Serbia: Ivana Savic: Youth Caucus shakes the UN

“Young people are not useless, they are just used less!” says Ivana Savic, a 22 year old law student and activist who recently attended the Youth Caucus in New York, the meeting place of an international network of over 1 thousand youth delegates who met during the United Nation’s Conference on Sustainable Development (CSD) to make sure that the voice of young people was heard and considered.

“Policy makers under estimate the positive impact that youth can have. Our presence at the CSD is proof that this forum has begun to actively involve the future generation. We are here and we are able to speak”. This is Ivana’s manifesto to include youth interests in the decisions that affect the future of millions of people world wide. People who, point out the UN youth delegates who attended the CSD-16, as the United Nation’s most recent Sustainable Development conference is known, are mostly young people between the ages of 15 and 24: there are more than 1.6 billion young people in the world today. A fact that makes youth the largest group of stakeholders when it comes making long term economic, social and environmental decisions.

The Youth Caucus, that has met every time there has been a CSD since 1992, is open to any young person and youth led organisation worldwide and is coordinated by two young people – to represent the Global North and South – who are elected by the Caucus every 2 years.

Ivana, who was born in Belgrade, speaks English, Russian and Spanish. She believes she has the leadership qualities needed to be a youth leader but knows that leadership is a never ending process of self-study and self-development, constant education and training. This was her first Youth Caucus

What did you expect from the Youth Caucus? Did it live up to your expectations?
To be honest I was not sure what to expect, especially as it was my first CSD. But I am quite satisfied with the outcomes: people at the Youth Caucus were motivated to work and there was much exchange of great ideas from the start. Most of us had opportunity to meet other delegates a day before CSD started at the Youth Blast, organized by SustainUS at Columbia University.

During the CSD, the Youth Caucus contributed to almost all the discussions and meetings: we were certainly noticed. All statements that Youth Caucus made, and that were uploaded on a daily basis, can be found on the Youth Caucus web site www.youen.org. On the web, you can also read and articles written by youth delegates. Some of the articles were published in the Outreach Issues, a daily publication of the Sustainable Development Issues Network (SDIN) and Stakeholders Forum (SF).

We had a Commitment Desk, which was our main meeting point. At the Commitment desk we had a small photo exhibition, but also Pledges, Quiz on Youth, guides for youth delegations, reports on youth and much more. The Youth Caucus received support from many state delegations, NGOs and people who work at the UN. Also, the YC is in close contact with the other Major Groups so we were able to have a real impact on the CSD.

Despite the fact that the CSD-16 has finished, the real work for those who were at the Youth Caucus has just begun: the preparations for the next CSD are already underway.

I would like to encourage all young people to get involved in the Youth Caucus and contribute to it with ideas, knowledge and experience.

What are the biggest challenges that civil society faces in your country today? How do you see the future?
Serbian civil society faces a lot of challenges as it is a rather marginalized sector. The main challenges it faces are the absence of a legal framework specifically aimed at civil society, improving its public image, increasing its cooperation with the state, building the capacity of organisations, finding appropriate human and financial resources .. unfortunately the list is long. But despite its weaknesses, there are also a lot of strengths and indicators of a sustainable, citizen-driven, locally rooted civil society in Serbia. I strongly believe that Serbian civil society will rise up to the challenges and that soon I will witness the day when Serbia becomes an efficient state and its citizens, active citizens.

When did you start to actively participate in civil society?
My first serious activism started in 2004, when I became a member of the student union at my faculty. Since then I have dealt with social issues at local, national, regional and international levels and in particular over the course of the past few months. As a member of the Civicus Youth Assembly Steering Group 2008 I have had a lot of preparation to do. 

What other organisations have you been involved in?
I have founded an organization called KRIO-Collective for Sustainable Development, www.krio.rs. Our mission is to promote a just and sustainable world for current and future generations.  KRIO’s first activity was to promote the UN CSD Youth Caucus at a music festival, Supernatural, held in April, in Belgrade.  Currently we are working on preparations for the  EXIT Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia where we will organize stand, workshops and panel discussions about the importance of youth involvement and engagement in the sustainable development process.

This spring, on behalf of Youth Action for Change and in cooperation with Amnesty International and supported by UNICEF experts, I delivered a free online training course on women’s rights.  This summer I will be involved in follow up training, and in autumn I will deliver another course on Human Rights.

Where do you expect to be in 5 years?
Somewhere where my ideas and knowledge will be appreciated and where they can be used in the best possible way.

What are your favorite online resources?
I spend a lot of time on the internet visiting different kind of web sites, but the most useful  for me and my work are www.civicus.org , http://ec.europa.eu/youth and www.salto-youth.net/eeca.

To find out more
http://www.youen.org
http://www.youthcaucus.net/