Friday, 19th November 2010

YFJ General Assembly: My Election Speech

Dear delegates, chères amis,

First of all I want to express my gratitude to my nominating organisations for their support and would like to thank all my friends for encouraging me to stand here before you today as a candidate for the position of YFJ president.

Ever since I visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories as a volunteer in a youth camp back in 1999 I followed Mahatma Gandhi's words: “be the change you want to see in the world”. After eight years of involvement in European youth work and youth policy I believe I have the knowledge, skills, experience and motivation to step up my commitment and serve the YFJ as its humble president.

In the last four years in which I've been active in the YFJ I've seen a lot of good things being done towards improving the internal and external work of the platform. For this I want to thank Bettina and Tine and their respective teams for doing a good job.

But regardless of how well an organisation is doing there is always room for improvement. And if elected President I want to build on the good work done and enable young people to be the change they want to see.

The first crucial issue I want to focus on is organisational culture. YFJ's organisational culture needs to be build on equal participation, open, transparent, inclusive and democratic decision-making processes and promotion of cooperation and mutual respect at all levels.

By equal participation I mean equality between member organisations in terms of access to information and means of participation. But also creating the possibility of greater involvement of MOs by using their experience for the work of YFJ without taking over their sphere of influence and work. If elected president I want to make sure that everyone can participate to the fullest extent possible in the YFJ’s work and policy discussions, regardless of the size of the organisation or whether it has a full-time staff or not. In practice this also means providing support where needed to enable this equal participation.

The second crucial issue I want to focus on is how the YFJ can bring added value to its members and young people in Europe by being a strong advocate on their behalf. An important added value of the YFJ lies in offering all its members a chance to voice their concerns and gain access to advocacy possibilities at European level, for example on the EU2020 strategy or the future YiA programme.

The YFJ has proven to be a strong and credible advocate on the underlying and cross-cutting issues shared by all its members. I believe that youth participation, youth volunteering and the rights and well-being of young people are such underlying issues of our work and key areas that concern every single one of us in this room.

Participation is key. Be it in the existing form of the co-management system in the Council of Europe as the highest level of participation of young people in decision-making. Be it in the institutionalised structured dialogue within the EU youth field. Or be it by lowering the voting age to 16. I want to focus on how the YFJ can use the available tools to best take advantage of them as well as change and improve them when needed to achieve our set goals.

I believe volunteering is the oxygen for youth NGOs to breathe and flourish. Therefore we should make the most out of the 2011 European Year of Volunteering and the 10^th anniversary of the UN International Year on Volunteering properly, using the momentum to advocate for better recognition of youth volunteering and non-formal education and informal learning that accompany it.

Regardless of what the outcomes of the discussions on youth rights are, there are important areas of work that correspond to the needs of young people and our MOs, which need YFJ's full attention: youth employment, quality education, securing of funds at European level for youth organisations and youth-led projects and full recognition of non-formal education and of youth organisations as providers of these skills.

I'm convinced that developing youth perspectives on all issues that concern and affect young people's lives should remain in the forefront of our efforts in trying to make Europe a better place for young people. In this respect I believe the YFJ needs to be an agenda-setter towards institutions and if elected I will make sure that the YFJ will be a strong stakeholder in setting those agendas.

To achieve it advocacy will be crucial. I believe that my experience of having worked in the European youth political and policy field from a non-partisan perspective and cooperating with all colours of the political spectrum can be of an advantage. But in order to successfully advocate for something, we all need to pull at the same end of the rope.

In practice this can be achieved with a professional and accessible YFJ Secretariat and its Policy and Advocacy Department and a more strategic involvement of MOs where they have the expertise and lobbying experiences - we must capitalise on the assets we have.

The time of fighting for the right of young people to be heard is by no means over. But in areas where it has been achieved it is time to move on to the next step: focusing on what we want to say as a platform, what added value we can bring and what YFJ can make itself indispensable in. The YFJ is and has to remain the one organisation in Europe legitimately speaking on behalf of young people.

To conclude, I want to ensure that YFJ is a platform for exchange, a support mechanism for the members relying on it and a single channel for advocating youth issues at European level.

By setting up a proper team-work spirit, by leading and motivating a team of dedicated volunteers that this GA will elect, by keeping the big picture in mind, by being aware of all the facts and by keeping the focus and guaranteeing continuity of action, by keeping little distance between the leadership and the members and by working closely together with member organisations I want to ensure the YFJ does that in a way that we can all feel ownership of the work done.

Allow me to finish with the most important principle we have: work done “by young people, for young people and with young people”. In this respect the path that we walk on is as important as the goal we are trying to achieve. And with your help and support I promise to do my best in ensuring that the YFJ reaches its goals by walking up the right path.

Thank you! Merci bien.