G8 leaders with their youth delegates

On Friday 25^th June I, together with 7 other delegates from each of the respective nations of the G8 including the US, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Japan and the UK, had the privilege of meeting the G8 leaders. Watching my name being drawn out of a hat the previous night aboard an authentic Canadian Steamship felt a world apart from the corridors of power within the heavily fortified Deerhurst Resort, Muskoka, through which I walked alongside the most powerful leaders of the free world a mere 24 hours later.

After clearing several check-points, which resembled over-zealous versions of airport security, we were picked up by an electronic minibus and driven the 2k’s or so through rolling fields to the entrance of the Deerhurst resort, home to the G8 leaders for the past two days. The next couple of hours can only be described as something of a rollercoaster journey.

Once inside, we were greeted by all manner of government officials, each of whom displayed a reassuring familiarity with the overall purpose of our visit, and the background of each individual delegate. After pacing through an intricate hive of corridors, each of which positively buzzed with yet more government officials, we entered the leader’s drawing room. In stark contrast to the remainder of the building which had décor reminiscent of a hunting lodge, this was a stylish yet functional room complete with grand piano, ubiquitous plants and welcoming sofas. Having not eaten for 6 hours, my initial instinct was to make a cup of coffee. However, the demerera sugar had barely dissolved when we were whisked off on a whistle stop tour of the official function rooms.

First stop was the G8 negotiation room, central to which was an octagonal mahogany table surrounded by imposing, leather backed chairs. The surrealism started to bite when I took at seat and posed for a photograph within the United Kingdom chair. A quick glance of my watch confirmed we had less than 30 minutes to go before meeting the leaders and with that, a government employee who had been our de facto tour guide for the past half an hour lined us up, and introduced each of the delegates to our respective embassy staff. Meeting an enthusiastic and quintessentially British young lady called Fiona, PM David Cameron’s personal aide, succeeded in taking the edge off the impeding meeting somewhat. Receiving the final go-ahead, it was curtains up for all the MySummit delegates and we proceeded briskly in line towards the leader’s drawing room.

What had previously been an oasis of tranquillity within this vast swathe of commotion had been transformed, and now pulsated with energy. Walking towards an impromptu semi circle which contained the eerily familiar faces of the G8 leaders, I was greeted by the unmistakeable smile of Barack Obama. I proceeded to shake his hand, whilst battling tirelessly to maintain my composure as he asked my name, where I came from and how the negotiations had progressed so far, listening intently to each answer. After a brief dialogue, I was directed towards David Cameron who showed a similar enthusiasm for the intricacies of our MySummit negotiations.

I attempted to discuss as much as possible within the allotted time, touching upon young people’s views on everything from child and maternal health to climate change, whilst trying to avoid the inevitable memory blocks associated with the awe-striking spectacle of standing shoulder to shoulder with the leaders of the G8 nations. The personable nature of all leaders served to put me at ease; David Cameron even joked that he hoped the American delegation had not proven too great an obstacle to the climate change negotiations, whilst gently nudging Barack Obama on the shoulder!

After what felt like a matter of seconds within the leader’s drawing room, each delegate was lined up alongside their respective leader, and asked to proceed to the media room for the G8 Leaders ‘Family Photo’. Standing adjacent to David Cameron and the President of Europe, I stepped into the media spotlight amidst a sea of white flashes. A few minutes later we exited along the same corridor through which we made an unforgettable entrance only hours before. Almost as quickly as my name was drawn out of the hat the previous night, the entire experience was over but certainly not forgotten.

Andrew Steer

Of course, we were fully aware that Cameron, being a world leader after all, would be pressed for time, so he dominated the discussion. He asked us questions about what we have all been doing in the negotiations and what we thought about other G8 nations’ delegations and their views. Naturally we answered honestly, telling him that we had learnt so much about the negotiating processes at this high level, and that the discussions and negotiations were particularly refreshing amongst all the delegations.

Primarily we felt that as young people we had little to no conflicts regarding our stances on issues in the negotiations. This is because the tact and tenacity that we globally share as young people means we all had general consensus on putting forward common values and fresh forward thinking policies into the communiqué. Consequently we argued for the importance of youth participation in international decisions, meetings and events; that we are capable of achieving great things and deserve a serious influence on policy rather than being viewed as tokenistic.

To lead by example, we explained to Prime Minister Cameron about our consultation survey and that climate change was the top priority of the UK youth agenda. James Mummery in particular made a fantastic effort to fight for the importance of climate change in policy. We explained that target figures were vital when it comes to cutting carbon emissions, and Cameron fully acknowledged this argument.

Of course, the Prime Minister was soon swept away as he had a flight scheduled to return back to the UK. However we managed to pass him a copy of the G8 Youth Communique, with hope that he would take our views into careful consideration.

Although the meeting had been swift, and we were left wondering how great an impact we had left with the Prime Minister, we are truly grateful to David Cameron for providing us with this opportunity. To have even secured this meeting with our country’s leader at the G20 summit was a big victory for youth involvement in decision processes. We are pleased that Cameron has acknowledged our work, and that now he has provided us with a tangible platform to continue dialogue with the relevant ministers now that we are back in the UK. Also through this meeting, we believe Prime Minister Cameron has set a precedent for other leaders to also open a dialogue with the youth of their countries.

It became more apparent after this meeting that changing youth participation so that is more inclusive and influential will require more effort and dedication in the long term. Consequently we are securing appointments with our local MPs and relevant ministers to affect change,the confidence to take such action has only blossomed further from our meeting with the Prime Minister.

Maherunesa Khandaker

Ewurasi, Barbara and Maherunesa quickly sum up their experiences:

Ewurasi: “MY SUMMIT provided us with great insight into the pressures and obstacles faced by our leaders when trying to negotiate and represent their countries effectively amongst others…it provided the preparation and stimulus we all need to persist in our campaigns to make youth representation more inclusive and effective in global affairs.”

Barbara: “Being part of the UK delegation to the G8 and G20 summit set a precedent for future youth participation at this level and offered a unique opportunity to engage with the key issues and put forward tangible recommendations. There were alot of important lessons to learn from the process of negotiations and country collaborative working and the plenary sessions made host to an amazing line-up of speakers and experts. As a delegation we were happy that we were able to use the results from our consultation to ensure that the voice of UK youth was prioritized in all our deliberations and clearly reflected in the final communique that was presented to the G8 leaders. Key highlights of the trip included an intimate plenary session with the Rt. Hon Michaelle Jean, Governor General of Canada, bumping into President Obama on the escalators just before his press conference and being invited to tea with the Prime Minister where we offered another opportunity to discuss climate change and youth unemployment as top priorities.”

Maherunesa: “The summits were an intense and incredibly insightful opportunity to learn about how negotiations are carried out at the highest level. I felt incredibly privileged to meet with our leader PM David Cameron as this provided a platform for us to voice the opinions of the UK Youth on issues important to them, such as climate change. Meeting the other delegates from the G20 nations was incredibly inspiring, I am sure I met some future world leaders when I was out there! And as Barbara mentioned about meeting Obama on the escalators, though it was a surreal moment, being unexpectedly close to the President of the United States in such a casual way made me think, actually if we all put in the hard work, effort and determination, it is possible for us to be where he is one day!”

The UK Delegation worked very hard to represent your views, and I can assure you, you will be happy with what we have managed to achieve during the summits.

We have been working away on ways of keeping you all up to date with the goings on of the summits (see picture for proof) and we will be putting up all the details of what we did very shortly.

Thank you for your patience!

Maherunesa Khandaker

Late night bloggers James Mummery, Maherunesa Khandaker and Ewurasi Brako

On the morning of the 26 June, the G8 delegations waved goodbye to Muskoka and were warmly received by Toronto where we were first introduced to the additional G20 countries’ youth delegates.

Hosted by the TD Bank, a perfect example of Canada’s successful and sometimes called “boring” banking sector. Due to strong regulation and an informed refusal to engage in the trading of sub prime securities, the banking sector shielded Canada from the worst effects of the Global Financial Crisis.

George Osborne has openly admitted that he looks up to Canada’s model of financial governance and budget deficit reduction strategies from the 1990s.

So in rather plush settings, we were able to meet and share ideas with the additional delegations of Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia.

After a feast of tasty food, Ed Clark gave the delegates a talk about the causes, impacts and solutions to the global financial crisis.

This was matched by some touch economic questions from the floor on such issues as the currently proposed international banking tax, the balance between CSR and the goal of profits and the impact of cyber-security on the banking sector.

The lunch provided the first chance to discuss and contribute ideas on what the youth expect and demand of international economic policy.

James Mummery

Just to inform you that the UK delegation safely arrived back in London Tuesday morning after 6 hectic but exciting days in Canada for the G8 and G20 summits.

The UK Delegation!

We would like to say a BIG thank you to all those of you who took the time out to fill out the surveys and express your views so they could be expressed in the communique, which was presented to the leaders. You made our job much better and representative.

We must admit the UK youth delegation did you proud, earning a reputation for being hard workers, who were diplomatic in their ways but firm in their positions. We got along with all those we came into contact with and now have networks across the world!

In our time theire we were able to make great contribution to the communique, working alongside, Germany, Russia, France, the United States, Japan and Canada. We were also able to learn a great deal about the key themes particularly food security, maternal health and climate change.

We had the priviledge of meeting with our PM David Cameron and the Chancellor of Exchequer, George Osborne for tea and bumping into President Obama on the escalators!

Everyone (senior leaders in society) was very supportive and encouraging, telling us many a time that we were not just the leaders of tomorrow but the leaders of now.

Whilst out there we soon realised the challenges leaders must experience when negotiating with other powerful countries and how far removed they can become from society when moving from meeting to meeting without being able to engage with the rest of civil society.

Nonetheless, I personally realised that change in youth participation and efforts to make it more inclusive and effective will not happen instantaneously. In order to effect change we all must dedicate to the cause long term in order to see the results.

For those of you that did not fill in the survey please continue to do so and pass it on to your friends as your opinion still counts for our follow up work.

Stay tuned for more!

All the G8 Youth Representatives

Ewurasi Brako

James and Andy in Climate Change Negotiations

From this session James and Andrew headed upstairs to enter into the Climate Change negotiations. They found this session to be largely a positive and collaborative process full consensus. The UK welcomed the progressive suggestions from both the Russian and German delegations.

There was an overall sense that all delegations wanted climate change tackled properly and comprehensively with no ½ measures to prevent the temperature rise of 2 degrees.

The communiqué focused on 3 targets:
1) Carbon reduction emission targets
2) Promotion of renewable energies as the dominant part of domestic energy mix
3) Greening of existing carbon technologies in short term battle to tackle climate change

In true reflection of Copenhagen (COP15) the major issue of contention was carbon reduction strategies, the UK proud to suggest the proposal of 80% cuts of carbon emissions by 2050 on 1990 levels. This move was strongly supported by delegates from Italy, France, Germany and Russia delegations but resisted by USA and Canadian representatives. However with only 3minutes before deadline for the submission final communiqué a consensus was reached and the cuts were in!

James Mummery (Climate Change negotiation team) “it was personally great to see countries like Russia propose really progressive suggestions such as biodiversity protection. Before coming here I didn’t really know what views Russia had in regard to climate change and its really opened my eyes to the common values that are shared by young people around the world”

Maherunesa, Heather and Ewurasi at the Welcome Dinner

The G8 activities of My Summit were ready to commence on the morning of the 24^th. The day started with a compelling speech from the founder of My Summit, Mr Terry Clifford, who described  our position as Youth Delegates as  being the first to finally get on the world stage with the message that young people matter now, that this is our opportunity to speak now and act now. We were told “Every second you have to collaborate and build a better future is a second well spent”.

After this powerful reminder of our role, we delved into the first of our G8 negotiations, that of Terrorism and Nuclear Non-Proliferation. Our first plenary was delivered by Norman Inkster, who has specialised in security for over 36 years. This talk informed us of the new and very real threat of cybercrime and terrorism, and left us with a few challenging questions to think about the future role of security. After all, with such rapidly developing technologies, how can justice systems develop and keep up with new emerging threats? Our two security delegates, Ewurasi Brako and Steven Cheung then took the lead of the UK position into the negotiations for Terrorism and Nuclear Non Proliferation.

The second plenary covered food security; this was delivered by David Stevenson, the director of policy, planning and strategy for the UN World Food Programme. He explained the importance of finding out why people are hungry and how solutions can be found to lifting people out of security in the long term, as opposed to merely giving them aid. We learnt of the various innovative farming techniques to support local farmers in developing countries, and understood the importance of nutrition education, especially with regards to mothers and children, which is another G8 topic in itself. However the interlinking of each of the topics reminds us of the importance of shifting for positive changes in these areas for the entire world. The food security delegates Barbara Soetan and Maherunesa Khandaker then proceeded to put forward the UK stance on food security in the negotiating room.

Maherunesa and Barbara in Food Security Negotiations

The day of plenaries ended with a powerful talk on maternal and child health by Dr Jean Chamberlain Froese, Founder of Save the Mothers.

Even after leaving the location of the talks, overall, the first day of negotiations worked itself long into the night, with the Food Security negotiations ending at around midnight. However, knowing that young people are finally having their views put on such a platform drove us to work into the early hours with undying enthusiasm, eagerly awaiting the second day of talks.

Maherunesa Khandaker