Funded by the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, Youth Voices in Development is a project complementary to VIDEA’s Community Action for Africa internship program, designed to harness interns' key learnings. During their 6-month placements with VIDEA partner organizations in Zambia and South Africa from September 2007 to March 2008, interns will monitor, analyze, and record their own learning and perspectives on development through monthly written posts. An intern-led policy analysis session at the conclusion of the internships will encourage them to think critically about Canadian foreign aid policy based on their own experiences on the ground.
VIDEA’s internship program is part of the International Youth Internship Program (IYIP) funded as part of the Youth Employment Strategy (YES) of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
At this point interns have been in-country for two months. Here they reflect upon their own expectations and assumptions prior to arrival in their host country—as well as myths of the Canadian public--and on their observations and learning on development since.
How can youth best be engaged as global citizens? By examining their own motivations and preparations in view of their current experiences, interns identify strengths, weaknesses and gaps in their preparations to participate meaningfully in development work. They then provide recommendations of how Canadian youth can best be engaged in global development.
Here interns identify some of the challenges and obstacles to development on the ground as they have experienced them through their host organisations. They attempt to answer the question: what are the obstacles and challenges that development agencies on-the-ground experience when the attempt to deliver aid money? What are the "invisible" factors that inhibit or promote the effectiveness of aid money?
As a lead-up to policy analysis in month six, interns will at this point take note of their observations and experiences to identify the types and qualities of development programming that seems to be most effective from their vantage point.
On March 3-6, 2008 the six VIDEA interns participated in a self-led roundtable discussion on Canadian official development assistance (ODA) policy.Drawing on their experiences over the previous six months and following an examination of Canadian foreign policy documents, the interns identified, reflected on, and critically analysed key areas of Canada's aid policy. This document outlines the observations, conclusions and recommendations that emerged from this discussion.
