G8 and G20 Millennials Gather in Washington DC to Ignite Global Change

Impact

When in the run-up to the G8 & G20 Youth Summit, young delegates first learn they would be accompanied to the conference by representative members of the Organization Committees it is often with astonishment and slight perplexity they ask, what exactly was the OC persons' role and what exactly they would be doing on the conference venues. 

Run from one conference room to another to provide the debate committees with fresh water bottles? Organizing the evening programs? Controlling the delegates contributions in the debates?

In fact, while young delegate ministers are coming together in their committees tackling current political issues, the OC members will hold meeting sessions of their own.

Their ultimate goal being to send out a sovereign and self-contained delegation to the summits, this is just one point in OCs' working schedule which spreads throughout the entire year. Recruiting new delegations, accompanying them through preparatory procedures and communicating the conferences' results are some of the summit related bullet points that are being completed through projects the Committees realize independently from the Youth conferences.

The summits that are in this year taking place in Washington D.C. are also the annual occasion in which the organizers have the opportunity to meet up face to face, deciding on how to best coordinate their work, achieve continuity of the conferences' results and making the final communiques be heard as prominently as possible.

Having travelled to the U.S. with an agenda concerning various points of interest to the OC network, the various organizing representatives thrive to boost their vision of how to best institutionalize the process of selecting and training the delegations as well as organizing and promoting the actual summits. 

Sharing best practice in funding or approaching their respective governments to intensify cooperation, provides the various members with concrete benefit from their counterpart associations in the other twenty countries.

The composition of Organization Committee members highly varies from one country to another. Firstly, of course there are delegates who have participated in the summits and wish to further engage in the vision of providing a forum to youth who thrive to propose alternative policy to their governments. 

This vision at the same time attracts other engaged youth who being politically engaged wish to directly contribute to creating a common standpoint of multinational youth representatives. Thus forming a network of multinational young professionals, the cooperation is this year celebrating its sixth anniversary since it was first held in Saint Petersburg in 2006.

Igniting change in international politics through innovative ideas and inspiring their respective governments to initiate a new era of international dialogue and problem solution is the major objective of the G8 & G20 Youth Summits. 

Phrasing the joint communiqué is achieved through strengthening multinational dialogue and establishing a vivid network of youth from all over the world, not only during the conference and among delegates, but also among the pool of high-potential young professionals who form the OC network.