The Hyderabad YES regional
Forum was concluded with a valedictory closing ceremony that included thousands
of youths from the region in addition to the 1200 persons who had attended the
five day event. Ismail Serageldin gave the closing statement on behalf of the
conference and read “The Hyderabad Blueprint” adopted by the participating
delegations .
This forum was a midpoint between the launch of the YES campaign at the Bibliotheca
Alexandrina in September of 2002, and the upcoming YES meeting in Mexico in
2004. The movement, for which Serageldin had been chairman of the organizing
committee, and now serves on its campaign committee, has grown tremendously
in the last two years. Serageldin commended on the enormous energy that pervades
the movement and the inspiration that working with youth brings.
Ismail Serageldin was very active in the forum. He made the opening presentation
to launch the ministerial segment of the proceedings, chaired the drafting committee
that prepared the statement, moderated the ministerial debate that led to its
adoption, chaired the special session on women’s issues, and made a plenary
presentation on the issues of water and sanitation and youth employment, in
addition to a press conference and the closing valedictory presentation.
