ICASA 2011 Addis Ababa- Ethiopia

Youth sub committee Application Form

Intro

The ICASA YouthFront (started in 2008) led by GYCA[1] is a partnership of youth organizations, coalitions and networks working on HIV and Sexual and Reproductive Health of young people across Africa. The ICASA 2011 YouthFront is made up of the Global Youth Coalition on AIDS, Youth Coalition, African youth and Adolescent Network on Population and Development –(AfriYAN), YouthRISE and Talent Youth Association.

As the largest international gathering on HIV/AIDS in Africa, ICASA has consistently served as a landmark event for the AIDS community. It is a unique place where researchers, policy makers, activists, educators, people living with HIV link with people in other countries and meet to share and learn about scientific discoveries and effective HIV prevention, treatments and care policies and programs. Due to the vast diversity of participants at the Conference, it is also an event at which a variety of constituencies compete for limited resources and time to highlight their issues.

There has been over the last couple of conferences, a vast number of youth attendance and not necessarily participation.

In Dakar three years ago, young people attending the conference demonstrated the strength in having a comprehensive and united front for young people; organizing and mobilizing youth leaders and ensuring their access to key government and civil society leaders. Through this coordination, youth voices were heard, programs and research that affect youth were discussed and evaluated, and influential adults were rallied to support youth-led programming.

The Addis 2011 ICASA YouthFront is building on the successes of the Dakar youth programme to coordinate a comprehensive youth programme for youth participating in the conference and getting most youth leaders on the continent to the conference.

Goalof theAddis 2011 YouthFront

Addis 2011 has brought another opportunity for youth within Africa and the Diaspora to come together to mobilize activities for youth attending the conference to interact with other youth as well as adults.

The broad objectives for the YouthFront are:

•Ensure effective/meaningful youth participation in international AIDS response

•Identify and build the capacity of new and emerging youth leaders for the AIDS response to ensuresustainability of youth initiatives at the national, regional and international levels

•Celebrate youth- identify and recognise youth who are contributing a lot to the global response

•Sustain adult-youth partnerships and dialogue

•Monitor government and donor commitments to youth and HIV/AIDS

The specific objectives of the ICASA YouthFront for Addis Ababa are:

  1. To empower young people to maximize the learning from the conference to inform their HIV/AIDS and STI related activities
  2. To facilitate the collaboration and networking of stakeholders committed to youth HIV/AIDS issues at the conference;
  3. To promote meaningful youth participation and inclusion of youth issues in the mainstream conference agenda, in media generated from the conference, and in HIV/AIDS programs and policies in general; and
  4. To gain and achieve international and individual commitments which promote youth leadership and mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on young people.

ICASA 2008 YOUTHFRONT YOUTH SUB COMMITTEES

The ICASA 2011 YouthFront is setting up six (6)youth subcommittees (TEAMS) that will be responsible for organising the various activities as part of the ICASA 2011 Youth programme.

Below are the various subcommittees and some proposed responsibilities of the group:

  • Youth Pre-conference/Receptionsubcommittee

-Logistics (venue, accommodation, meals, DJ, MC, special guests, guest artist)

-Determine and administer application process

-Translation of documents into French

-Scheduling the programme for pre-conference/reception

-Program design/structure for reception/preconference

-Identify speakers, facilitators, reporters and volunteers for the preconference

  • Partnershipssubcommittee

-Raising funds

-Identifying partners for the Youthfront

-Liaison between the Youthfront and the conference organizing committee

-Find scholarships for youth participants

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  • Main Conference team

-Assistance to youth participants

-Connecting delegates beforehand

-Developing orientation materials

-Observing youth issues throughout the conference

-Working with youth speakers

-Monitoring sessions during main conference

-Directing participants to youth centre

-Identify key young speakers for the various sessions at the conference

  • Youth Centre (Pavilion) team

-To create selection criteria and process for booths, exhibits, and sessions

-Set up of space

-Promotion of pavilion

-Coordinating events and sessions within pavilion

-Partnering with Community Programme Chair for logistics for the youth center

-Logistics & design of youth pavilion space

  • Communications team

-Create andmanage youth website

-Connecting/liaising with media centre on youth issues

-Organize press conferences & press kits

-Produce and manage ICASA YouthFront Newsletter

-Translation of all documents into French

-Communicate youth activities for the main conference newsletter

-Identify and manage youth reporters

-Organise a youth press conference

-Create various social media (Face book, twitter)

  • Advocacy team

-ICASA YouthFront e- discussions

-Preparing youth to Participate

-Identify advocacy issues/strategies

-Organize advocacy campaigns

-Develop advocacyissues/messages

-Produce advocacy materials and dissemination strategy with branding team

- Commitments Desk

-Develop a Youth Position paper to be presented in the main conference

-Organize a youth rally together with the Community Program Committee

-Lead a youth mentoring program for the conference

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Selection Process:

Each youth subcommittee of the ICASA 2011 YouthFront will be co-chairedby one member of the civil society core partner organizations and a member selected from the team. Team leaders will review applications and select the top candidates for each subcommittee

Although efforts will be made to provide assistance to each subcommittee to find funding to attend the Conference, we cannot guaranteefunding and have no input into the ICASA scholarship decision process. Subcommittee co-chairs reserve the right to replace team members who do not contribute according to the agreed upon work plan and timelines for delivery, after discussing the situation with them privately prior to taking the decision

Criteria

  • 35 years or less by the time of the application
  • Fluency in English or French (preferably some knowledge of both);
  • Frequent internet access (at least 5 hrs. per week);
  • Ability to attend online meetings and teleconferences
  • Commitment to a rights-based approach (including evidence-based information and services, condoms, sexual rights, harm reduction, etc);
  • Skills and/or organizational capacity that is relevant to the Subcommittee you are applying for;
  • Motivation, proactiveness, flexibility, and reliability.
  • Support from your organization to work on the youth sub committee
  • Commitment to be responsive to emails and committee work
  • Ready to work with young people

Partner organizations to the ICASA YouthFront are asked to operate under the YouthFront umbrella and branding to show a unified front to Conference Delegates. Contributing organizations will be acknowledged by name and by their logos at all youth events.

Please apply only if you meet the criteria above. To join a committee, please complete the attached application form and return to: no later than: 6:00pm GMT, 15th June 2011

  • Application Form
  • Your bio or a brief CV (not more than three pages)

KINDLY SEND THIS PORTION OF THE APPLICATION FORM ONLY

Application Form

Please read the information about the subcommittee responsibilities carefully before you fill out this form. If you don’t fulfill all the requirements, please do not apply.

Deadline for submitting this form is: 15th June 2011

Name:

Country of birth:

Country of residence:

Date of birth:

Age[2]:

Organization/network:

TIG profile[3]:

Email:

Telephone (with country code):

Languages:

Written / Oral / Reading
English
French
Other:

What sub-committee(s) are you interested in joining? (Underline your choice)

(You may choose to participate in up to two teams, but please consider how much time you have available. It is better to fully commit to one committee than committing partially to two committees. Each committee work might require up to 7 hours a week depending on how close we are to the conference)

Pre-conference/Reception Youth center (pavilion)Main Conference

Communication Advocacy Fundraising and Partnerships

1. What kind of work do you do in your country/sub-region that relates to youth and HIV/AIDS, or is otherwise relevant to this position?

2. Do you work with an organization? If so, please briefly describe the group, what your role is within the organization, and how they might be able to contribute to the work of the subcommittee.

3. What is your experience in the area you have selected to work in? (Not more than 100 words)

4. How much time can you commit to the ICASA YouthFront weekly? (Please be honest about your time commitment, as this would reflect in your work at the committee level)

Less than 2 hours2-4 hours4 – 7 hours more than 7 hours

4. How often do you have access to Internet? (Access to Internet is important for this role since a lot of the work in going to be via email and chats)

Every dayEvery 2 daystwice a week Once a week

5. Have you ever participate in an international event related to HIV or sexual health before? YES NO

Please specify ______

NOTE:Although the Youthfront is working hard to ensure that more young people participate in the conference, we cannot commit to secure funding for you to participate in the conference. As a first step, we encourage you to apply for the conference scholarship at: Do not hesitate to share any funding sources that you will have with the partnership and fundraising subcommittee to aid in their work.

Application Submission Instructions:

Please send only the “Application Form” section of this document to the YouthFront email address below. If you are applying to be on twocommittees, please send ONE application form stating the committees in the subject of the email (Do not fill out two separate applications). If one committee receives too many applications, we may contact you to ask if you could be on another committee.

All applications should be sent to:

Do not submit your application in the body of the e-mail; attach it to the mail.

The deadline to send the application form is 6:00pm GMT 15th June 2011.

[1] Global Youth Coalition on HIV and AIDS (

[2] Although you don’t have to be under 28 to participate in the committees, we strongly recommend that young people apply.

[3] This field is not mandatory, but we strongly recommend you to create a profile in since we will be using the TIG platforms for our e-forums