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OAS Hosts Youth Conference of the Americas on Technology and Entrepreneurship

The Organization of American States (OAS) will host on Tuesday, November 5, the Youth Conference of the Americas, an event that will bring together youth organizations, students and stakeholders from across America to exchange views with entrepreneurs and government representatives on issues affecting the 534 million young people living in the Hemisphere.

The event will be opened by the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza; the Assistant Secretary General, Albert Ramdin; and the First Lady of Panama Marta Linares de Martinelli. Following the inauguration there will be two panel discussions, and the conference will be concluded by Assistant Secretary General Ramdin; Gloria Lozano Díaz, President of the Directing Council of the Inter-American Children's Institute; and Luis Viguria, CEO of the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT), an entity associated with the OAS. Following the conference, a special meeting of the OAS Permanent Council will be held in which Linares de Martinelli will present the conclusions of the Conference.

On the topic of the meeting, Secretary General Insulza stressed the need for the countries of the region and their governments to create more and better opportunities for youth development. "Our societies expect young people to contribute to the future, but the reality is that the very same societies don’t offer a future to their young people," he said. He also warned that "at this moment more than 20% of young people in the world neither work nor study, a figure that in the case of the Americas is around 25%."

Seen from that perspective, the OAS leader said it is not possible to expect, “reasonably, that young people save, invest, work and produce as they are theoretically meant to,” and it is not surprising that many young people fall in the path of crime. The Youth Conference, noted Secretary General Insulza, will "provide a space and create an opportunity for the young people of the Americas to become involved not only with the OAS, but also with the leaders of different industries in the Hemisphere, to seek solutions to their problems."

For his part, Assistant Secretary General Ramdin, Chair of the Working Group on Youth of the OAS, said the conference aims to be practical and relevant, with a direct view of the problems facing youth, in order to find equally direct answers. "From here we encourage all young people to get involved and participate in the discussions, like this one, that directly affect them and that will help shape their future," said the Assistant Secretary General.

Regarding the program, the senior OAS official said "we will have a frank and open discussion on the responsible use of technology, so we are bringing together experts to present their views. At the same time, we want to challenge and inspire the youth of the Americas to make use of their voice and make a difference, so we are bringing together a group of young executives and CEOs under 40 to discuss key issues affecting this generation.”

The first panel of the conference is entitled "The Responsible Use of Technology: Democracy and Privacy in a Modern World." Moderated by José Luis Piñar, International Expert on Data Protection from the San Pablo-CEU University of Madrid, the panel will include Pedro Less Andrade, Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy for Google Latin America; Marisol Pérez Tello, Former President of the Justice Committee of the Congress of Peru; Daniel Diaz Leyva, Partner and Director of Business Development at Infante Zumpano; Juan David Hincapié Gómez, Founding Partner of the Foreign Affairs Institute; and Melvin Bouva, Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Suriname.

The panel will explore the impact of technology on democracy, and the role played by privacy and security. The debate will include questions about how recent events have shown that access to technology has changed the way citizens participate in democracy, and has forced a re-examination of relevant legislation.

The second panel will focus on “Game Changers of the Americas: Making a Difference," and will include Tomicah Tillemann, Senior Adviser for Civil Society and Emerging Democracies of the United States State Department; Gabriela de la Garza, Sustainability Senior Manager for PepsiCo Latin America Beverages; Dominic Hadeed, Chairman of Blue Waters Limited; Claude Zdanow, Founder and CEO of Stadiumred; Jason Jannati , Co-Founder and CEO of GreeNEWit Energy and Eduardo Guzzardi , Institutional Relations Manager at Walmart Brazil.

This second panel is made up of businessmen and politicians under 40 years old, from different countries and with different backgrounds, but who share success stories that have affected many people. They will consider issues such as public policies that provide opportunities for youth, new policies to be considered, the responsibility of the state and families in creating successful people, and how to combine personal ambition with education and responsibility.

The Youth Conference will be held in the Hall of the Americas of the OAS headquarters in Washington, DC. For more information and to RSVP, visit www.oas.org/en/youth/default.asp. The 2012 Conference was held under the theme "Youth in Action for Democracy and Entrepreneurship."

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org

Reference: E-412/13