This post was compiled and edited based on original blog and facebook entries by Yuwalaya and co-founder, Mr. Sanjog Thakuri, who has been actively involved in collecting the voices of children, adolescents and youth in the post-2015 development agenda process and in supporting the My World initiative in Nepal.
The UN in Nepal has teamed up with Yuwalaya, a youth led NGO that has been organizing advocacy events on the post-2015 agenda at various schools and universities in Kathmandu as well as working with volunteers to collect offline ballots throughout Nepal. To support the MY World Global Week of Action 5-11 May, Yuwalaya organized several student workshops.
According to Nepal’s 2011 Census, there are roughly 9.2 million children aged 0-14 who make up 35% of the total population, and 7.36 million youth aged 15-29 who are 27.82% of the total population. When the Global Week of Action began, there were roughly 13,000 votes from Nepal on the MY World Survey. Yuwalaya and the youth organizations they worked with have set the goal of reaching a total of 20,000 votes in Nepal.
To support the Global Week of Action, Yuwalaya organized three workshops in participation with colleges and youth organizations. In each session, Mr. Thakuri began by explaining the Millennium Development Goals and presenting the various ways that youth can participate and get involved in the development of the future post-2015 agendas, including via the MY World Global Week of Action. He stressed the importance of youth having a voice in global issues, especially since many were not aware of the impact the global development agenda will have on their lives. He shared the present statistics and priorities of people from Nepal based on My World data. The youth and adolescent participants agreed to mobilize their communities to collect more votes.
During the first session on 5 May, 34 youths studying their first and second years of Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) at Classic College participated in the orientation. The school distributed 1500 ballots to further more vote collection.
The second session on 6 May included 23 youth representatives from 12 different institutions. The Department of Social Work of Classic College International acknowledged the college’s support to expand awareness and collect more votes. 1,000 ballots were distributed, and 6,000 more were requested. The session was co-facilitated by Treasurer of Yuwalaya’s Treasurer Sushila KC and Executive Member Diwakar Pyakurel.
Yuwalaya coordinated the third session on 9 May with Child Watabaran Center, Nepal (CWCN) – an organization working for the rehabilitation and reintegration of street children in Nepal with a focus on vocational and life skills, education and love. During the session, adolescent participants decided to collect 600 votes on weekends. All the participants lived in the WCN child home.
As of 20 May 2014, there have been 13,656 votes collected in Nepal. Of these, 30% are females. The top priorities of voters are: “A good education,” “Better job opportunities,” “Better healthcare,” “An honest and responsive government” and “Equality between men and women.” In terms of age, 12% are aged 15 and below, and these placed much higher priority on “Support for people who can’t work” (fourth) and lower priority on “An honest and responsive government” (11th). The largest age grouping is youth aged 16-30 years old, who make up 67% of the survey. This group placed much higher priority on “Phone and internet access” than the other age groups, ranking it 10th instead of 14th or 15th.
For further information:
- MY World Results: Country of Nepal; Partner Results for NepalRCO
- UN Nepal Homepage
- The Himalayan Times: Nepalis spell out their priorities
- Yuwalaya Blog: Our Voice in Post-2015 Development; Yuwalaya and the Global Week of Action
- Yuluwaya in Social media: Facebook & Twitter
Participating organisations and institutions:
Child Watabaran Center, Nepal (CWCN)
Nepal Mega College
YAV NEPAL
Kathmandu Model College
Thames International College
Newton International College
Triton International College
Classis College International (CCI)
Together We Can (TWC)
Universal College
Environment Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA)
K and K College
Yuwalaya
Room to Read Nepal country office
