Sikander Sabeer: As a youth representative for the Pre-World Health Assembly

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

As a youth representative for the Pre-World Health Assembly

I was excited to attend Youth Pre-World Health Assembly (Pre-WHA), which took place from May 16th-20th, 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Youth Pre-World Health assembly aimed to gather 30 students and young people from around the world in a three-day workshop on global health diplomacy and global health governance. The aims of this conference are to educate and empower future leaders in health with enhanced knowledge and understanding of global health issues.

Furthermore, the event aims to develop a streamlined plan of action for youth participation at the World Health Assembly. Participants worked in small working groups to develop a comprehensive plan of action for the World Health Assembly in order to create a more effective and meaningful youth participation at the World Health Assembly. Leading experts from World Health Organization (WHO), National Member States and Non-Governmental Organizations was invited to give lectures to participants on selected topics and provided feedback on the youth strategy for the World Health Assembly. Key focus areas was Social Determinants of Health, Post 2015 Millennium Development Goals, Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG), Human Resources for Health and, Reproductive and Adolescent Health.

Outcomes of the Event

• Foster participants with better understanding of global health diplomacy and global health governance.
• Development of skills for advocacy, health care leadership, and policy engagement towards action on social determinants of health to reduce health inequities
• Foster of a sense of community amongst youth coming from a variety of different, social, cultural and geographic backgrounds.
• Increase visibility and impact of youth participation and collaboration at the World Health Assembly.
• Streamline and develop a concrete youth strategy towards the World Health Assembly, specifically:
• Develop joint plan of action for the Pre-World Health assembly with respect to statements and interventions and advocacy & lobbying aims.
• Develop and execute a joint youth social media strategy
• Develop a long-term vision and strategy for future joint youth strategies in global health

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About Me

Sikander Sabeer is a product of Isipathana College and holding a first class with distinction Bachelors of Science (BSc) degree on Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Microbiology from Spectrum Institute of Science and Technology (Sri Lanka), an outreach campus of University of Mysore (India). Presently reading for his Masters of Science (MSc) on Business Management at National School of Business Management (Sri Lanka), an outreach post-graduate institute of University of Dublin (Ireland).

Sikanders’ development work can be categorized into three avenues, namely community service and community development; youth empowerment and professional development; climate change and sustainable development. Meanwhile his development work is two phased, firstly action oriented, secondly strategic and advocacy. In the action oriented phase, he gets in to the field and implements his ideas. He works very closely with multi-stakeholders such as children, school students, youth, corporates & business firms, UN agencies, non-governmental and government organizations on diversified projects at different levels and on different capacities. With his strong grass-root level initiatives and experience, he invests equal time on advocacy, mentorship and youth policy framework, which is a unique, and a strategic bottom up approach.

Sikanders’ voluntary action oriented initiatives and his strategic thinking has given him numerous opportunities to be a guest speaker and youth facilitator; to share his experiences, best practices to motivate and inspire youth at number of National and International youth conferences. He has represented his country and fellow youth (1/4th of Sri Lankan population) at high profile youth conferences and high level UN summits/conferences, at some of the UN meetings I have served as an ‘Official Youth Delegate’ of the National Delegation team headed by HE president. Half of the world’s population is made up of young people and as a youth representative and a major stakeholder he had made several interventions on behalf of Global Youth and Sri Lankan youth at some of the UN conferences.

He has held several key positions in organizing several national and international events/programmes and he is one of the co-creators of the YOUTH is the word –Guinness World Record, where 1500 Sri Lankan youth stood to gather to form the largest human mosaic in the world.

His local, national and international initiatives on youth led community development, Climate Change; youth empowerment and youth advocacy led him to earn the most prestigious “Commonwealth Youth Awards (CYA)” for Excellence in Development Work (2012), The CYA’s celebrate and recognize extraordinary young people among one billion audiences from 54 member states of Commonwealth who are making a positive difference to the lives of others through development initiatives ranging from poverty alleviation to education and protection of the environment. This is awarded by Commonwealth Secretariat (CYP) headed by HM Queen Elizabeth II. He earned the "Global Changemaker" title of British Council Youth Empowerment Programme on 2010 for outstanding contribution for Voluntary Activities. He serves as a Youth Ambassadorial role for climate change and serves as a Youth Facilitator for climate sustainability under British Council International Climate Champion program. Apart from these major recognitions his team earned U.S. Department of States Federal Assistant Award Grant for “Green the Home” project and Global Changemakers Community Action Project (CAP) and Regional Action Project (RAP) grants for Youth Empowerment Initiatives.

Presently Sikander is serving as an Assistant Manager for Business Development and Project Officer for recycling solutions for Neptune Recyclers (Neptune Papers [Pvt.] Ltd) in Sri Lanka, a member of multinational corporate Expolanka Holdings PLC. He works very closely with multi- stakeholders, especially with school students, Industries and Corporates on recycling solutions which create an additional income from the trash while minimizing the environmental pollution.

"Do as much as voluntary activities, because volunteers Inspire in Action, they make a real change in their community, they talk less and work a lot, but never expect any personal benefits from their action, Indeed one day they will earn the rewards, that’s confirmed; Install this in your mind “I will do the best I can”

-Sikander Sabeer-