Joburg lands youth summit

In 2013, the world’s best and brightest young minds will gather in Johannesburg, which has won the rights to host the One Young World global gathering.
AFTER months of toil Joburg, has bagged the global One Young World Youth Summit in 2013, it was announced on 3 September.

JTC CEO Lindiwe KweleJTC CEO Lindiwe Kwele: thrilled that the City is hosting One Young WorldThe city was shortlisted as a contender for the role of host together with Pittsburgh in the USA, but both cities came up trumps. Pittsburgh will host the 2012 conference and Joburg will take the reins in 2013.

“We’re thrilled, delighted and ecstatic,” said the chief executive officer of the Johannesburg Tourism Company (JTC), Lindiwe Kwele, who was at the final event of the 2011 summit in Zurich when the announcement was made.

The JTC was responsible for presenting Joburg’s bid. “JTC’s conference and events bureau team has put in so much effort over the past few months bidding for One Young World, and we are so excited to be bringing this high profile event to Joburg in two years’ time.”

One Young World is a platform for young people of leadership calibre, with the primary purpose of connecting the brightest youth with those in power and ensuring that their concerns and solutions are taken seriously.

Global leaders in various fields, such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, musician Bob Geldof and former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan support the summit and act as counsellors to delegates.

London hosted the inaugural summit in 2010, when 823 delegates from 114 countries came together to debate the issues confronting the youth of today. Zurich hosted this year’s conference from 1 to 4 September, with approximately 1 200 delegates from 170 countries.

“Clinching the event for Johannesburg and Africa is so important on so many levels,” Kwele said.

Achbishop Desmond Tutu will addressArchbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu supports One Young World “Africa is the continent which has the largest proportion of youth (20 percent) – as a demographic component of the population – and it would be significant to host this event on a continent which so many young people call home and which offers so many opportunities and challenges.”

Six resolutions were tabled at the first conference as the most pressing contemporary issues. These were, and remain:

Political leaders to make clear their stances on humanitarian issues;
Global business to define and act on their role in the fight against poverty;
Leaders and followers of all faiths to commit to delivering peace among all nations, races and creeds;
Media to use its influence to help protect truth and personal freedom;
Governments to take more legislative action to guarantee that carbon emissions reduction targets are agreed on and met by 2020; and
Businesses, governments and civil society to work together to prioritise health care and nutrition.
“What One Young World really is, is a brilliant network of extraordinary shared accountability, a rare and unique platform to engage the world’s youth on what matters now, and what will matter the most, tomorrow,” explains Catherine Peter, the Africa director of One Young World.

The opportunity to host the summit in Johannesburg would provide the platform to share ideas on the importance of developing youth into future leaders, learning from both developing and developed countries, Kwele said.

On the announcement of the winners, David Jones, the co-founder of the summit, said: “We received amazing bids from superb cities and Johannesburg is a true global icon, a city that has shown it can handle world events with style and exuberance.

“We are thrilled that the city will be our host for the One Young World summit 2013.”