Seminar Report

26 - 28 November 2010
Oslo
 1 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

Introduction
by Daniel Hardegger

„What is the impact?“ This was the main question at the seminar in Oslo at the end of November 2010. Every measure or
project developed, discussed and presented at the seminar were checked if it will create an impact, on regional, national
or even international level, and that all UNYAs and UNA Youth Sections will benefit from this. Starting with presentations
about the different structures and working methods of UNYAs and UNA Youth Sections, inspiration techniques and a
debate about chances and risks of international projects, the whole seminar was characterized by practical work. After
developing several projects to face upcoming challenges like the increasing expenditure on armaments, all participants
where working together in smaller groups on a specific idea and presenting the result to the group at the end to get
feedback. This constant working and review process was one of the key elements of the seminar and at the end we were
able to create four different and highly advanced project executive summaries which can be found on the website and,
in a shortened version, in this report.

An event like this where young people can meet, work and start new projects together is a possibility to learn more
for a UNYA or UNA Youth Section then working all alone. The new ideas and experience shared at such events improve
the work of all of all UNYAs and UNA Youth Sections attending, increase their own impact over time and to maintain
the enthusiasm high. Especially in our time with social platforms, online video and audio conference programs and the
possibility to get in contact with enthusiastic young people all over the world, it is important to create the possibility to
concentrate this energy on one event for a few days. Only by using all this opportunities, preparing everything before the
event as good as it gets and invest all energy available at the event, the creation of new projects, new inputs and ideas is
fastened, facilitated and the debates will lead to sustainable projects.

I want to thank the UNYA Norway for their financial support and hosting of the event, as it is impossible to realize such
events without such support. Furthermore, I want to thank DMUN which supported the event when it was necessary. To
prepare and lead this workshop together with all the other from the staff, especially Halstein, was an unique and exciting
experience.

I think that such event, improved and with more resources, are the base for a better cooperation between the different
UNYAs and UNA Youth Sections especially as the developed projects and measures can be carried out together. Because
of that, we decided in Oslo to support the great offer from Michael from Austria to host the next event in Vienna at the
beginning of August 2011 right after in the VIMUN. With more to prepare the event, more enthusiastic people and special
experts who shall review the developed projects at place, I am sure that the will fulfill our own goal: To create an impact.
 2 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

General Report
by Pau Petit

The aim of this seminar is to achieve a better vision for a successful cooperation among young people from different coun-
tries. Through the seminar new ideas and new projects have been discussed in order to plan the action of the respective
projects having in mind the wide possibilities that offer using international coordination maximising their impact.

26/11/2010:
Arrive in Oslo. Check in hotel. Warm welcoming from the organisation board. Starting to meet all the participants through
the World Café at Oslo University while we share some typical food from the different countries that take part in the
seminar. Presentation of the schedule of the seminar.

27/11/2010
Starting the day with the presentation of the UNYAs/UNAs and their Different Structure having in mind the positive point
and the negative points of each way of organisation. Also, we attended the presentation of how to develop new ideas
for projects.

Moreover, we took part in the presentation and discussion of the chances and risks of international cooperation. Lunch
was provided by the Oslo team and it was very good. In the afternoon, we attended a presentation about speed dating
about a topic and developed projects for this topic. We feel it's a very clever and fast way of coming with new ideas in
order to tackle some issues.

Afterwards, in reduced groups young people we chose the best ideas that were written in the wall and each group de-
veloped one main project. My group choose to develop a project from the youth point of view how to tackle the Global
Warming. Another project that was developed was that the opinion of youth to be heard by the relevant authorities
deciding issues of foreign policy. Also, the project of the global community with recognition and respect to different cul-
tures. Moreover, the project of having an impact on military decision making and the youth view of war, trough education
children, confronting decision makers and impacting the society.

28/11/2010
In the morning we kept on working on the respective projects that were started the previous day until we finished them.
Next was the presentation of each project in front of all the youth representatives. After each presentation we proceed
to an open discussion in order to see how to carry them out. After lunch we attend to the presentation of how to work in
the future, from bilateral contacts to an international network.

It was stated that we feel all this seminar has been very productive. Also, we have had very fruitful discussions. Moreover,
we see that the youth of the world wants to take action, it's capable to do so and is capable to organise projects with an
international impact. We have seen that there is the will of unity and youth wants to work together. We have seen that
the youth is determined to cooperate internationally and, therefore, this seminar has been a success. In order to proceed
with the youth international cooperation a meeting has been established for the 5th August 2011 in Vienna.

29/11/2010
Trip back home with the feeling that youth has a great potential, we just have to organise ourselves internationally.
It's time for practical work.
 3 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

Preparation and Hosting - By UNSA Norway

by Halstein Bagøien Moe

This was the first international event UNSA Norway has hosted. UNSA Norway saw this as a great opportunity to extend
our international work and improve our experience. The idea from the host side was to try to host the seminar on an
almost zero budget, and see if it is possible to host an international event on very limited budget in an expensive country.
UNSA Norway and UNYA Switzerland were in close cooperation through the whole preparation regarding both the pro-
gram and the practical preparations and included feedback from other UNYAs during the whole process. Planning took
place through first Skype and then Adobe Connect which we decided to test out for further use in both the planning and
as an online platform during seminars.

The other UNY(S)As was supportive in the whole process and also gave a input on practical matters so UNSA Norway had
somewhere to get answers form more experienced associations. The preparation in Norway involved getting members
of UNSA Norway to open their homes to guests. The biggest challenge regarding the preparation was the short time to
prepare. UNSA Norway was originally planning to host a media workshop in October, but it was postponed for various
reasons. We decided instead to host this event about 5 weeks before the seminar started. The date of the seminar was in
the middle of the exam period, this made it harder to get members volunteering to provide accommodation and to help
in the preparation. But the three persons from Norway taking part in the hosting managed it without any big sacrifices
in their studying.

Accommodation, Meals, Rooms and Visa

Our original plan was to provide all the participants private accommodation. This way we would have no expenses on
accommodation and the participants would make tighter bonds with the hosts for further cooperation. We managed to
get some of the guest private accommodation, but we were not able to provide accommodation for all. This doubled the
expenses of the seminar because the rest of the participants had to sleep at a hotel. Financially this was problematic,
since project support from the university would arrive after the project was finished. Fortunately was solved by a loan
from DMUN, a member association of UNYA Germany.

To keep the costs of food at an absolute minimum food was prepared at home and brought to the university and the
participants were able to have dinner at the home of the Chairman of UNSA Norway , this demanded more preparation,
but saved us a lot of money. This also had a positive effect, by having the dinner at a private apartment the participants
were able to socialize in an informal environment. The University of Oslo provided the seminar rooms for free. There was
some bureaucracy to get the rooms in a weekend and to get guest access to the Internet, but once this was sorted out
the rooms functioned great for our needs. Visa applications to the Schengen area can take some time to process, this was
especially apparent for participants traveling from a country who did not have a Norwegian embassy, UNSA Norway did
not have any standard invitation letter to invite participants from countries requiring a Visa, fortunately we have learned
a lot by sending out these invitation letters. With help this experience will be turned into a standard procedure for help-
ing all UNY(S)A’s and UNAs to invite young people to the Schengen area for similar events.

Hosting this seminar has been a great experience. We have greatly enjoyed planning and implementing the seminar,
meeting a lot of engaged people and sketched great projects for the future and we had lots of fun in the process. UNSA
Norway would love to host a similar event later. The most important improvement would be to significantly reduce the
workload by arranging for the seminar further in advance and involving some more in the preparation.

Some suggestions for seminars in the future:

- Assess how much your budget is, even if you have a zero budget, you should be able to get some money if something
goes wrong.
- Try to find meeting rooms close to the area were the participants are sleeping, to save time and money for transport.
- Check early what you can get for free. The longer you wait the more expensive the seminar become.
- Private accommodation and home-made meals have social benefits and are cheaper, but requires more work.
- Double check that meeting rooms and accommodation is indeed ready in time to make other arrangements.
 4 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

Organization Structures Presentation

by Sylvia Wittmer

The first presentation was held by Niklas Vuskans and Sylvia Wittmer from UNYA Germany. It considered three structural
questions common to all UNYAs & UNA Youth Sections present in Oslo. The presentation was meant as a discussion basis
and hence was held from the point of view of the two presenters. The first part of the presentation dealt with the ques-
tion of how to structure the UNYA itself as an organization, starting from the premise of an independent national UNYA.
Sylvia demonstrated the differences of the two most common models, the one of a member organization and the other
of an umbrella organization, by comparing their advantages and disadvantages from her point of view.

Coming herself from an umbrella association Sylvia still tried to remain as unbiased as possible and gave personal ex-
amples for the advantages and disadvantages called out. Having participants from other UNYAs which function in the
structure of a member association the later following discussion was intense and the group determined that the ideal
structure for each UNYA depended on the circumstances of its founding, the number of people reached but also the vi-
sion for the UNYAs activity.

Following the first remarks by the other participants, Niklas continued with his part of the presentation regarding the
comparison of steep and flat hierarchies. He tried to elaborate the differences between those two hierarchy approaches
by showing their effectiveness in both the business world and pro bono work, pointing out that models successful in
business couldn't necessarily be transferred to the pro bono activity of UNYAs, since the problems they are solving are
different from those occurring in a non-paid atmosphere.

The third part considered the different approaches to implement a project idea into the existing UNYA mechanisms point-
ing out their advantages but also their dangers of usage such as loss of transparency and democratic procedure versus
the lack of effective follow through with project ideas due to burocracy. In my personal opinion I believe that the pre-
sentation achieved its main aim in starting a fruitful discussion among the present participants reconsidering their own
structures and sharing their experiences and problems. It was also useful to point out the structural difference between
an independent UNYA and a UNA-Youth Section.

Due to the direct examples, positive as negative, out of the experience of the presenters a open atmosphere was estab-
lished which remained throughout the seminar, which led to realistic experience exchange.
 5 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

Inspiration: How to develop new Project-Ideas

by Philine Frei

Brainstorming
One of the most popular techniques to develop ideas is brainstorming. The aim of brainstorming is to develop many
diverse ideas spontaneously in a group. A respectful atmosphere in the group is indispensable in order to prevent a slow-
down of the creativity of certain group members by intimidating these people. Another vital element of a good brain-
storming is a competent moderation, discreetly guiding the whole process. The ideas mentioned are often documented
in a written collection (on a poster, blackboard or similar).

The process of brainstorming embraces two parts: During the first phase serving to find ideas, every participant should
have the boldness to present all his or her ideas, even if they are very unconventional. Furthermore, every group member
should contain itself in terms of not criticizing other participants. During the second part, serving to evaluate and arrange
all the ideas, the proposals may be amended, criticized, classified etc. This step may also be carried out by other people
than the participants of the idea development process (e.g. specific experts).

Brainstorming allows the development of innovative, nonstandard ideas in a very cheap way which is easy to facilitate.
Furthermore, it can serve as a teambuilding exercise. The fact that there is a mutual influence between the participants
(ideas of one participant may lead the thoughts of the other participants in a specific direction), can be considered an
advantage or a disadvantage. On one hand, it boosts the creativity of the participants (“zipper”), but on the other hand
it limits the mind as thoughts may stick to paths once struck.

Social barriers within the brainstorming group might slow down or even impede progress: shy, qualified people don’t
present their ideas, employees don’t bring up ideas contrary to the employer’s ideas, and group members don’t partici-
pate because of discrimination; just to mention a few examples. Concerning this problem, the moderator and the person
forming the group play a key role, they must be aware of the interpersonal dynamics between the people involved. When
planning a brainstorming, one must also be aware that the unpreparedness of the participants and the lacking structure
may lead to many unrealistic, unusable of unspecific ideas. Additionally, the selection of helpful ideas among the total
amount of ideas is sometimes time-consuming.

Brainwriting
One variation of brainstorming is brainwriting. It is very similar to brainstorming, the only difference is that the partici-
pants submit their ideas in a written way (on paper or electronically).Brainwriting has the advantage that it can be car-
ried out anonymously, which guarantees certain equality between the participants; also timid people or individuals on a
lower social level can fully participate.

The abatement of the inhibition threshold favors the development of more creative and diverse ideas. On the other
hand, the fact that the group members have to write down their ideas and to look for good phrasing leads to a decrease
in dynamics and spontaneousness. Furthermore, the same ideas might appear several times (this problem can be solved
using electronic meeting systems). During brainwriting, there is less mutual influence.

METHOD 6-3-5
Method 6-3-5, which is also called collective notebook method, is a subtype of brainwriting. There are six participants
(recommended number, of course variations are possible), and every participant writes three ideas on a sheet. After-
wards, the sheet is handed on to the all the other participants who make amendments to the initial idea and further
develop it (if all the other participants comment the initial idea, there are five amendments at the end)

For method 6-3-5, the same advantages as for brainstorming and brainwriting apply. Further positive aspects are the
clear structure helping to arrange the thoughts well and the fact that there’s a coherent train of thoughts. Given that the
feedback is written, it is more likely to be concise.
 6 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

General inputs about idea development

One should ensure that the correct question is asked: the problem must be tackled, and not the symptoms of the prob-
lem. Where a problem appears to be very large, it is to be broken down into smaller parts. Sometimes it might be helpful
to change perspectives and to think about the problem from a different point of view (“What would you think about the
question if you were person xy?”). It can also be constructive to think reversely and to answer the question how a bad so-
lution would look like. Switching the levels (from the abstract to the specific level and vice versa) is an important process
in order to be a tinker and a visionary at the same time.

In many cases, copying others may be very fruitful. Given that there are certainly people who have already had the same
or a similar problem before, looking at their solutions is a good inspiration and helps to think outside the box. Combining
different techniques can generate very positive results.

More information can be found following this link: http://www.mindtools.com.

 7 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

Experiences with Speed Project Development

by Simon A. Methi

Speed Project Development is a framework for developing ideas for new projects that are planned and executed either
on a local or global level, through international cooperating. The framework has two distinctive phases. Phase One is set
up in a manner similar to speed dating, where the participants rapidly change partners and are presented a new topic to
form the idea of a potential new project. This topic is then discussed for a time period of around 5 minutes, to create a
sense of urgency in the hopes of increasing creativity and efficiency, whilst avoiding procrastination. The partners try to
write their general ideas about the project down on paper.

Phase Two of Speed Project Development use the project ideas that were generated during Phase One. The different
project ideas are circulated between the participants and form the topic and ideas for new projects. Participants then
forms groups related to the project ideas they are interested in developing further. The groups then create complete
project descriptions.

My experience with Phase One of Speed Project Development is very positive. I felt the “speed dating” setting and feel-
ing of urgency helped both creativity and productivity, and led to many fruitful ideas. It therefore not only aided the cre-
ation of cooperative project development during the seminar, but has contributed to a further thought process after the
seminar and several more possible future projects. My group have continued developing our project after the seminar.
Speed Project Development therefore increased the output and utility I gained from the Cooperation Seminar, and is a
framework for generating new project that I would highly recommend.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

by Honna Martilla

Middle part of Saturday during the seminar weekend was spent on idea development for new projects through the
method of speeddating. The participants were each given a number and then organized by calling different pairs of num-
bers to sit together for a few minutes in order to develop ideas for projects around a certain theme. The themes were
determined by giving each pair one information card on global issues such as proliferation of nuclear weapons, climate
change, changes in global population structure etc. Each pair was given a different card at each session which made the
method pleasant, dynamic and inspirational.

All the ideas were written down and pinned on the wall, and after this process, all the participants could look at what
other pairs had discussed. Afterwards, everybody identified a project idea that they find the most interesting and would
like to implement the most in their own country. Finally, four groups were formed around four different project ideas.
The rest of the Saturday and Sunday morning were spent in these working groups sorting out the details for the project,
drafting a project plan and designing a time frame for the implementation. The four projects were introduced in detail to
all the participants later the same day.

The method of speeddating was experienced as inclusive, motivating and productive. Changing the pairs and the themes
every few minutes created an atmosphere of openess and welcomed many different aspects on project development.
Working in pairs enabled the equal participation of timid persons. Spreading all the ideas on the wall permetted explora-
tion of different aspects and underlined the cooperative approach of the process. The results of the idea development
session were fruitful, and the method was overall extremely successful.
 8 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

Online Platform
by Daniel H. Haarhof

With the goal of facilitating a global exchange of UNYAs and UNSAs the seminar in Oslo was faced with one major ob-
stacle: travel costs. Especially for people outside of Europe coming to Oslo to connect with the other organisations would
entail large costs for flights. To still allow for the possibility of a global exchange of ideas the organisers choose to use a
virtual meeting room, through which it would be possible for anyone with Internet access to join the discussion.

For this purpose Adobe Connect Pro was selected. The software allows anyone with standard web browser to join the
meeting and has the added benefit of using Adobe's servers. This means that one isn't reliant on the Internet connection
of a single participant to host the meeting but can rely on high speed servers located close to Internet backbones. The
virtual conference also came with a lot of amenities besides voice and video calling. It of course a chat but also allowed us
to view documents and presentations together. That way during the presentations everybody connected saw the slides
and presenters just like we did in Oslo. We also had a common text document were everybody could follow the notes
being taking during the discussion. To enable people who missed the presentations and discussion to later come back
and review the proceedings all the presentations were available through the online platform and we also recorded the
entire session.

Sadly online participation was quite low. But we had participants from the Philippines, Russia and Switzerland joining.
The low amount of participation was partly due to the time differences. People from New Zealand and Chile and been
interested in joining but couldn't make it due to the time shift. Another problem was the lack of reliableInternet con-
nections. For example Christine from the Philippines was cut off several times. The ability to share presentations was
very beneficial since it allowed Irene Martinetti from WFUNA in Geneva to tell us about the organisation and illustrate
her points by sharing a presentation about WFUNA with us. What didn't work quite so well was the discussions which
followed the presentations. We only had one laptop with a microphone and camera enabled so whenever somebody
wanted to say something that had to go the "speakers chair" which was positioned in front of the laptop. The alternative
was that the connected listeners around the world couldn't hear this person. Participation from people not in Oslo was
also limited by the fact that they didn't have laptops and could only ask questions via the chat. This and the fact that it
was at times difficult to follow the discussion due to people talking without a microphone made the participation via the
Internet quite hard. The conference room does offer the ability for participants to virtually raise their hand for a question,
but it requires a lot more discipline by the people meeting in real life.

Even thought the virtual meeting wasn't a full success I believe we can learn a lot from it and improve the use of this tech-
nology for the future. It would be a lot easier to have a discussion with both online and local participants if one had about
one laptop for each table / two people. But more importantly all participants need to remain aware of the added difficul-
ties of such an online meeting. It requires a lot more self discipline and it might be advantageous to have a moderator to
remind the people meeting in real life to speak one at a time. The platform delivered by Adobe Connect is more suited
to formal meetings or presentations than lively discussions. This is also evident in the fact that it offers features such as
polls and questions submission systems. But it still allows for easy and cheap communication on an international level,
which wasn't possible only a few years ago. Since the seminar I have used the platform for meetings at my own UNYA,
with participants spread throughout Germany and all the way to Norway. From those meeting I would gather that being
able to share documents collectively is a benefit not delivered by Skype and other services. But it did take some time for
the participants to get used to the new system and initially there were some problems with peoples microphone settings.
This will probably become better with people getting used to the platform. For quick meetings with few participants I
would still recommend Skype and Etherpad.

In total I'm very impressed by the possibilities such technology offers. Organising events and exchanging ideas in distrib-
uted teams has become a lot easier with advent of reliable and fast Internet. Sadly in a many regions broadband Internet
is still a rare commodity and it must remain a priority to abolish this technological divide to enable more people to par-
ticipate on important issues.
 9 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

Executive Summary - Cultural Diversity Seminar

by Monica Akech, Temmylade Ayo Aladeokin, Irene Gruzdova

Mission
This highly interactive international four-day seminar deepens participants’ understanding of and respect for cultural
diversity. The project will help individuals and organizations acquire the intercultural communication skills needed to
improve interactions with each other as well as cultural competence skills needed to work with diverse communities.

The seminar will provide an opportunity for participants to share experiences on various projects aimed both preserving
the traditions and cultural backgrounds and intercultural understanding with tolerant and respectful attitude to each
other.

Objectives
Each day of the seminar is intended for special activities.
The first day is for acquaintance and teambuilding, through solving cross-cultural communication cases and participation
in role-play game. Through these activities the participants will not just break the barriers in communication with each
other, but also together will find the solution of crisis situation described in the role-play game.

The second day is set aside for project presentations and workshops to show how the participants’ projects are imple-
mented. It would be a useful platform to test their project one more time with experienced audience. Each participant
will act as an organizer of his own workshop, and as a participant of others.

The third day is set aside for summarizing all general ideas for creation of different projects and activities for future imple-
mentation both for participants and sponsors of the seminar.

On the fourth day the final presentation of the projects takes place. The cultural extra-program is also included in the
program. It could be cooking of on local cuisine and visit local attractions.

Benefits
The main outcomes of the seminar will be establishing a network of colleagues for further cooperation and consultation
with each other; developing new ideas for activities undertaken by both the participants and the organizers; every par-
ticipant might hold the same seminar in his/her region.

Project Scope
The implementation of the project consists of 3 steps:

Preparation: Planning / Information campaign (press releases/website) / Work with participants (recruitment/registra-
tion/providing information)
Local actions: Accommodation (Food and drink/IT support/Office supplies/Cultural extra program)
Wrap-up: Feedback (Financial report for sponsors/Report for the website/Press releases)

The Organizing Committee

Number of team-members depends on number of participants. The Team works in two directions: work with participants
(2-3 people) and local preparation (5-7). The team-members are experienced in organizing international meetings, fo-
rums, workshops and etc., with knowledge of other languages.

Contact: gruzdovair@gmail.com
 10 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

Executive Summary - “Daddy, why do we have war?”

by Halstein Bagøien Moe, Daniel H. Haarhoff

War is usually considered as something bad, this is true if you are an ordinary citizen, a politician or a general, but coun-
tries have come to accept “armed intervention.” We want to raise questions about the use of armed force by western
countries. We want to do this by making decision makers defend their policies to a group of people who do not share
their accepted truths, and accept the the necessity of a states actions to a lesser extent – children. The goal of the project
is to make an impact on political and military decision makers, and their view of war and conflict. At the same time we
want to educate children, confront decision makers and impact society.

Project summary
The idea of the project is to find partner schools where we will hold a show during which important figures from the
military field have to answer questions about war, collateral damage and other difficult topics regarding armed conflict.
The questions will be asked by a panel of children, and the guest will have to explain these questions in a way that chil-
dren will understand. The show will be filmed in order to reach the largest audience possible. The show is meant to be
entertaining, but at the same time make the audience and the invited guests think. By doing this we hope to sensitize the
military figures, the children and the people watching to the ethical problems related to war. We believe that explaining
war and what follows it in an understandable way will challenge some of the established truths and conceptions about
the necessity of armed forces and armed conflict.

The children will be selected and prepared before the show, a suitable age group will be found before the pilot show by
bringing a camera crew to the school and record children’s opinions on war and international conflict. The show will at
the very last be broadcasted on web-TV, we will establish a webpage where we will share the information we get from
the project. Hopefully we can get a TV company to support us and maybe show it on a TV-channel.

Implementation: Pilot Project

The project will start with a pilot project, where we will find a local school willing to participate in the project. We will
use a camera and interview children and ask them questions about war and armed conflict, from this we can establish
the suitable age of the participating children, learn what the children know already and get film footage to use at a later
point. The next step is to use this gathered information to find out which topics could be of interest to the children and
develop concepts on how to help further their understanding in a non-frontal lesson. Following such a lesson the children
would develop various questions for the invited guests. We will have to get someone representing the armed forces or
the ministry of defense, so the pilot project should take place in a capital. We will base the rest of the project on the
results from this pilot. The pilot project is expected to have little or no costs.

Post pilot implementation

If the pilot is successful we will have to get partner organizations or interested individuals in other countries to host
similar events there. We will need a filming crew, a web designer, a coordinating committee and support in the relevant
countries. This means a minimum of 10 persons in the team plus the local groups. Each local partner will have to find a
school willing to participate and a representative from the government. The local partner together with the coordinators
will try to get local sponsors. After we have implemented the project in several countries we will use the information and
footage to make a documentary and make it all available on a webpage.

Financing and Sponsors

There will be little or no expenses on the pilot project; it will be performed with basic borrowed equipment locally. We
are budgeting that the team works voluntarily so there are no expenses on wages. The estimate of expenses for the proj-
ect in one country is about 6000€. The costs for accommodation can be significantly reduced if the local team is able to
get private hosting for the international team. Possible sponsors are media companies in the countries we perform the
project, these might be government-owned or private companies. Alternatively we will apply for project support from
governmental agencies or sponsors from other companies.

Contact: halstein.moe@gmail.com or d.haarhoff@dmun.de

11 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

Executive Summary - Youth for Solutions

by Philine Frei, Honna Marttila, Niklas Vuskans

The participation of the youth in the decision making of the state is often minimal or even non-existant. The representa-
tion of the people under the age of 25 years is rare in national parliaments, not to mention the governments. The future
in which the youth will live is in the hands of other political actors whose positions may be influenced by power politics,
the need to get re-elected, sometimes corruption, and other factors causing badly argumented bias. In the contrary, the
youth is not paid for forming their opinion or making decisions, which promotes unbiased, truthful and sincere discussion
and position. If it was up to the youth, endeavor to abolish nuclear weapons and to prevent war for example would be
drastically intensified.

The aim of the project is to have actors of state administration, ideally the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to listen to the
opinion of the youth in each country when deciding on issues of foreign policy. The main means to achieve the goal would
be publishing one or more position papers per year, stating the youth’s view on certain specific topics and trying to es-
tablish an institutionalized concept of annual meetings between the representatives of the national UNYA (and possibly
other relevant youth organizations) and the authorities dealing with the issues in question. Youth for Solutions makes the
youth a relevant and competent actor on the field of non-governmental civil society participation.

The representatives of the youth at the national UNYAs have high level of capacity to make clear to the state administra-
tion that the youth of each country is well-informed, unignorant and truly cares about decisions made on global issues.
This is why careful preparation and background research by the UNYA play key roles in the project. The image should be
further fortified by showing that the youth is capable of identifying current and relevant topics for the discussion. Issues
on which the UNYA could naturally have a position include for example negotiations on an international arms control
treaty or any question addressed in different UN organs or other international summits.

The cycle of the project is 12 months since the aim is to meet with the authorities annually and as the preparation for
new topics takes time. The implementation of the project will be started by establishing a working group within the
UNYA. The members of the working group will be talented, hardworking people rather than necessarily board members
of the organization. The working group will have a project manager having supervision, coordination and organization of
the annual meeting (including consulting the office of the Foreign Minister on the possibility of a meeting and keeping
regular correspondance with them) as his main tasks, and researchers who also act as drafters of the position papers.
The burden caused by fundraising and public relations for the project being relatively small, these tasks will be delegated
to the fundraiser and the PR person of the UNYA. The UNYA will make efforts in order to involve a wide range of opinions
to provide equitable representation of the youth regarding the position papers and the discussion with the authorities.

The team will gather up for regular preparation meetings to work out an opinion on the topics. The position papers will
be signed by the President of the UNYA in order to guarantee the legitimacy, and then be both published approximately
two to five weeks before the meeting with state administration in media, their website, possibly the magazine of the
UNYA etc. and distributed directly to the relevant institution of state administration. The working group will make an
agenda for the meeting, design the flow of debate and come to an agreement on how to present their ideas. Press re-
leases on the meeting will be published both before and after the meeting. Representatives of media won’t be invited to
follow the discussion. Wrapping-up of the project annually includes gathering feedback in order to improve the prepa-
ration in the next project cycle. A monitoring system will be designed in order to follow and monitor the results of the
position papers and the discussion.

Funds demanded for the project are relatively marginal since the expenses will be caused mainly by the preparation
meetings and the meeting with the authorities. However, some budget should be reserved for research materials (books
etc. in order to guarantee and enable high level research) and for travel costs if the team members are located on differ-
ent sides of the country.

Contact: philine.frei@gmail.com
 12 Youth Projects and Cooperation Seminar - 26 to 28 November 2010, Oslo - Seminar Report

Executive Summary - Climate Change

by Alper Gürlek, Simon A. Methi, Pau Petit, Sylvia Wittmer

Aim of the Project (including vision etc.)?

Having witnessed the limited success in the ongoing multinational efforts of finding an international agreement on a
follow-up to the Kyoto process, we believe, that it is time for the youth of the world to show responsibility and action
in this field of politics. Believing that the paths to consensus in our age field are less restricted by such thoughts as re-
election and economical pressure we want an united youth tackling those big environmental issues.

Our project is aimed to be a conference in which those major topics can be discussed, yet the small steps of local and
regional concrete steps are not neglected.

Which are the target groups?

The target group for the project are young people prior active and educated in the field of environmental issues. Hav-
ing a background either in NGO or in other project activities would be an asset, while it should be noted that the aim of
the conference is not to be a playground for interest groups but an easy and non-bureaucratic way for young people to
exchange knowledge and experience, and to use this exchange to develop concrete results and project ideas.

Differences from other projects like this? Why is this project unique?
There aren't any projects with such impact involving youngsters. Our project is unique because the international coop-
eration among all the Youth from the UN associations of the world would mean a unique response to the world’s leaders
for the common good.

Some of the Youth of today will be the leaders of tomorrow; therefore we should be included in the negotiations that will
shape the world of tomorrow. Moreover, the UNA/ UNYA as NGOs are not influenced by the governments, can provide a
postive non-politicized point of view and an argument for the world’s future. Plus UNAs are not influenced by particular
interests.

Contact: alpergrlk@gmail.com or pau.petit01@estudiant.upf.edu

General Contact: cooperation.seminar@gmail.com

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/cooperationseminar/

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United Nations Youth and Student Association of Austria - Academic Forum for Foreign Affairs (UNYSA-AUSTRIA-AFA)
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