NYC Background

Youth Councicl of Cambodia(YCC) will hosting 4th National Youth Conference about Youth and Leadership for Community Development at Golden Sand Hotel, Sihanouk Ville on September 14-16,2008.The Conference will participated by hundreds young people from 12 different target provinces and various NGOs partners with sponsored by Forum Syd,LSU,USAID,and IRI.

This is 4rd time that YCC celebrated the great event for youths to meet and exchange knowledge,culture and experiences on community work with one another.
For more information please see below:

BACKGROUND
Every year since 2005, Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC) has been conducting this Youth Conference to bring over 300 young people from at least nine different target provinces through out Cambodia to meet and exchange knowledge on community work with one another. Those young people are active youth network who have been very much involved themselves in community development in their respective provinces through the encouragement and guidance of each YCC’s provincial representative.

This year another 132 young people from 12 different target provinces will be given an excellent opportunity to interact in different activities and to get new learning experiences from their fellow friends who are coming from different parts of Cambodia with different living background/ environment. At the same time, they will have a chance to meet with respective donors and experts in different fields related to the theme of this year conference.

The conference will provide them a venue for their capacity development and instill the knowledge of leadership as well as the spirit of team building and solidarity among them. This conference will also promote their ongoing work and encourage for their grater participation in their community, especially in the issues that may affect their lives.

NATIONAL YOUTH CONFERENCE THEME 2008:
“Youth and Leadership for Community Development”

The selection of this theme for National Youth Conference 2008 is in recognition to the fact that youth are the future leaders of the country. To be ready to become the leader of the nation, youth need to be very much involved in community development in their respective community and they also need to be aware of the situation and the problems around them.

To be able to build a strong leader of Cambodia, capacity of young Cambodian need to be strengthened and built through different activities and trainings.

OBJECTIVE:
To encourage and promote ongoing active community work of youth network in their target provinces
To provide a venue to all youth network to get to learn new things from local and international experts in the fields of their work, especially to build leadership skill among youth network
To provide a change for youth network to exchange experiences and understanding with other network from other provinces
To strengthen the collaboration among Cambodian youth networks

TARGET AUDIENCES
132 youth network from 12 target provinces: Phnom Penh, Kandal, Kampong Speu, Takeo, Kampot, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Kampong Cham, Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, Battambang, and Pursat.

PROPOSED ACTIVITIES
The conference will bring together 132 youth network from 12 different provinces. Donor representatives of international community, director of civil society and private sector who have the expertise in related topic about youth and leadership will be invited to join with our youth network and be guest speakers in this conference.

The event will be youth-led and youth friendly with a range of activities including plenary sessions; youth work shop, role play, debate on leadership, article writing together with different kinds of competition as well as outreach activities (collecting rubbish), fund raising for charity, and entertainment (cultural performances).

The conference is composed of three days activities including cultural presentation from each province at night time and YCC’s IEC materials show. All 132 participants will compete among themselves in different activities such as: article writing, debate, role play of good leader, project development as well as fund raising activities. Winning group will be award. Format of the activities is designed to all youth network to expose them in different working environment – some activities required them to work with other young people from other provinces and some within their group from the same province. By doing so, all participants from different provinces will have a chance to work and learn from one another.

Besides different competitions and interactive activities, there will be a panel presentation on “How to Become a Good Leader”, experience sharing from the two champions of Youth Leadership Challenges season 2 & 3 on their Leadership Training and study tour in the US as well as a presentation on the National Youth Policy which has been developed and lobbied by NYP Net together with the sharing on the development of National Youth Policy in Sweden by National Swedish Youth Council.

ORGANIZATION
It is a youth- lead event. The Youth Conference is organized by Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC). Different sub-committee will be formed to coordinate and facilitate the entire event such as: facilitator, security, reporting, web blog designer/update, logistic supplier, outreach coordinator, overall coordinator, … etc.

18 youth network who used to participate in the previous conference together with the 5 champions of Youth Leadership program in season 1-3 and two finalist of season 4 will participate to support the organizing of the event. Basic knowledge of facilitation and leadership skill will also be provided to these young people in order them to be able to play their key roles as youth facilitator during the conference.

MEDIA COVERAGE
T-shirt will be printed to support the event. Media will be invited to cover pictures of the event. Web blog of the Youth Conference will be developed and posted the activities of the event.

CONTACT INFORMATION
-Ms. Mao Pouthyroth
Program Coordinator
Youth Council of Cambodia
E-mail: ycc_secretariat@yahoo.com
Tel: (855-23) 220 861

-Ms. Hou Sidany
Advocacy & Network Officer
Youth Council of Cambodia
E-mail: hou_sidany@yahoo.com
Tel: Tel: (855-12) 39 50 55