The group, which comprises the Chief Executive Officers of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, the World Alliance of YMCAs, the World Young Women's Christian Association, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the World Organisation of the Scout Movement and the International Award Association, first met in 1996 as they realised their 6 movements had great potential for joint advocacy work for young people.

The group remains an informal network of the 6 CEOs, with no statutes and no chairman. "Our mandate as CEOs is to influence advocacy work and to facilitate co-operation at field level" said Ibrahim Osman, Deputy Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, who hosted the 10th anniversary meeting on June 2 in Geneva. Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, UNICEF and UNESCO were also present at the anniversary meeting. During the meeting participants had the chance to hear about the history of the Alliance, its achievements and lessons learnt over the past 10 years, as well as the work with UNICEF. They also reflected and made proposals for future work.

Andres Guerrero, UNICEF Department for Public Partnerships next to representatives from YWCA and YMCA.

Besides the inter-generational initiative to empower young people in Africa to prevent HIV/AIDS, and the Pan-African youth forum on HIV and AIDS organised in Senegal in 2003, four publications have been published by the Alliance, including "Girls and Young Women in the 21st Century: A call to action" and, together with UNICEF, "Children and Young People: Participating in Decision-Making. A Call for Action". In response, many Ministers of Education have consulted Alliance publications when drawing up their national education policies. "We want youth policies to become legislation so that, though governments may change, the policies remain" said Eduardo Missoni, WOSM Secretary General, at the anniversary meeting.

Plans for the future of the Alliance include strengthening the cooperation between the 6 youth organisations at national level, and building on the success and lessons learnt from their past work in changing the way that policy decisions regarding young people are made, giving young people a stronger voice.