Regional Youth Workshop

Division for International Cooperation
- Afghanistan Office (Kabul) -

Report on Activity

Title of activity: Regional Youth Workshop
PS/PT:
Date: December 1-3, 2004
Venue of activity: FES Office, Kabul, Afghanistan

Aim of activity:

· Sharing information on issues of globalization
· Discussing the effects of globalization on South and Central Asian youth; its opportunities and threats
· Developing and proposing strategies for youth to face globalization-related developments

Design of event:

The workshop was a mix of the following activities:
· A lecture on globalization + questions and answers session
· Discussions in plenary
· Group work
· Building Scenario
· Documentary on globalization in the neighborhood
· Creative presentations

The main purpose of the lecture and discussions in the plenary was to give the participants some input on the topic and prepare them for group work.
To make the discussions more fruitful and guarantee that every participant gets a chance to express his/her views and exchange their information, the participants of the workshop were divided in three groups and each group had to discuss one subtopic.
In groups, the participants first discussed the main topic and respective subtopic and then discussed opportunities and threats that globalizations carries with respect to South and Central Asian culture, developing economies and regional politics.

In the exercise called Building Scenario, the participants learned how a scenario is built and what the difference between vision and scenario is.

The participants of the workshop visited some shops and business centers as well as some private and government offices to have interviews, take pictures and document some practical examples of globalization in order to enrich their final presentations.

On the very last day of the workshop some guests from international organizations and embassies and youth from Kabul University, NGOs, youth groups, media and political parties were invited. The three groups gave presentations that they had prepared as the result of group work in the first two days of the workshop.
The presentations were followed by a speech by the ambassador of Federal Republic of Germany, dinner and Afghan music.

Participants:

The participants of the workshop were twenty youth from the following countries:
Sri Lanka (2), India (1), Nepal (2), Pakistan (4), Uzbekistan (1) and Young Leaders’ Forum of Afghanistan (10).

Course of discussion:

In the first session of the workshop all the participants shared information about the topic and discussed how they perceive globalization followed by a lecture, which was given by Mr. Ajmal Ahmady, Advisor to the finance minister of Afghanistan. Afterwards, the participants explained where their respective countries stand in today’s globalized world and how governments of these countries cope with globalization.

In the second session of the first day, the participants of the workshop were divided in three groups and each group discussed one subtopic. The subtopics were:

• Effects of Globalization on South and Central Asian Culture
• Effects of Globalization on Developing Economies
• Effects of Globalization on Regional Politics

On the second day of the workshop, the three groups visited different locations in Kabul city to make a documentary and photograph living and practical examples of globalization.

Results:

After discussing the topic and subtopics for two days, the participants concluded their discussions and came up with suggestions and recommendations explaining how to deal with the issue and increase its opportunities and decrease its threats.

Group one, the members of which discussed the Effects of Globalization on South and Central Asian Culture came up with the following recommendation:

We should promote globalization in a way that it can have positive effects not only on Western World but also on Eastern World.

The members of group two, who had discussed the Effects of Globalization on Developing Economies, came up with the following recommendations:

The governments of developing countries should:

• Promote the development of entrepreneurship; enhance skills and knowledge of local players.
• Ensure responsible, accountable and transparent foreign investment in the economy.
• Develop an effective and transparent interface to control interference of International
• Financial Institutions and multi-national institutions in the domestic policies.
• Build an effective authority to control anticompetitive practices and check monopoly.
• Ensure that there is no room for speculation in the economy.
• Adapt well defined environmental specifications and standards to prevent adverse impact on environment.
• Focus on awareness building and development of organized consumers and civil society.

In group three the Effects of Globalization on Regional Politics were discussed and they came up with the following ideas:

Globalization will affect the sovereignty and independence of national institutions. As a result national policies will be formulated in direct response to global political demands. Strong political alliances can result in breaking down the harmony and damaging the political stability and national integrity especially in the case of developing/weak countries.

Imposing ideologies through unfair means will threaten the national interests of countries of the region – the weaker ones in particular. The countries will also become weary of losing their national identities – which have been firmly based on their national values that have taken hundreds and thousands of years to formulate serving as tools that bind people together – thus generating clashes that will eventually lead to conflicts.

Follow-up:
The participants of the workshop proposed that FES continue working with youth and plan more youth activities on regional level and at the same time facilitate the process of youth networking and integration.

Rohullah Niazi
FES-Afghanistan Office
08.12.2004