The Big 6

The world’s largest youth movements have joined forces to work together – focused on the positive development of young people.

The ’Big 6’ consists of the five largest youth movements in the world (YMCA, YWCA, WOSM, WAGGGS, IFRC) and a leading programme for youth development (IAA).

Collectively, they reach over 100 million young people in over 200 countries and territories.

The Big Six are:

YMCA: The Young Men’s Christian Association (“YMCA” or “the Y”) has grown to become a worldwide movement of more than 45 million members from 124 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs.
YWCA: The Young Women’s Christian Association is a movement of women working for social and economic change around the world. It advocates for young women’s leadership, peace, justice, human rights and sustainable development, both on a grassroots and global scale. It is the oldest and one of the largest women’s organizations in the world.
WOSM: The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) is the Non-governmental international organization which governs most national Scout Organizations, with 28 million members. The mission of WOSM is to contribute to the education of young people, through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Scout Law, to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society.

WAGGGS: The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts represents Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting associations in 145 countries in the world, providing non-formal educational programmes enabling 10 million girls and young women to develop life and leadership skills through self-development, challenge and adventure, so that they can develop their fullest potential and contribute to developing their community at all levels of society.

IFRC: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is a humanitarian institution that is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement along with the ICRC and 186 distinct National Societies. It coordinates activities between the National Societies in order to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity.

IAA: The International Award is an exciting self-development programme available to all 14 to 25 year olds. Over 6 million young people worldwide have taken up the Award challenge.

Our Mission
The Big 6 is a co-ordinating body, a common voice on youth development, engagement in decision-making, lobbying for issues, bringing different stakeholders together and building strategic partnerships.

Our Aims

1. To influence policies relating to young people, speaking as one voice.
2. To present the voice of young people at influential forums.
3. To influence policy through the production of papers and joint lobbying.
4. To ensure the involvement of youth in the decision-making process.
5. To encourage members of our organizations to work together.
6. To build relationships with other youth organizations.
7. To promote shared initiatives in and between our organizations.
8. To share our knowledge and experience as individual organisations.
   

History and Results
The Big 6 first started as an initiative in 1996 to share programme ideas and strategies concerning key issues facing young people. The group has always maintained an informal structure with no statutes or chairperson, meeting twice a year.

A common concern is that education is more than just teaching and that non-formal education is a natural complement to school-based formal education and to family-based informal education.

To voice this concern a booklet was produced in 1997 entitled: “The Education of Young People: A Statement at the Dawn of the 21st Century” and published in English, French, Spanish and Arabic. The document received a broad welcome, especially from such bodies as UNESCO and other NGOs.

This positive response encouraged the informal group to broaden the debate to include the area of National Youth Policies. Many countries did not have any long-term, cross-sectoral national youth policies and the group believed that their own global, educational approach needed to have a state supported vehicle to make it a stronger reality.  In 1999 they published a new document entitled “National Youth Policies: A working document from the point of view of non-formal education youth organizations: Towards an autonomous supportive, responsible and committed youth.”

The group continued to find common concerns, the most urgent being the issue of girls and young women. Thus a third document was produced in 2001 entitled: “Girls and Young Women in the 21st Century – A Call to Action.”

Together with UNICEF a fourth policy paper on “The Participation of Children and Young People in Decision-Making” was published in 2005.

With the International Youth Foundation, the Empowering Africa’s Young People Initiative was launched in 2005 to support existing HIV/AIDS prevention programmes in three countries in Africa.

Currently the Big 6 is collaborating with UNICEF and other UN agencies on a joint publication entitled: “Climate Change – Take Action Now” supporting the local actions of children and young people to protect the Earth with special emphasis on girls and young women. The Guide is due to be released mid-2009.

What We Have in Common
Non formal education organizations, such as youth movements, have in common several or all of the following seven characteristics.

• Run by volunteers
• Use experiential learning
• Provide progressive programmes
• Involve peer groups
• Encourage youth-adult relationships
• Develop leadership
• Develop value systems