From Friday the 19th of November Utrecht will be the stage of a six days conference on the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations (UN). Youngsters of three continents (Africa, Asia and Europe) discuss with the Dutch society on the progress of these goals, and work together on designing the next steps in reaching these Millennium Goals.
World leaders, corporate executives and politicians converse on a regular basis on this subject. This dialogue, however, is rarely open to the general public. During the conference the dialogue will be open to everyone. We believe that the way in which today’s youth is currently being involved in achieving the UN millennium goals is inadequate. Despite the fact that they are the next generation living in this world.
To get the youth informed we get them in touch with leading experts in the fields of the Millennium Goals. We will acquaint them with different organizations in order to facilitate starting their own contingency projects.
A bit of the programme
The opening ceremony will take place at 14.00h on Friday November 19th in the Ruppert building at the university campus ‘De Uithof’ in Utrecht. The ceremony will be opened by the millennium goals ambassador Christiaan Rebergen and the chief of the Kofi Annan Business School, Hein Roelofsema. Following there will be a presentation by Fairphone.org in which they will inform you where the parts of our mobile phones really come from. Additionally they will present to you the first fair-trade mobile phone. Later that afternoon Cordaid micro-credit, Oikokrediet, Day for Change and other parties will debate about microcredits.
Saturday the 20th of November is the ‘International day of children rights’ (UN) in which this subject will be the central theme of this day’s programme. Among the organisations present are Plan Nederland, UNICEF and KidsRight. At 16.00h in the afternoon the AID debate will take place with Kathleen Ferrier (CDA), Sylvia Borren (EEN), David Sogge (researcher) and Elisabeth van der Steenhoven (WO=MEN) among others. Also, Frans Timmermans (PvdA), Vandana Shiva (Ecofeminist), Staffan Landin (Gapminder.org), Joep Lange (HIV scientist), Wim Leereveld (Access to Medicine) will contribute to the debate.
For more information on the programme, the locations and the schedule, please visit the website: http://www.mdgconference.org
The Organisers: AEGEE-Utrecht
This conference is organized by AEGEE-Utrecht, part of the European Student Association AEGEE-Europe. Their goal is to motivate the youth of today to cooperate on a pan-national level, across the borders, to work towards a better world. 1000 places will be open to the public and anyone, who is willing, can contribute by ideas, debates and actions. An intern programme is focused on the responsibility of today’s youth in searching for sustainable solutions to world problems and conflicts. The seven youngsters responsible for organizing this event have already spent a year making this conference happen. Every participant and organisation taking part in this conference contributes for free. The conference is open and free for every visitor.
Millennium community Utrecht
The community of Utrecht has been a millennium community since 2007. In the department of civil affairs there’s an exhibition on study trips to India and South Africa, which took place just before the conference. The community board made the town hall available for a social drink with Dutch development organisations and the international youth on Tuesday evening the 23rd of November.
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