Sikander Sabeer: March 2014

Sunday, March 30, 2014

A workshop for youngsters in Thalawakale-Nuwaraeliya

I facilitated a workshop for bunch of youngsters from a tea community in Thalawakale, Nuwaraeliya on March 7th and 8th, The workshop was focused on developing a news letter about the work they have been involved with Child Fund. Chulani served as a project consultant/manager

Sunday, March 2, 2014

UN Secretary-General commends Sri Lanka for hosting the "World Conference on Youth - 2014

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon commended Sri Lanka’s initiative to host the World Conference on Youth (WCY) in May 2014 - the first ever global youth conference in Asia. The WCY will seek to mainstream youth concerns in the post-2015 development agenda.

He made this remarks when a Sri Lankan delegation led by the Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development Hon. Dullas Alahapperuma called him at the UN Headquarters in New York on 18th February (Tuesday) to hand over the invitation of His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa inviting him to the World Conference on Youth in Colombo in May 2014.

The Secretary General emphasized that youth are one of his key priorities in the programme that he had outlined at the commencement of his second term. “More than half the world’s population is under the age of 25, so this is a “youth world”, the UNSG said. He highlighted the urgency of resolving the huge burden of unemployment and providing political and economic opportunities to youth. “I am impressed by what Sri Lanka has been doing for the advancement of the youth”. He recalled the comments of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillay of the impressive success of the Youth Parliament of Sri Lanka.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon thanked the President of Sri Lanka for the invitation and said that he would make every effort to be in Colombo for this unique event despite his busy schedules.

Minister Alahapperuma expressed his gratitude for the continued assistance given by the UN system and the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth with regard to the arrangements for the Colombo Conference. “As a nation, we believe that the Youth Conference will help in rebuilding the nation. The ‘Colombo Youth Action Plan’ – the outcome of the Conference which will be jointly produced by the youth and the policymakers would serve as a guideline to meet youth aspirations in many multilateral processes in the post-2015 era. This action plan will cover seven fundamental issues and seven thematic areas that have been recognized as vital for youth engagement in the global development agenda", he added. Ambassador Dr. Palitha Kohona, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN, said that, “youth are today’s concern, not tomorrow's. They contribute to electing governments and in the formulation of national policies. Their concerns and aspirations could be addressed only by recognizing their input to policy-making and empowering them. That is why the Government of Sri Lanka has set up a task force of 20 global young leaders to prepare the key components of the conference arrangement”.

Minister Alahapperuma presented the UNSG with copies of the recently launched “Youth Policy of Sri Lanka” and the publication on “Youth and Development: Realizing the Millennium Development Goals for Sri Lankan Youth”. Mr. Lalith Piyum Perera, Chairman/Director General of the National Youth Services Council (NYalso spoke about the successful conclusion of the Commonwealth Youth Forum in Hambantota, Sri Lanka last November. Mr. Christopher Dekki and Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake – Members of the International Youth Task Force for the conference - explained the ongoing logistics arrangements for the 1,500 delegates expected to attend the conference and the inclusive multi-stakeholder consultations on the draft outcome document. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon further said that he placed youth at the center of the UN agenda for the first time by appointing an Envoy on Youth and creating a system-wide action plan on youth and an inter-agency network on youth. UN Volunteers, he said, play a key role in many aspects and recalled how thousand so of volunteers were active at the Sochi Olympics.

Accompanying with the Minister of Youth Affairs and Skills Development was Ambassador Dr. Palitha Kohona, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in New York, Mr. Lalith Piyum Perera, Chairman/Director General of the National Youth Services Council and Mr. Waruna Sri Dhanapala, Minister Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN and IYTF members – Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayake (Third Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka) and Mr. Christopher Dekki (IMCS-Pax Romana-US and Syria).

My World Analytics

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-