UN Regional Consultation in Bangkok

Over 20 representatives from 10 Asia Pacific countries, including young people, will participate in a consultation session to discuss a proposed partnership project to establish The Network of Emerging Leaders in Asia and the Pacific (NELAP) with the UNESCAP Social Development Division. During the project, the IAA will mobilise prior Awardees in the target countries for inclusion as NELAP participants.

Mapping of UN Youth Related Programmes
The UN Asia-Pacific Interagency Group on Youth held its ninth session at the UN Centre in Bangkok on 11th February. An overview was presented by Mr Tendy Gunawan, an ILO enterprise specialist in mapping youth-related programmes of United Nations entities in Asia and the Pacific. He described youth trends in the region, and the meeting considered focusing with areas of the UN-IA group’s activity: poverty and inequality, education, employment and health. Work is also being undertaken on good practices relating to developing youth policies and a potential joint UN-IA group statement on youth policy.

- Matter from the Asia Pacific e-Newsletter

Peter Cruddas Initiative Internship- “Telling the story about Award participants who are making a difference”

The Peter Cruddas Social Innovation Initiative aims to recognise participants who demonstrate enterprising attitudes, and who have used their Award Programme to benefit a specific section of society. The Initiative has been set up to recognise these individuals for their commitment to changing the lives of others.

This initiative aims to encourage social innovation amongst Award participants around the world. The measures of success (or KPIs) will be an increase in the number of case studies and stories featuring social change being collected by the Secretariat and an increase in the number of media articles featuring such stories.
The initiative will be managed by the head of communications based in the London office and utilising the services of the regional directors. In each region a young Gold Award holder will be engaged as an intern for 3 months each year, whose role will be to identify and write up the social innovation success stories within their own region and feed these into the Secretariat structures. These young people will be called Peter Cruddas Regional Interns. (See appendix for further details of recruitment, selection and management of these posts.) In addition, there will be a Peter Cruddas Initiative Co-ordinator, based in the London office, who will co-ordinate the initiative on behalf of the head of communications, and report into them.

At the end of the year, three social innovators from each region will be selected to attend a showcase event to be held in London attended by Peter Cruddas and HRH The Earl of Wessex. The most impactful of these social innovators will be chosen by Peter Cruddas, on recommendation from the IAA, to enjoy a tailor-made one week induction course, possibly within the CMC Markets environment. This reward will be flexible and aims to provide the social innovator with a further opportunity to gain experience internationally either within CMC markets or an appropriate work place experience at a national or international level.

Social innovators will be Gold Award participants who saw a problem or opportunity in their community or halfway around the world, and took action to develop a solution. They will combine accentuated leadership, a drive for social justice, and excellent managerial ability to create social projects that benefit human and community development. The shortlisted individuals selected to attend the London event will be distinguished as Peter Cruddas Social Innovators.

The Peter Cruddas Foundation, established by Peter Cruddas, chief executive of CMC Markets plc, in 2006 and the International Award Association’s Global Benefactor, is supporting the Initiative. Peter has been a passionate supporter of the International Award since 2005, when he became our first Global Benefactor, and is underlining his continuing commitment through this exciting project.

Year two of the Peter Cruddas Initiative will build on the success of year one, widening the scope to focus on youth engagement. A paid intern is to be recruited at regional level to provide support on communications and research projects and activities.

The Asia Pacific Regional office will be calling for applications for a 6-12 month internship commencing in April. The Initiative's first ever intern Rahul Shankar (pictured left) reflects on his experience: "Thousands of young people are creating social change and this initiative enables us to find these innovators and give them due recognition. I was honoured to have been the first intern to find such stories and look forward to the second year of the initiative."

Know more about the Peter Cruddas Initiative.

- Information from Asia Pacific Regional News Letter and the IAA Website

Connecting Award Strategy at the Asia Pacific Regional Board Meeting 2011

The Regional Board Meeting (RBM), to be held in India from 5th-9th April, will feature key sessions on Connecting Award Strategy to National/Global Agendas and Award Governance in Practice.

The International Award Association Strategic Directions Overview will feature presentations by One Award Alliance Project Director-Stephen De-Wint; an Overview of the 12 Strategic Projects 2011/12 and Beyond; details of the Capacity Building Project by Head of Operations, Tim Smith; need for Advocacy and Profiling, research and data collection by the IAA Programme Team; and the 2011-12 Regional Plan by the Asia Pacific Regional Team.

Peter Kaye, Honorary Advisor will facilitate the National Strategic Directions that will include sharing of key goals/strategies, connecting the Award strategy of the region and Award Governance in practice in addition to Funding/Pricing Models that need to/can be adopted.

The focus will be on digital directions through adopting online Award management systems, E-learning and training for best possible youth engagement and development. The Youth Engagement Project and the highlight on the upcoming International Gold Event 2011 scheduled to be held in Nairobi, Kenya, the importance of youth representatives in the International Council reflects the importance to give young people charge in governance.

The NAA Status Summary Reports in the National Directors Strategic Alliance Forum with presentations by respective national directors addressing need for partnerships, strategy and performance, leader training, nation building and fund raising will allow for impressive strategy making and best practice sharing for consistent Award development.

Download the programme and agenda from the IAA website.

Matrix of Youth Development (MoYD)- The Award is fully inclusive

A research project on major youth development organisations or programmes operating in the region has been undertaken for the regional office by Garry Chamberlain from Consultgroup. The Information was compiled in the form of a Matrix of Youth Development “MoYD” with 17 focus areas. The research has highlighted that the International Award for Young People is clearly the only fully inclusive programme. It further found that all organisations identified as examples under the 17 categories would readily be markets for the Award. International Award research objectives and plans will also be discussed at the RBM 2011. View the Matrix online now for further information.
- Asia Pacific Region e-newsletter December 2010 issue