Elevating youth voices and advocacy opportunities via the National Clubs Program, international-impact programs, and the Global UNICEF Council.
National Council Training at United Nations Headquarters
UNICEF Global Think Tank
Inspired by UNICEF’s Child-Friendly Cities Framework, the purpose of the UNICEF Global Think Tank is to facilitate international dialogue with the Global Council in order to track global engagement and advocacy metrics. Operating as an open forum to facilitate knowledge on ending global issues and policy, the UNICEF Global Think Tank fosters youth skill building and global citizenship education. Targeting UNICEF USA’s brand relevance and UNICEF’s mission more broadly, we invite UN officials to facilitate conversations with youth members. The initiative is currently being prototyped in the College Clubs Consortium to be expanded.
I was one of the youngest speakers at the annual UNICEF Unite Summit, and hosted a workshop to 40+ primarily undergraduate students on "Leading as a Global Citizen Through the Lens of the SDGs". I mentored students from both the US and abroad to create innovative organizations, draft policy ideas, and participate in global discussions on what it means to be a global-thinker/"do-er". I also introduced international UNICEF youth entrepreneurship initiatives such as UPSHIFT Incubators, Youth Challenges, Educate a Child,and Curriculum B. Finally, I advocated at Capitol Hill to increase congressional funding for UNICEF.
Vision for Children: Presidential Candidate Campaign
Website: https://www.unicefusa.org/help/advocate/vision-children
College Clubs Consortium
The CCC highlights analyzing global actions UNICEF has taken, deriving localized strategies of and discovering interconnections between the SDGs. The Leadership Development team focuses on providing expertise on event-hosting, youth marketing, and sustainable and ethical leadership. We also analyze statistical metrics of contemporary issues based on monthly themes of UNICEF USA, facilitate the creation of on-campus projects across the nation(i.e. UNICEF World’s Biggest Sleepout campaign), and provide career development as well as networking opportunities within the field of International Relations. CCC delegates receive the opportunity to speak with guest speakers recruited from the US Department of State, WHO, UNDP, US foriegn embassies etc. The CCC was designed to inspire students to become UNICEF changemakers and create new clubs for UNICEF USA to mobilize new populations.
Founded by the leadership development of the UNICEF National Council, I co-developed the national advocacy center as a sub-initiative of the College Clubs Consortium platform to reach out to schools in target states/districts without UNITE teams with online UNICEF USA Advocacy sources and training materials. Our national advocacy center was founded to target members of the House and Senate Appropriations and Foreign Affairs Committees, more specifically members of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittees of both the House and the Senate Appropriations. Committees are crucial to UNICEF's outreach targets to set up clubs in their districts. We are planning specific dates coinciding with College Consortium Delegates for nationwide letter signing, phone banking, and other banking events for target regions.
UNICEF Global Volunteers Manifesto
Organized the first global virtual convening of 15 UNICEF Offices (country offices + national committees) and over 70 volunteer participants, to create the first Global Volunteer Manifestos, containing leading examples of volunteerism around UNICEF. I presented information on UNICEF USA’s national council and my work on the leadership development team.
UNICEF Bangladesh Campaign
I partnered with UNICEF Bangladesh and UNICEF Communication Officer Farhana Rahman Paula to host the first campaign involving UNICEF volunteers in the country program. 380 young volunteers from 21 districts participated in the National Vitamin A Plus Campaign under the leadership of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Integrated Perinatal and Child Health and Nutrition program, as well as National Nutrition Services program.
I helped co-organize the UNICEF Bangladesh Generation Parliamentarian Event featuring the country's ministers and policymakers participating as co-moderators and Parliamentarians. The National Round Structure is a day-long event where 300 participants from 300 electoral constituencies will participate in a mock parliamentary session to engage in the sustainable policy making process followed by Bangladesh National Assembly.
More information as well as a video recording can be found here: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=813877545781803&id=507740343062193&sfnsn=mo
UNICEF Celebrity Interview with Olivia Harrison
I interviewed Olivia Harrison in Los Angeles in February 2020 to recognize the George Harrison Foundation’s work for raising over 1 million dollars for UNICEF from hosting a charity concert in Bangladesh.
National Council Involvements
Participated at national board meeting in October 2019 to advocate for continued youth engagement in the clubs program.
Created Youth Reps mentorship program to support UNICEF USA youth representative volunteers in better representing their communities at the national level. Sent out a letter to the national UNICEF board advocating for the selection of the new CEO and President of UNICEF USA to integrate youth voices in major decision-making processes.
UN General Assembly
The National Council was represented at the United Nations in New York City to interview Executive Director of UNICEF Henrietta Fore, High Representative and Vice President of the European Commission Federica Mogherini, Queen Mathilde of the Belgians, and Irish Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone. We discussed the progress since the passage of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), the launch of #The Real Challenge social media campaign, and future steps for the advancement of children.
Featured on UNICEF USA’s blog for founding the College
Clubs Consortium:
https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/join-clubs-college-consortium/36432
The Global and National Council are in the process of hosting a Digital Youth Summit in collaboration with youth in over 30 countries in 2020.
Day in the Life of a National Council Member!