The first Youth Forum at a Summit of
Americas was both prolific and timely in
giving a voice to the young people in our
region by creating an audience with the
decision makers in order to foster greater
regional development. The theme of the
discourses could not be more poignant;
“Securing our Citizens’ Future by Promoting
Human Prosperity, Energy Security and
Environmental Sustainability.”, a topic with
far reaching implications which impact on
our generation heavily and will dictate the
world that our children will live in.
The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago,
the honourable Patrick Manning set the tone
at his opening speech by issuing a challenge
to the youth representatives to create
change by utilizing this unique platform to
express their views and discuss activities
that could elevate the youth of the region
to another level.
This was a challenge that was accepted with
great fervour and it was very inspiring to
see so many young people from different
walks of life come together and work well
past midnight on the first day of the summit
to ensure that all points, calls for actions
and implementation plans which were tabled
at the various sub-regional dialogues and at
the youth forum were properly represented in
the final declaration.
The secretariat of the summit must be
applauded for allowing so many gifted
regional youth leaders to sit and share
ideas and best practices with each other and
for also allowing the Youth delegates the
opportunity to network and mingle with the
leaders of the Private sector will surely
create partnerships that will further ensure
greater development in the hemisphere.
it is with utter certainty that our region
has made a great stride in achieving the
United Nations Millennium Development Goal
number eight: Forming Global Partnerships
and from this summit the platform will be
set for us to use these partnerships to make
a significant impact on the remaining seven
goals. This being said we must acknowledge
that the 2009 Fifth Summit of the Americas
Youth Forum declaration of Port of Spain
will open many doors and grant many
opportunities for growth of the people of
the Americas.
