My presentation speech for the election of the new SG of European Youth Forum

"Dear Friends, I decided to tell you a story, a real one, a story starting with “once upon a time....”. It is a story about the journey of a young person who throughout his personal development acquired the skills that the European Youth Forum needs from the next Secretary General, which are mainly three:

• technical and managerial competences,
• knowledge of Member Organisations and the Platform,
• and understanding of European and International Processes.

well... the person is me... but the story is not just about me since we share some parts of this journey... Once upon a time, 30 years ago, I was born in the outskirts of Naples in the Southern Italy. After some decades and due to my choice to join a scout group when I was 6 years old, I found myself at 20 convinced I could make the difference with my community and that my community was not only my little town but, actually, Europe, well the World. That's why I left home, landed firstly for an Erasmus in Paris, started an intense formative period of few years as a volunteer around Europe and the Mediterranean with youth organisations for exchanges, training and Non-Formal Education projects. I emerged from this period as a confident trainer and team leader, knowing the structures of youth work in Europe, project management and a Masters in International Relations. I was excited and passionate, impatient to multiply what i learned, feeling that I was lucky and privileged enough to owe this to the youth movement and i needed to share it: ready to jump to the next step. In 2003 we still did not have a National Youth Council in Italy. It was one of the typical long and sad stories that sometimes make my Country famous. As a group of youth associations we decided that the time had come to make the change. Since I knew the functioning of the European Youth Forum and of National Youth Councils in other Countries, my expertise was key in building up the constitution of FNG. I also took care of its membership application to the YFJ. It was a very creative period: we developed solutions for the organisational sustainability of the platform, involved the Members in advocacy work, we built a professional secretariat, we experimented new ways for funding, to guarantee the independence of the platform while it was not yet recognised by the government. At the same time, I was bridging between Italy and Europe. In 2005 I was elected as Chairperson of the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe. We consolidated together the decision-making between NGOs and governmental representatives, and we acted for the interests of all young people in Europe. At personal level it was a perfect learning experience to get to know from the inside International Institutions and the negotiation skills in the context of an inter-governmental organisation. Moreover, it was a challenging endeavour in Human Resources Management by leading a team of 30 volunteers from all over Europe. Looking back at that and what we did together, we can be proud of the results such as the All Different, All Equal Campaign, the Heads of State Summit or the Ministerial Conference on Youth. In parallel to those adventures, I gained my PhD in Political Geography studying the impact of globalisation on the governance of Mediterranean Cities. This was in itself a subject that fascinated me for the substantial links with organisational networks and institutional relations, which on another level, I was practising at the Council of Europe and at the Italian Youth Council. But more importantly, the PhD was the perfect complement to my non-formal education in project and organisational management. In fact it provided me with strong methodological basis for strategic analysis, planning, delivering results and evaluation. To resume, those years between 2003 and 2006, were definitely the ones were I matured the skills to be a highly qualified professional in the youth field, were project management, good governance, research and strategic analysis were multiplied for sustainable results. The next step was flying to the fields of Kosovo! Pristina was a life-time experience: supervising the management of the Post-conflict Grant of the World Bank on Youth Development. You can imagine all the practical challenges in starting up the grant implementation in the legal jungle of Kosovo and its UN administration at the time (2006). The main challenge was to ensure a transparent hiring process of the Project Implementation Unit regarding the different fields of expertise required: finances, procurement, outreach, monitoring and evaluation, office administration and field work, for a total of 8 people. Training and supervising the team, ensuring the smooth relations between the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport and the World Bank, working on the field to assess the needs of the youth centres in each municipality... It was definitely a big step. After I left the position I was happy to learn that the legacy of the management system i helped to put in place was actually working. With my bag full of those experiences, I landed in Brussels almost two years ago, to work at the secretariat of the youthforum, as UN and Global Co-ordinator. In this capacity, I participated in the technical drafting of the current work-plan before its adoption at the last GA. In this period I delivered by strengthening existing processes but also experimenting new ways to do things. The initiative of a Euro-Arab Co-ordination Meeting of Youth Organisations, is something we can be proud of because it sets a method for direct involvement of member organisations in YFJ regional co-operation. Another initiative with a methodological lesson is our involvement in the UN Alliance of Civilisation, where we managed to combine institutional recognition with tangible support to local but also international youth projects in the frame of the Youth Solidarity Fund. ...I started by telling you a story, my story, obviously and luckily it does not end yet, I wish to continue writing it with you in the coming years. So here I am now, 8 May 2009, standing in front of you to get appointed as the next SG of the YFJ. Standing with my passion and commitment, I am convinced that this long journey I have done with you and all the people I have learned from, provided me with the technical and managerial competences, the knowledge of the Platform and of Youth Organisations, especially YFJ Members and the understanding of the European and International Processes that we need for this position. Our president outlined that at this stage of its organisational development, the YFJ should “deliver, strengthen and consolidate its work by bringing the Member Organisations closer to the platform aiming to increase the impact of YFJ advocacy and achieve greater participation” As Secretary General, I will work to support the implementation of these goals together with a secretariat which is confident, efficient, motivated and professional, while the political leadership is in the hands of the elected President and Bureau. I am also convinced that the Secretary General needs to support the bureau by setting some clear priorities, for me, these will be: 1.Managing people to deliver results: Motivating the staff to stay committed to the organisation and making the best of the pool of excellence at our disposal 2.Innovative development: Building on our rich history and existing strengths while not being afraid to experiment. 3.Impact: Without impact we are useless. The Secretariat will facilitate monitoring and evaluation of our actions to ensure that we achieve change.

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None of this can be done in isolation by the SG, but following an inclusive, open and transparent method involving the Member Organisations, under the direction of the Bureau and the professional contribution of the rest of the secretariat. At the beginning of my story I told you that the Youth Forum needs a secretary general with:

• Technical and managerial competences
• Knowledge of member organisations and the platform
• And understanding of European and international processes

I have shown you that I have these skills and I built them together with you. Together we should continue to write this story.

learning, growing, development, excellence is by definition from within!