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Youth Forum for the Summit of the Americas in Panama 2015 was presented at the OAS

The IV Young Americas Forum, to be held in the framework of the 2015 Summit of the Americas in Panama and which will discuss the central theme of the Summit, "Prosperity with Equity: The Challenge of Cooperation in the Americas," was presented last night at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC, in a ceremony in which the Assistant Secretary General of the institution, Albert Ramdin, was recognized for his support for the development of youth opportunities in the region.

Upon receiving the award, Ambassador Ramdin called on governments in the Hemisphere to provide opportunities for participation by young people and to include them, because "young people are part of the solution." "They should be the priority of each government, which should recognize the potential and importance” that they have in our societies, he added.

The senior OAS official also stressed in his speech the work of Young American Business Trust (YABT) an institution that cooperates with the OAS, which is responsible for the creation of the Youth Forum of the Americas and is actively involved in the "process of the Summits of the Americas since 2005, when the Fourth Summit was held in Mar del Plata, Argentina." YABT is a nonprofit corporation that works to promote the economic and social development of young people in the Western Hemisphere and around the world.

At the IV Young Americas Forum, young entrepreneurs will contribute innovative solutions to the subthemes of the Seventh Summit through a "Talent and Innovation," competition, in which young people from across the region will present their initiatives. The process of participation in the Forum is based on three pillars: national dialogues, virtual community; and virtual consultation.

The Deputy Foreign Minister of Panama, Luis Miguel Hincapié, called on the youth of the Hemisphere to use the space created by the YABT and encouraged them to send their ideas to the Heads of State and Government meeting in Panama City in April next year. "Today I call on all young people in the Americas to participate in the youth forum and make their voices heard at the Summit," he said.

"We must achieve an inclusive debate that is focused on the main theme of the Summit 'Prosperity with Equity: The Challenge of Cooperation in the Americas," said Deputy Minister Hincapie, adding that the central theme "included important topics for the region such as health, education, safety, innovation, energy, environment, democratic governance and citizen participation."

The OAS Executive Secretary for Integral Development (SEDI), Sherry Tross, recalled that about a third of the young people in Latin America and the Caribbean live in poverty, and 20 million are neither studying nor working. In this regard, she said that YABT has a role to play in helping the youth of the region to move forward, and recalled that the SEDI and YABT participated in joint initiatives to promote the social inclusion of youth in the region.

"Clearly, cultivating talent and innovation of our youth is important for our region´s integral development," said Executive Secretary Tross, who added that "innovation and entrepreneurship have the power to transform our economies and societies".

For his part, the OAS Secretary for External Relations in charge of the Secretariat of the Summits of the Americas, Alfonso Quiñonez, called for going beyond rhetoric and involving young people in decision-making. "It is often said that young people are the future, but young people are also the present, and we should let them to take the lead, as YABT does," he said.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of YABT, Valerie Lorena said that in Latin America and the Caribbean there are more than a hundred million young people between the ages of 15 and 24, which constitutes about 20 percent of the total population. "This is an important portion of the population with particular interests and concerns," she said, adding that they are "energetic, creative, proactive and ready to be partners with their governments and the international community to be part of the solution" to the problems we face daily.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-467/14