JEDDAH, 10 November 2006 — In order to raise awareness and interest among youths about their role in development, representatives from UNICEF and UNDP recently held meetings with high school and college students in Riyadh, the Eastern Province and Jeddah.

The meetings were held in relation to a theme entitled “The Youth,” which is also the theme of this year’s UN Week that is to be observed at the end of November. The UNICEF and UNDP representatives talked about the Millennium Development Goals as it relates to the challenges facing the youth in education, employment and life in general.

On Wednesday, Ismael Ibrahim from UNICEF, Nasser Shamout, deputy resident representative at UNDP, and Thorayya Ismail, youth focal point and program associate at UNDP, spoke at three private schools and then participated in a talk-show program moderated by Mona Abu Sulaiman, the host of MBC TV and UN goodwill ambassador, at the Dar Al-Hekma College for girls.

“I’m talking about the youth and human development and the different programs related to education, enhancing leadership skills, microfinance for entrepreneurs, poverty reduction, fighting HIV, and environmental sustainability. The point is the youth’s participation in the decision making on these issues,” said Thorayya Ismail speaking to Arab News.

“The question is how can the youth speed up the development process to reach the millennium goals?” she added. The focus of the presentations at the schools and at Dar Al-Hekma was to explain what human development means based on human indexes rather than economic ones such as health, knowledge, education and freedom of choice.

The speakers also talked about the status of development in the Arab world and specifically Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia, it was shown that progress was made in health care, education, technology and economy as well as improvements in human rights, but there is a need for improvement in environment and gender equality issues.

At the end of the presentations in the schools, the organizers announced an art competition representing the eight Millennium Development Goals set at the Millennium Summit in 2000: Eradicating poverty, achieving elementary education, achieving gender equality and supporting women, reducing child mortality, improving health of pregnant women, guaranteeing good and sustainable environment, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, and improving international partnership for development.

Eight winning posters each representing one of these eight goals would be announced during the UN Week.

A soccer match will be organized on Nov. 24 in which 75 boy students from Riyadh schools will be playing together with captain Sami Al-Jaber, also a UN goodwill ambassador, and eight other soccer stars. The match will be aired on different channels.

The speakers are also set to visit the Prince Sultan Humanitarian City for the Disabled, talk with them about their role in development and encourage them to become active.