitute the values of today's brewing global youth movement.

Youth possess many other qualities and challenges that shape their movements. Affinity for new technologies and the Internet empowers youth organizers while fast learning and early adoption of computer skills empowers youth economically, more than at any other point in history.

Youth are transient. They are adaptive, open minded, passionate, and less dependent on the economic system (without children to support). At the same time they are less experienced, less educated, naïve, un-professional, and likely to repeat old mistakes (the learning process).

Celebrating diversity and global awareness, young people today embrace the oppressed. They recognize a need for cooperation between the North and the global South.

Young people have been at the heart of many movements. In the United States the civil rights movement and the peace movement were pioneered by youth. Globally youth have fought alongside workers and peasants against colonial rulers. Today youth struggle in many countries for democracy. Globally youth have pioneered the direct action anti-corporate globalization movement.

Religions architect some of the largest youth movements. The B'Nei Akiva youth zionist movement claims 500 thousand members in 30 countries (Judaism). The World Youth Festival and World Youth Day, called by the Catholic church, gathered 2 million youth in Rome (August, 2000) and 4 million youth in Manila (January 1995). The Young Men's Christian Association claims 45 million members around the world. The Bahai faith holds international conferences each year, establishes youth councils, and partners with youth organizations such as AIESEC – the largest student organization in the world. The World Fellowship for Buddhist Youth has offices in 15 countries around the world. The World Assembly of Muslim Youth connects 450 organizations on five continents.

Youth leadership is a rising trend. Young people today are wealthier than at any previous point in history. At the same time they are more mobile, have access to more resources and lead more organizations than previous generations.

Youth participation is another movement. In the past educators, bureaucrats and policymakers designed and implemented programs for youth without youth consultation. The practice has disenfranchised and distanced youth communities. Today, progressive initiatives seek youth participation, avoiding tokenization. In the United States youth identify "education" as the top issue in the country. Youth, aged 18 - 24, vote less than any other eligible demographic. Young people are inadequately involved in leading government or education. The same is true elsewhere in the world.

Youth employment is the priority of many groups today. In the next ten years 500 million youth will enter the work force and require the creation of new jobs.

Youth exchanges also constitute a movement. Every year millions of young people travel internationally to experience new cultures. The result is greater awareness and international understanding.

"Youth culture" describes the activity and character of young people incorporating the terms above. However, "culture" describes arts, sports, and other activities without emphasizing mobilization. The charge of this document is to examine mobilization.

Together religious youth movements, youth leadership movements, youth participation movements, youth employment movements, and youth exchange movements form major components of the global youth movement. They deserve connection and invite a shared global vision and strategy.

Other terms that commonly describe youth movements are youth empowerment, youth engagement, youth action, youth leaders, and youth mobilization.

When Einstein passed away he encouraged two solutions for world problems: 1) a global spirituality and 2) a world youth parliament. Many youth groups share the vision of a World Youth Parliament but are disconnected and have not formed a global mandate. Cohesion of youth movements offers many possibilities. The characteristic direct action of the youth anti-corporation groups needs to be partnered with electoral action. Youth leadership training programs must be partnered with existing campaigns for youth participation. Many religious youth groups wish to share their culture and partner with youth exchange programs.

The following 10-step plan facilitates comprehensive cohesion and collaboration among youth groups. (It is a compilation of success stories from around the globe.)

Local to global collaboration plan

1. Encourage collaboration among foundations and philanthropists
2. Start (or merge) a youth organizer e/mailing list for events, announcements, and discussion -open to anyone. Outreach aggressively.
3. Hold rotating weekly/monthly gatherings
4. Map and document youth resources and projects
5. Poll organization needs and offer resources (training, technology etc.)
6. Create a shared newsletter - for Internet and/or print
7. Survey youth and build a youth statement/platform
8. Build a transparent, democratic grant-making website giving youth organizers citizenship, logins, and votes. Support awards and projects.
9. Elect a youth council
10. Host conventions and forums led by youth for non-profits, business, and government
11. Develop and strengthen exchange programs with diverse allies (local and global)

Implementing these local strategies will enable and deliver global result.

Global collaboration result

1. Transparent and democratic philanthropy
2. Global youth cultural exchange
3. Forum on globalization
4. Local, regional, national and world youth councils (World Youth Parliament)

The global action outlined above will only be possible with a rigorous strategy - described at: www.youthmovements.org

These processes will reveal some competing truths. For example, democracy works for most but not all, just as free trade works for some but not all. The UN and the World Bank support some youth networks while others protest the UN and the World Bank. Negotiating these relationships requires careful facilitation and planning.

Another challenge to facilitating collaboration is approach. The two options are 1) bottom up approach - local grassroots networking and collaboration followed by regional and global activities - or 2) top down approach - global partnerships are forged between key leaders followed by implementation and mandate from the center to a regional and local level. In truth, both approaches are necessary - the challenge is a question of priority.

Bottom-up approaches will be more stable, will invite more ownership of local stakeholders, but may take longer. Top-down approaches will be fast but may be victim to politics or bureaucracy and may be unstable on a local level with less ownership from the grassroots community. Top down approaches will also be necessary for local groups that cannot make decisions or take actions without the permission from a central authority.

Advancing both approaches simultaneously will ensure meeting somewhere in the middle. Bottom up approaches will be cheaper. Top down approaches will be more expensive and will require more travel and facilitation. As a result the top down approach must be the funding priority. In addition, involving top down global organizations at the start will make it easier to gain their full participation as the initiative matures.

Youth networks are structured around global events, communication channels, and institutional as well as personal relationships. Agents of global collaboration have a responsibility to encourage collaboration, partnership and information sharing in all networks and events where they have voice.

World Youth Forum - http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/forum/index.html

World Youth Festival - http://www.pa/festival2001/

Articles describing the 1997 event:

The Hague (Den Haag), Netherlands. On the 100^th anniversary of the May 1899 H. A. P. (the first international peace conference in world history) 10,000 people gathered to discuss a mandate for peace in the 21^st Century. 2,000 of the attendants were youth. The event observed the birth of several networks including the Global Campaign for Peace Education and the Hague Appeal for Peace Youth Network.

Hosted originally in San Francisco, USA in September 1995 and in four other cities around the world the SoWF gathers business, academic, government and civil society leaders for multi-stakeholder dialogues. Of the 2,500 participants nearly 10% are youth. Sired by the Gorbachev foundation the event has witnessed the creation of a number of youth networks including Pioneers of Change, the Emerging Leaders Program, and Global Youth Connect.

Beginning in the 1990s the UN system called for a series of World Conferences on Women, Habitat, Population, Social Development, Environment and Development, Sustainable Development, Food, Against Racism and others. Each UN World Conference has a youth caucus. Unfortunately the caucuses have not birthed youth networks nor have they been interconnected, permitting them to build off each other.

Seattle hosted the annual meeting of the World Trade Organization in November of 1999. 70,000 anti-corporate globalization activists confronted police officers in the streets and prevented the event from beginning. The event witnessed the birth of indymedia.org (global independent media portal) and the creation of many additional networks. Succeeding protests were organized in Washington DC, Prague, Melbourne, Davos, and Quebec City in opposition to the IMF, World Bank, World Economic Forum, and FTAA. In each city networks of activists formed coalitions and stronger relationships. Consistently well over half of the protestors are youth.

Hosted by the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, January 2001. In contrast the Switzerland based World Economic Forum the W. S. F. gathered 15,000 peace and justice leaders for a dialogue on globalization preaching that "an alternative is possible." The event bolstered the Brazilian youth network "Rede Jovem" and enjoyed the presence of 3,000 youth.

Many global youth organizations, networks, and religions have international conferences that attract thousands. The World Scout Jamboree for example gathers 40 thousand Scouts in a different city every four years. Other groups that host or have hosted such conferences include: the Junior Summit, Millennium Young People's Congress (Peace Child), IEARN, Junior Chamber International, AIESEC, United World Colleges, 4H, YMCA, Sister Cities International, Oxfam, World Assembly of Youth and more.

Several networks and initiatives share the goal of encouraging cooperation and alliances to advance the youth movement.

The INFOYOUTH Network was initiated in 1991 by UNESCO in order to meet two main challenges: on the one hand, the necessity to counteract the splintering of various and scattered information sources and networks on youth, and on the other, the urgent need to implement appropriate and coherent youth policies from local to global levels.

As part of its objective to enhance youth participation in civil society, CIVICUS convened in 1999 a meeting of global youth stakeholders such as the Commonwealth Youth Programme, Development Education for Youth, AIESEC International, World Association for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), and International Youth Foundation. From that meeting has arisen an informal alliance of these global stakeholders, known as Partners for Youth Participation. The Partners are currently discussing areas in which an alliance may add value to what is already underway through their own and other organizations' activities. Complementing and informing this joint activity are the ongoing youth participation programs of each of the Partners.

The World Assembly of Youth (WAY) is the international coordinating body of national youth councils and organizations. Founded in 1949, WAY has consultative status with various agencies in the United Nations System. It acts as a bridge between the youth and the UN. WAY works for the promotion of youth and youth organizations in program areas such as democracy, environment, human rights, population, health, drugs, community development and leadership training.

A SEED (Action for Solidarity, Equality, Environment, and Development) is a global organisation linking youth groups and individuals on all continents. A SEED was established by young people in 1991 in response to the UNCED Earth Summit proceedings in Rio and aimed to forge alliances among young people committed to social and environmental justice. Since 1992, the A SEED decentralised network has been growing continuously and consists of regional "hubs" located in Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, Latin America and Japan, with various levels of activity.

The Global Partnership for Youth Development (GPYD) is a unique initiative through which global companies, development banks, bilateral aid agencies, private foundations, and NGOs are working in an unprecedented global partnership to improve the conditions and prospects of children and youth worldwide.

The Funder's Collaborative on Youth Organizing web site http://www.jfjustice.org/FCYO%20home.htm reads:

The Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO) is a collective of national, regional and local grantmakers dedicated to advancing youth organizing as a strategy for youth development and social justice. Our mission is to substantially increase philanthropic investment in and strengthen the organizational capacities of youth organizing groups across the country. Our goals are to: 1) Raise the profile of youth organizing among grantmakers and community organizations; 2) Increase strategic funding to youth organizing by growing the Collaborative itself, and by promoting the inclusion of youth organizing in the grantmaking programs of foundations; 3) Strengthen the infrastructure of youth organizing groups through a broad range of capacity-building projects; 4) Sharpen funders’ grantmaking skills in this arena; and 5) Provide current information to funders and community organizations on youth organizing.

The Global Youth ACTION Network is an international collaboration among youth and youth-serving organizations to share information, resources and solutions. Its purpose is to promote greater youth engagement. The GYAN creates the opportunity for every young person to be heard, leverages their voices to impact national and global agendas and provides tools, recognition and financial support for youth who take positive action to improve our world - community by community.

Hosting organizations that will organize the August 2001 conference and follow up

New groups in the process of building relationships with GYAN and earmarked for inclusion for upcoming global top-down oriented collaboration meetings.

Familiar groups to the Global Youth Action Network currently in discussion for the upcoming conference

Youth

Allies

Future groups earmarked for contact in second round of outreach, follow conference

Youth

Allies

Current smaller seed groups participating in the development process on local levels but not targeted for the August 2001 conference

Young Media Partners

OTHER REGIONAL GROUPS

Asia-Pacific Students Association (ASA)

Youth Development and Cooperation (YDC)

European Youth Forum (EYF)

Foro Latin-America de Juventud (FLAJ)

Caribbean Federation of Youth (CFY)

Asian Youth Council (AYC)

African Youth Network