Department for International Development
The Department for International Development has appointed 2 youth delegates to take part in vital international conferences on global poverty.
The delegates are Ronagh Craddock, 25, from Newcastle and Arifa Nasim, 18, from London. They are both advocates for youth-led development and passionate about the Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
Ronagh and Arifa will participate in DFIDs Youth Summit on 12 September where they will hear the views of 300 young activists. They will then accompany the Secretary of State to the post-2015 summit in New York where they will participate in dialogue and debate with heads of state and other youth delegates.
DFID saw applications from the Youth Panel (youth representatives from a range of civil society organisations), the #youthforchange panel, the British Youth Council Young Ambassadors and Restless Developments Accountability Advocates Network.
These four networks were chosen because their members meet the criteria of having significant knowledge of the post-2015 processes, being passionate advocates for youth-led development, and being able to communicate confidently with diverse audiences.
Ronagh was put forward for the Youth Panel by Restless Development with whom she volunteered in Zimbabwe leading sessions with youth groups on entrepreneurship, HIV/AIDS, gender equality and childrens rights. Since returning from her placement Ronagh has been an active climate change advocate with the UK Youth Climate Coalition.
Arifa is a youth activist and the co-founder of Educate2Eradicate, a programme founded to educate young people and train professionals on the issues of FGM, forced marriage and honour-based violence. She gives talks, training and workshops on these issues and also sits on the Plan UK youth advisory panel.
You can follow their progress through the coming weeks on Twitter - @RonaghCraddock and @arifa_aleem.