WOSM team meets with UN Secretary General

WOSM’s Secretary General, Scott Teare, and Member of the World Scout Committee, Mari Nakano, met with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, at his office in New York on 21 October 2014.

During the 20-minute meeting, Scott extended an invitation to Ban Ki-moon to attend the 23rd World Scout Jamboree (23WSJ) in Japan in 2015. He also shared WOSM’s Vision 2023 and how Scouting has positively impacted the lives of young people.

Mari, who is the Chairperson of the 23WSJ 2015, shared the programmes and activities that would be taking place during the world event, impressing upon the UN Secretary General that about 24,000 Scouts from all over the world will be at the Jamboree.

She highlighted that a central programme of the Jamboree is the Global Development Village, featuring five themes – Peace, Environment & Sustainability, Human Rights, Health and Poverty.

This resonated well with the UN Secretary General as earlier in the discussion, he had touched on issues such as peace, LGBT, women in leadership, health and environmental sustainability.

Mari also presented the 23WSJ thumbdrive which featured materials and information on the Jamboree and the 23WSJ badge to Ban Ki-moon. The thumbdrive, instead of printed materials, reinforced the Jamboree’s focus on driving environmental sustainability.

Also present at the meeting were WOSM’s Global Director of Scouting Development, Gõran Hãgerdal; Global Director of Communications and External Relations, Lin Lin Yeoh; Chief of Staff, Sonny Kim; General Counsel, Peter Illig; and Administrative Director of the Office of the Secretary General, Srinath Tirumale Venugopal.

The UN Secretary General was accompanied by the Acting Deputy Director for Administration and Management, Outreach Division, Department of Public Information, Maha El-Bahrawi; Project Manager, Global Teaching and Learning Project, Educational Outreach Section, Outreach Division, William Yotive; and First Officer (Economic, Social and Development Affairs), Executive Officer of the Secretary General, Zanofer Ismalebbe.