History

The origins of the IYPS are traced back to the 50th anniversary of the Commonwealth Engineering Council (CEC) in 1996.

The CEC is the umbrella organisation of the national institutions of engineering professionals in the Commonwealth. The CEC was founded in 1946 by the Institutions of Engineers of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and the U.K. 

It was decided that the 50th Anniversary would focus on the most important challenge for humankind in the next 50 years. The theme was thus set as "Engineering to Survive-Global Solutions For Sustainable Development". As the next half-century of the engineering profession rightly would belong to young engineers, it was decided that active participation of young engineers would be very significant.

The favourable reaction from many quarters to the active participation of young engineers and engineering students with proper gender balance encouraged the CEC to organise the first Commonwealth Young Engineers Seminar as CEC's contribution to the numerous Commonwealth NGO activities during CHOGM 1997 in Edinburgh. The Seminar submitted a Memorandum to CHOGM and decided to form the Commonwealth Young Engineers Network (CYEN).

CYEN was envisaged as a virtual network utilising the Internet as the means of communication and discussion for its members. It was felt that occasional face-to-face meetings would greatly strengthen CYEN.  CYEN soon realised that issues of sustainable development are the common concern of all young professionals, not just young engineers, and that CYEN would need to involve other young professionals at its next meeting in order to facilitate properly represented discussions on the issue.  The Millennium Commonwealth Day, March 2000, London, seemed a most opportune, historic and auspicious occasion. CEC wrote to the Commonwealth Secretary General for his approval to include the Commonwealth Young Professionals Conference (CYPC) as part of the Millennium Commonwealth Day Celebration. Chief Anyaoku warmly welcomed this CEC and CYEN initiative. The Commonwealth Secretariat invited the Chair of CYEN to the 1999 Commonwealth Young Forum in Kuala Lumpur to promote CYPC.

CYPC was successfully held on 18 March 2000 in the Institution of Civil Engineers, London with HRH the Princess Royal as the guest of honour. CYPC was a truly multi-professional conference. The meeting decided to change the Commonwealth Young Engineers Network to the Commonwealth Young Professionals Network.

 
Delegates to the CYPC conference made this Declaration:

We, representatives of the Young Professionals of the Commonwealth, mindful:

• that nearly one in four people of the world live in absolute poverty
• that the eradication of poverty is an indispensable requirement for global sustainable development
• that every society is facing problems as the gap between rich and poor continues to widen
• that the Commonwealth, by its nature a microcosm of the world with its mixture of large, small and island states in widely varied geographic locations, is by its nature uniquely placed to lead the world in facing these problems;

consider that these circumstances create a new set of conditions for the creation of wealth and the elimination of poverty.

Essential elements of these new conditions are:

• the need for resource accounting;
• the need for increasingly efficient, appropriate and effective uses of resources and energy;
• the need to take a longer term view of economic and financial realities.

Action points from this conference were:

• Housing and Infrastructure
• Education
• Food and Agriculture 
• Water
• Population and Health
• Aid
• Communications & IT
• Transport
•  Appropriate Technology

In order to follow through with the action areas and identified themes of importance at the CYPC, the delegates decided that there would be a second similar Summit, representing all regions of the world.  As the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was to be held in Brisbane, Australia, in October 2001, the Institution of Engineers Australia, and Young Engineers Australia, were given the task of forming a Board to direct the development of the Summit.

While CHOGM was postponed from the original date, the Summit continued - the culmination of two years work for a team of sixty volunteers between the ages of 18 and 35, from countries around the world and disparate walks of life.

Links

International Young Professionals Foundation
ABN: 69 098 340 124 

Page Last Updated: Friday 26 November 2004
© International Young Professionals Foundation 2004