Youth voices looking ahead to 2015
The United Nations has invited the world to join a debate about the sort of world we want to create. The My World website has been launched to offer world citizens a chance to participate in influencing the post-Millennium Development Goals framework.
Available in 10 languages, the survey asks citizens from all over the world to share their thoughts on what priorities to include in the global development agenda beyond 2015.
In some countries, votes may also be sent through mobile phone and offline ballots.
‘This website would make a good start to a discussion on World Social Work Day – Tuesday 19 March 2013′, said Rory Truell, IFSW Secretary General.
The survey asks participants to choose SIX from the following 16 issues:
- Better job opportunities.
- Protection against crime and violence.
- Freedom from discrimination and persecution.
- A good education.
- Equality between men and women.
- Better transport and roads.
- Access to clean water and sanitation.
- Reliable energy at home.
- Phone and Internet access.
- Action taken on climate change.
- Political freedoms.
- Affordable and nutritious food.
- An honest and responsive government.
- Protecting forests, rivers and oceans.
- Better health care.
- Support for people who can’t work.
The final survey results will be handed over to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his high-level panel on the post-2015 development agenda, as well as to heads of state and government present at the opening of the 2013 U.N. General Assembly, the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals and other processes. The UN plans to make its decisions about the post-MDG priorities at the General Assembly in September 2014.
Rory Truell, IFSW Secretary General, welcomed this exciting new initiative. ‘For the first time, the United Nations is speaking directly with the citizens of the world’, he said. ‘All too often we witness the UN stuck in diplomatic arguments which can easily seem a long way from people’s daily experience. The world social work community has already started this discussion,’ he continued. ‘The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development has come out of a global consultation within our profession. It is perhaps not surprising that many similar themes emerged as our own priorities. The regional conferences in 2013 and the global conference in Melbourne in July 2014 give us a chance to shape our ideas, strengthen our commitment and make sure that we bring the voice of social workers into this global debate, Rory Truell concluded.
Visit the MyWorld website and use your vote!
Visit The Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development
World Social Work Day website
IFSW Gary Bailey’s message on World Social Work Day 2013
