2,000 Youth Delegates Empowered In Bali To Re-Set Priorities For UN

Jakarta (Antara Bali/PRNewswire) - Around 2,000 young people representing over 126 nations joined forces with global artists, nonprofits, corporate and government leaders, to debut the mPowering Mobile Platform, at the start of the ICPD Global Youth Forum, in Bali, Tuesday.

During the Forum, thousands of youth will participate in person, online and through social media to influence the UN agenda on health and reproductive rights, education, employment and civic participation, the PRNewswire said in a press statement here Tuesday.

The mPowering Mobile Platform is the first-ever, entertainment-driven program empowering youth with information and access to education, job and health resources, delivered directly through their mobile phones.

Timbaland, the platform's first-ever Producer-In-Residence, Avicii, and Agnes Monica, will be on-site to support the conference and perform on December 6th to close the 3-day event.

Young people, who constitute 43 percent of the world's population of 7 billion and growing - in some countries, such as Brazil, Nigeria and Tanzania, the number is as high as 60 percent - face the greatest challenge in a fast changing world.

Yet they can be an innovative source of solutions to these challenges - if engaged and motivated, the press statement said.

The mPowering Mobile Platform recognizes this potential by harnessing the power of music to captivate and inspire today's young people to take action alongside organizations that specifically work to improve global issues.

"Today's young people are not only the leaders of our future, they are our leaders today," said Kwabena Osei-Danquah, the Executive Coordinator for International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Beyond 2014.

"Our world nurtures so many talented, creative, educated people. We have never been so well equipped and interconnected to respond to global challenges. We are truly part of a global community, where actions taken in one country or region can have an immediate impact on other parts of the world," Osei-Danguah said.

Meanwhile, Jeff Martin, the CEO and co-founder of Tribal Brands said, "With youth delegates gathering from around the world at the Global Youth Forum, we'll collect priceless feedback necessary to create the mobile legacy that is the mPowering Mobile Platform. It's the voices of these young leaders amplified that will drive real-world change, one action at a time."

The mPowering Mobile Platform will be officially launched on February 8th, 2013 during Grammy Week in Los Angeles.

ICPD Beyond 2014 is a mandated review of the Programme of Action that was agreed by the United Nations member states who attended the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994. (PRN/T007)