Dr. Terasita Bernales, Coordinator, Hawai'i Global Youth Center
Jeffrey Boutwell, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
Juan Pablo Pardo Guerra, International Student/Young Pugwash
[draft; 6 February 2007]

The creation of a Global Youth Center (GYC) in Hawai'i presents a unique opportunity for generating a truly international framework through which youth around the world could become actively engaged in the construction of a better future.

In creating the GYC, located at the East-West Center, the challenge will be to develop a non-partisan initiative which stimulates youth from around the world to identify what they see as the major global issues to be addressed; to propose ways in which youth may play a more active role in dealing with these issues; to train young people as future leaders to more effectively communicate their concerns to, and interact with, current policymakers and opinion makers; and to provide ways in which young leaders can help shape the debate over issues that will directly affect them.

A major challenge for the GYC will be to identify its own particular mission that can bring something new to the existing constellation of policy-oriented youth organizations in Hawai'i and internationally.  As described below, one such strategy will be to develop a broad strategic partnership with very diverse organizations (not only NGO, policy, and academic groups, but the private sector and governments as well) that will greatly broaden the experience and contacts available to those involved with the GYC. 

Another challenge will be to create a Global Youth Center that is vibrant and exciting enough to attract the attention of youth who are already either engaged in local and national programs, or who have shown little interest in becoming more active in issues shaping their world.  Two issues will be particularly important here: engaging high-profile and respected spokespersons for the GYC, and making it very clear that the operations and programs of the GYC are determined primarily by youth, for youth.

A third key variable will, of course, be resources.  From the very beginning, the GYC must be seen as having the resources, in terms of finances, organization, and staff, to carry out its mission.  Substantial funds should be raised prior to the inauguration of the GYC so that it can implement a broad-based program of activities that will, in turn, garner significant media and public interest, and additional sources of funds.  In addition, the GYC could be developed as both an operating and a grant-making institution, which would help its visibility with other youth groups around the world, and more fully empower the youth involved with GYC activities.

Background

Planning for the GYC has been underway for several years now.  A core group of individuals, including Charles Morrison and Roland Lagareta (President and Chair of the Board of Governors, respectively, of the East-West Center), Jeffrey Boutwell (Executive Director, Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs), Juan Pablo Pardo Guerra (Co-Chair, International Student/Young Pugwash), and Ms. Stephanie McCandless Reford (former Executive Director of the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council) have helped develop the concept through numerous discussions with individuals in Hawai'i and around the world. 

In January 2007, Dr. Boutwell was a Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center to work on the concept plan for the GYC, and met with a wide variety of individuals associated with the following organizations: the East-West Center, the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, the Pacific Forum CSIS, the Hawai'i Emerging Leaders Program, the Matsunaga Institute for Peace, the Model United Nations at the University of Hawai'i, the United Nations Association of Hawai'i, the Telecommunications and Information Policy Group (PEACESAT) of the University of Hawai'i, former Congressman Ed Case, and  various Hawai'i state senators and representatives.  Other people contacted about the GYC have been Dr. James Scott, President of the Punahou School, Hope Staub of the Wo International Center at Punahou, and others.

From this planning process, the initial workplan of the GYC has emerged.  

Strategies for a Global Youth Center in Hawai'i

There are numerous strategies and types of programs that could be developed under the auspices of the Global Youth Center, as listed below.

1. Initially, the Global Youth Center in Hawai'i will focus on serving and enriching the culturally diverse community of Hawai'i youth.  As Governor Linda Lingle noted in her Inaugural Address (4 December 2006), "our shared vision for the future…" must assure that "our young people… will be a part of finding solutions to the challenges that lie ahead."  Working with existing youth-oriented programs at the East-West Center, the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council (PAAC), the Wo International Center at the Punahou School, the Model UN at the University of Hawai'i, the Hawai'i Emerging Leaders Program of PAAC and the Pacific Forum, and others, a Global Youth Center will develop significant new opportunities for Hawai'i's youth to globally connect with their peers in helping Hawai'i become, in Governor Lingle's words, "American's vanguard in the Asia-Pacific region."    
   
   It is proposed that the GYC develop a comprehensive database of existing Hawai'i youth organizations, and inventory the types of international programs and opportunities available for Hawai'i youth.  A GYC website will be developed that helps connect these organizations and provide a comprehensive listing of the internship, travel, conference, and networking opportunities for Hawai'i youth with their peers around the world.
   
   The GYC will also serve as a resource for connecting Hawai'i youth groups with the wide range of policy specialists, government officials, scientists, and other international figures who visit Hawai'i each year for conferences, meetings, research, and other purposes.  With only modest planning in advance, these senior figures could be asked to meet with Hawai'i students and young professionals during their stay in Hawai'i, thus providing a wonderful resource for Hawai'i youth to experience international perspectives first hand.
    
2. A second level of activity will be developing strategic partnerships with international youth organizations that help bring Hawai'i to the world, and the world to Hawai'i.   One example is the International Student/Young Pugwash (ISYP) network, an organization of members in more than 30 countries around the world that for over 20 years has been fostering collaborative projects on issues of global concern.  The ISYP organization, an affiliate of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (recipient of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize), would also provide the GYC with the opportunity for establishing mentoring relationships between Hawai'i youth and eminent policy makers and scientists in a wide range of public policy fields. 
   
   
3. Because of its Hawai'i location and Asia-Pacific focus, the GYC will  investigate partnerships with youth organizations that have a more European/African orientation.  One possible example here is the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts, which manages a wide variety of programs designed to promote international citizenship and policy awareness in tomorrow's leaders.  A GYC based at the University of Hawai'i could partner with some of the IGL programs at Tufts University in serving the Asia-Pacific region, so that the Tufts program is able to take advantage of the GYC's grounding in Asia-Pacific issues, and similarly the GYC can benefit from the Tufts experience in Europe, Africa, the Middle East America, and other regions beyond the Asia-Pacific.    
   
   
4. Especially exciting are opportunities for the GYC to investigate innovative partnerships between academia, governments, the private sector, and NGOs.  Just as an example, the GYC could explore the possibility of partnering with the Media Lab at the Mass. Institute of Technology on its "One Laptop Per Child" project.  Under the direction of Nicholas Negroponte, the goal is to develop low-cost ($100-$150) portable laptop computers that operate on human-generated energy, to be purchased by governments (Thailand, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria and Libya are among the countries interested) and distributed in the hundreds of thousands (if not millions).  It is possible that the Global Youth Center could help develop the information, education, and training materials to be disseminated via email and the internet to those youth empowered with having the laptops.  In much the way that Andrew Carnegie leveraged his philanthropy to create the American system of public libraries, so the "One Laptop per Child" project could open exciting new opportunities for global youth to become directly engaged in global issues, with the Global Youth Center playing a key role in developing the content and digital networks among global youth necessary for its success. 

This type of strategic partnership for the GYC would fit well with the vision of  Hawai'i Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, who in her remarks to the opening of the Hawai'i Senate on 17 January 2007, stressed involving Hawai'i's youth in two of the critical issue areas for Hawai'i in the 21^st century: sustainability and the digital revolution. 

Work Plan: 2007-2009  

Contingent upon receiving funding beginning July 1, 2007, the GYC will begin to implement its program of networking among Hawai'i youth organizations, while also exploring strategic partnerships with international youth organizations.  The GYC will create an advisory board to investigate emerging opportunities, while also meeting with  local political, business, educational, and policy figures in Hawai'i to stimulate interest in the organizational and financial requirements for growing the GYC.  In particular, the GYC will coordinate with the Office of International Affairs of the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism in expanding its reach to those Hawai'i youth not currently served by existing international youth programs. 

• The GYC staff will contact international youth groups (part of the developing GYC database) to learn more about their programs, their successes and failures in engaging youth, and ways in which their local, national, regional and international organizations could become part of the GYC network.

• The GYC will explore the possibility of becoming a grant-making as well as an operating institution; i.e., what types of requests for proposals and funding programs would make it most attractive for youth organizations to be part of the GYC network and provide synergy between the GYC hub and the global youth network.

• The GYC will investigate youth training programs, to be held in Hawai'i and elsewhere, that would allow youth to interact with senior policy figures in the most effective way possible.

• The GYC will collaborate with those international youth groups (one or two per continent) that will be formal partners of the GYC and prepare a major youth conference to be held in Hawai'i in 2008.  This will then be followed by the Global Youth Center working with other groups in Hawaii to host the 10^th Anniversary of the Millennium Young People's Congress in 2009.

• The GYC will work with the appropriate state agencies, and the PEACESAT program of the Univ. of Hawai'i, and others, in exploring how best to utilize new information technologies to better connect the youth of Hawai'i among themselves, and with their international peers.

The interest in the Global Youth Center that has developed over the past several years, both in Hawai'i and more broadly, strongly suggests that the political and financial wherewithal exists to make it a reality.  What is needed now is the intellectual and organizational stimulus, sustained over the next year, to generate the momentum necessary to create a Hawai'i-based Global Youth Center that will become an internationally-recognized leader in engaging the next generation to actively promote the health, education, and welfare of all the world’s peoples in the resolution of important world issues and the pursuit of peace.