International Youth Ambassadors Forum

Abdel is currently employed in the office of the UN special envoy to Yemen, where his work is directed towards achieving lasting and sustainable peace in that country. However, back in his native Jordan, he is the co-founder of the International Youth Ambassadors Foundation (IYAF), an initiative training young people about diplomacy, international relations, and political engagement. Civic engagement remains low in Jordan in terms of membership of voluntary social organisations but Abdel and his colleagues at the IYAF are working to change this trend.

The IYAF has worked with several universities and schools on how to lead model United Nations simulations, and to produce policy outcome documents that are sent to the concerned institutions after the completion of the simulation. The initiative works closely alongside the Erasmus Plus programme in Europe, facilitating student exchanges and training programmes. So far, 6 outcome documents have been sent to international organisations, and the quality of the work the IYAF does is apparent from the fact that these organisations are often surprised that the documents are produced by students and not necessarily people with a political science background.

Following the 2011 One Young World Summit in Zurich, Abdel established a network of contacts with different One Young World Ambassadors from all over the world. He reflected upon the ideas he had and worked with another Ambassador to promote environmentally friendly strategies to the Jordanian government. The IYAF has so far held 8 conferences, 2 of which have been country-wide while 6 have taken place within different universities in Jordan with over 1,000 participants in total. A further 5,000 students have engaged with the IYAF through workshops, field trips, and roundtable discussions since its founding.

"When I applied for a job at the UN, colleagues were very interested in learning more about what I had done and a part of that is One Young World. My connections with different Ambassadors through One Young World allowed me the exposure I needed to acquire new skills and make new professional and personal connections."