Mr. Levy Nyirenda
Position: Regional Focal Point (East and Southern Africa)
Reporting to: The Global Focal Point
Period: from 30th March, 2020 to Date
Scope of work:
Develop and execute a regional and a global annual action plan of the working group (WG) in line with “Policy Design, Implementation, Monitoring and Accountability” framework along the four areas of work; knowledge creation/exchange, youth action, capacity building, and policy advocacy.
Participate and facilitate through regional consultations in preparation of formal Inputs (statements, zero-draft summary papers and reports etc.) related to the Regional elements of their respective process and engagement avenues in Coordination with the working group, the UN MGCY coordination team and the Assembly, and where appropriate, with other stakeholders, as per the process and procedures document;
Conduct outreach with relevant children and youth entities and stakeholder’s in The region, with the help of the regional caucus and according to the outreach Strategy, to inform them of the engagement, and invite them to join in and share Relevant materials;
Facilitate the involvement of young people from local to regional and to global in The engagement of the working group from your region;
Coordinate regular and timely Regional members’ calls; and promote Engagement opportunities for the members to take part in global processes.
Attend the bimonthly WG call, provide updates on regional and global action plan implementation and activities taking place in the region.
Levy Nyirenda is a Regional Focal Point for East and Southern Africa in the Humanitarian Affairs Working Group of the UN Major Group for Children and Youth. He is a Nutrition Technologist in the Ministry of Health Zambia and a Mentor for POP Zambia Initiative, TRC of the World Food Forum and IPYG of the HWPL.
Mr. Levy Nyirenda
Firstly there is no proper difference explained between NGO and CSO, in the way of operations mostly in the developing nations. I many countries UN Agencies engage more with the government and not CSO's in the country of operation.
To achieve this goal, I would propose that FAO should start, by engaging every active CSO in every nation and not the government alone. Since 2020, I have been one of the youth leaders in the international CSO Major Group for Children and Youth. We tried to apply a national engagement with FAO and other UN Agencies in our country, it failed. We where more active at the headquarters unlike in our countries of operation. These Major Groups can be useful in the area of voluntary engagements, because everything we do is voluntary, unlike when the governments chooses volunteers for a specific project work, who just volunteer during that period and when the project is done, they are no where to be seen again.
Its high time we empower these major group members, to be actively engaged in these works, that was a major reason it was established in 1992; to increase engagement to the United Nations works. For instance Major Group for Children and Youth, its open to everyone under 35 years, with different working groups. In short we have redefined the way of engagements, empowering people who can empower others in capacity building, advocacy and action.