Game On! Levelling Up as a Scout at the UN General Assembly

Guest post by Urtė Petrulytė, WOSM Youth Representative

As Youth Representatives, we have a big responsibility and a privilege to advocate for the 57 million members as well as spread the word about Scouts for SDGs and nearly 3 billion hours already volunteered to achieve them by young people around the world.

I jumped at the opportunity to attend the United Nations General Assembly, or UNGA, which is the UN’s annual gathering of decision-makers and stakeholders. All the preparation meetings, calls, emails, and reports come to the moment you are standing there on a stage with a microphone or you are lost somewhere in the super busy streets of New York. Suddenly everything can feel too overwhelming. This happened to me on the first day of the United Nations General Assembly and Sustainable Development Weekend, which started on September 16th. Then the sudden realisation hit: “If I can do Scouting activities and games in Lithuanian forests, I can also do this in the concrete jungle”.

Since the first day, I had decided to treat my representation as a game or activity, with different levels and tasks, so welcome to my game of Scouts in the concrete jungle! I am going to take you through our representation experience level by level.

Level 1: Supporting Your Friends

I have had the best experience being able to share my time with two other WOSM Youth Representatives: Meg Cummins (my colleague in the SDGs patrol) and Ivy Murugi (Human Rights and Health patrol member). Both of them were amazing. Meg was moderating one of the first sessions just right before the opening of the SDG weekend and she not only nailed it, she managed to lift people’s moods up and leave everyone feeling positive, fun and relaxed at the same time. She continued being the sparkle of our group as well as bringing everyone’s spirits up in all the conversations she engaged in.

Meanwhile, Ivy was our wise wizard. She was telling stories of her mental health initiative in Kenya as well as sitting on a panel during the UNGA with three adults. She was as calm as the smoothest waters while raising the point of ensuring investment for non-formal education if we want young people to gain skills, which will help them succeed in such a dynamic world.

Level 2: Taking Initiative

I moderated a discussion during the SDG weekend about education and how we should transform it to meet the needs of young people today and tomorrow. I had the great pleasure of talking with a very diverse panel. There was a minister who was a former activist, a teacher, a leader of a big organization for children and girls’ rights, and a young Ukrainian who now runs his own space for youth activities.

The panel agreed that we need a more individualised focus on education, we need a stronger emphasis on education for girls and young women, as well as more inspired teachers and more considerable support for various non-formal education methods and initiatives. Because now we are very much lagging behind.

Level 3: Networking

This was a pretty hard level. First of all, we as a group or as individual Youth Representatives had to repeat the same information many times. It was actually fun to hear what associations people you are talking to for the first time have with Scouts. There were also many saying that they want their kids to be Scouts or even such lovely surprises like meeting UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, Ms Stefania Giannini (pictured with us above), and learning that she was a Scout in Italy!

So on the one hand you have people even in very high positions actually recognizing you because of your purple scarf on the other hand it is also very fun and exciting to tell what scouting is about and what we do not only in the forests but also on Sustainable Development Goals or even in the United Nations building. It was also a big pleasure to be invited into spaces which had so many various people involved in SDGs and passionate about the topic. From youngsters who started their own initiatives and grew to worldwide networks to women just meeting from time to time for dinner to talk about how they can do more climate action

Level 4: Diving into Diplomacy

The time we spent in New York City was not only devoted to moderating discussions, speaking on panels or networking. We, as Youth Representatives, also got involved in different tasks and meetings which had fewer people around the table. One of them was our meeting with UNICEF at their headquarters, just around the corner from the main UN building. We had a morning brainstorming session which was so successful that it led to yet another meeting of even a smaller crowd the next day.

Then, just after the meeting with UNICEF, I had a chance to visit a Clinton Global Initiative event called “1.8 Billion Futures: How to Secure the Long-term Health and Well-Being of Adolescents and Young People Worldwide,” together with WOSM’s Secretary General, Ahmad Alhendawi. It was not only an opportunity to see how the Foundation works, but also to see people taking action and putting money where their mouths are, all while learning from the Secretary General.

I learned how to network, get tips and tricks on advocacy and just in general have time to discuss why youth advocacy matters to him and how we can strive for a better world through these kinds of official engagements as Youth Representatives.

Level 5: Reflecting

We all know pretty well that any non-formal education method means nothing without proper reflection. All team members were trying to reflect and share through our own social media channels and the World Scouting social channels (for example, check out our video on Instagram!). 

We also managed to get moments to reflect in the mornings and evenings, but this kind of experience will take more time to sink in. I would like to share three main takeaways, which I will carry further within my work as a Youth Representative:

1. WOSM is proud and never scared to have young people around the table.

It doesn’t matter if it is a panel discussion or a more intimate bilateral meeting, if it is about young people, it will happen with youth representation. And not only that, but as Youth Representatives, we were encouraged to speak from our own experiences and our own hearts. And that is what matters.

2. We still have 7 years to achieve the SDGs - and we better hurry up.

The numbers show us that we have only reached approximately 15% of the SDGs objectives so far. We need more and faster progress. As Scouts, we are doing our share with various community volunteer projects, our humanitarian actions, etc.

Now it's time for leaders to collaborate with us and work together for a better world.

3. Advocacy matters.

Before coming to UNGA, and even beforehand being present at HLPF, I still had this vision (or, as my friends sometimes say, delusion) that more people would know about Scouts working for SDGs. Or at least they would somehow make the connection in their heads! But it doesn’t happen enough, and there are still a lot of people, potential donors, allies and partners, or even country leaders, who don’t yet have a clue about Scouting or the non-formal education methods the Movement applies - so we need to spread the word more.

I think we did a pretty good job of that while working in New York - now let’s keep it going, Scouts! Spread the word in your local communities and let’s continue to level up to a better world, together!

Special thanks to Angel, Annie and Sam from World Scouting, and Mischa and Mark from the World Scout Foundation - this team were our guardian angels. <3

Learn more about WOSM Youth Representatives here.