New York was the destination on Saturday for the award ceremony of the World Summit Youth Awards 2010, it is the second sibling on the World Summit Award (WSA).
The World Summit Youth Awards concentrate on content with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in mind. Young people are asked to use internet and mobile media to act themselves, but also get action on the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals:
- Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme hunger and poverty;
- Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education;
- Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
- Goal 4: Reduce child mortality;
- Goal 5: Improve maternal health;
- Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases;
- Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability;
- Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development.
The year of review has been set on 2015, when the eladers of countries will gather again in order to discuss the progress.
These goals have been translated in six categories:
- Category 1: Fight poverty, hunger and disease;
- Category 2: Education for all;
- Category 3: Power 2 Women;
- Category 4: Create your own culture;
- Category 5: Go green;
- Category 6: Pursue truth!
The WSYA are not just the result of projects picked ad random, but they are the result of a global competition. National experts have put forward projects, produced by young people under thirty. The projects are considered as representative for the MDGs and of content and technology excellence. They should demonstrate the consequence of inter-action and counter-action. The projects are evaluated by a jury of 17 young experts in two rounds.
WSYA does two things;
- showcasing the contribution of the young designers, technologists and digital content creators;
- contributing to addressing poverty, protecting the environment, sharing knowledge and empowering young people.
The WSYA is promoted in the UN member states through the networks of the World Summit Award (WSA), the UN Global Alliance for ICT, the Internet Society and its local chapters, participating UN organisations and agencies, governments and NGOs as well as youth organisations.
The winning WSYA projects have been selected from 630 applicants coming from 102 UN member states. Of these 630 applicants 245 completed the online registration, of which 142 products were evaluated in the end. Many applicants make known that they will enter a project. But by the time of the official online registration, many are not ready or simply did not register. It is interesting to see where the evaluated projects come from:
- Africa: 27;
- Arab countries & Middle East: 30;
- Asia: 40;
- Europe: 29;
- Latin America and Caribbean: 8;
- North America and Oceania: 8;
Interesting is to see the variance between the number of entries from the various regions. North America and Oceania only sent in 8 projects. You almost would question whether the MDGs are there alive. No looks to be the answer. Asia is the top region with 40 projects entered. Africa, the Arab Countries and the Middle East as well as Europe are following.
What do the 40 winners and runners-up aged 18 to 30 years from 21 countries get out of being an award winner. They get offered, thanks to the sponsorship of the Knight Foundation, a long weekend with an interesting program in New York.
The World Summit Youth Award is part of the World Summit Award, a multimedia competition, started at the occassion of the UN World Summit on the Information Society in 2003. From 2008 the World Summit Youth Award was started. The latest member of the WSA family is the World Summit Award Mobile Media (WSA mm), which kicks off next month with an international jury in Abu DHabi and a gala also in Abu Dhabi in December 2010.
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