Young minds at the heart of G20 affairs

By Benson Kamary

The just concluded ``Y-20 Leaders Summit” in Seoul and the culmination of university students’ version of G20 summit offered a classic forum for high level engagement in global issues.

Most of issues addressed by the students will be discussed in November when South Korea hosts the G20 summit. Drawing over 150 university students across the nation, and using the G20 summit format for discussions and consensus building, Y-20 Summit has no doubt exposed and immersed young minds into international leadership and involvement.

As a privileged Y-20 Summit delegate representing South Africa, the only African nation in the G20, I appreciated the opportunity to see the world from national leader’s point of view. Nevertheless, it was during the summit that I cherished the multifarious task of diplomacy, negotiation, lobbying and consensus-building, not to mention the assignment of representing the interests of the many poor nations which are, unfortunately, a minority in the G20 composition.

In the moments of heated deliberations encrusted with unnecessary egotism, and sometimes frustrated by open bias of some selected bigger economies, I would understand why leaders of developing nations would occasionally walk out in protest during similar high level meetings.

Alongside other leaders from developing nations I protested against a proposal to introduce voting system in ratification of communiqué clauses. I argued that poor nations are pathologically under-represented in the G20 and applying some principles of democracy would be tantamount to tyranny of the majority. In support, like-minded leaders successfully argued that Y-20 Summit is itself informed by the fundamental principle of consensus-building.

But there were light moments too; times of bliss, laughter and jokes as the young global leaders productively reached consensus on some issues and discard others due to lack of the same.

The Y-20 Summit has been a long journey in terms of workload. If truth be told, some delegates were overwhelmed by the pressure of understanding the global economic, political and environmental affairs coupled continuous research and frequent pre-meetings. I should have mentioned that these young leaders are university students who had to prepare working group background papers alongside academic reports and theses.

Even with such enormous pressure, most of the Y-20 delegates understood the significance of getting involved in global matters not only for experience but also as a real challenge. Speaking to team leaders representing nations and international institutions, one message was clear ― the burden of global concerns lies on our young shoulders and we ought to ready ourselves for the future task.

I am proud of the Y-20 Summit for listening to the voice of the developing nations. Led by South Africa and India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico among other nations, a spirited commitment was put forth in dealing with agendas reflecting the expectations of the developing and the least developed nations.

Our arguments and proposals were carefully crafted to represent the perspective of the poor nations and emerging economies. Some of these agendas include framework for strong sustainable growth, reformation of international financial institutions, development, environment and human security issues.

In a broader aspect, the delegates sought to address international issues from a fresh and unique viewpoint. Although the implementation of the Y-20 communiqué would, in reality, be determined by the political will and cooperation of world leaders amid the ongoing recovery from financial crisis, we hope that the outcome of the November G20 summit will be productive.

There is also no doubt that South Korea is a special host for the G20 summit. From the perspective of the developing nations, as I once argued in my previous column in this newspaper, South Korea’s hosting of G-20 is certainly historic and symbolic. In November, Korea is expected to be the bridge between the least developed, emerging and the developed economies. At the Y-20 Summit, South Korea which presided discussions and consensus building did a commendable job.

Korea’s historical economic advancement over a short period of time offers a model for the developing nations. From a begging-bowl nation a few decades ago but now one of the world biggest economies, Korea can genuinely stand in solidarity with the poor nations by supporting any efforts to end their plight; poverty, disease and insecurity.

Benson Kamary is a Kenyan graduate school student at Kosin University, Busan. He was the leader of the South Africa Y-20 team which received the Presidential Council on Nation Branding award alongside the Korean team. He can be reached at bkamary@yahoo.com.