I have pursued excellence since my earliest childhood. I try to excel in everything I do - and I do a lot. Much of it is volunteering. I have been a reporter for Junior Mag while growing up in Casablanca, a Shad Valley participant at Université Laval, and a mentor and youth engagement coordinator for TakingITGlobal. I enjoy playing badminton and soccer and got a blue belt in karate at 15 years old, I’m also passionate about writing and poetry.

That is why I co-founded a multi-lingual magazine called MOMENTUM: Mission, Passion, Expression in 2008. The co-founders of this project are my twin brother Yassir and I. We both participated in the 4th and 5th World Youth Congress of Quebec and Istanbul and in many TEDx events and we wish, through this project, to give the opportunity to hundreds, even thousands of young people from Canada and abroad, to live such life-changing experiences.

In 2010, I was among the lucky Canadians who visited Italy as delegates to the NMC World Youth Meeting for a Sustainable Future in Bari. And during the summer, I spent three weeks in China visiting Beijing, Chongqing and Shanghai and exploring the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the Shanghai World Expo.

I also had the chance to travel to Dubai and Abu Dhabi to attend the Education Without Borders international student conference where I met inspiring like-minded young leaders and guest speakers like Robert Swan, the first person to walk to both Poles, and Adora Svitak, an American child prodigy and internationally published author who gave the most inspiring TEDx-style talks at Dubai Men’s College.
On a less serious note, I went sandboarding along with friends from Tunisia, Mauritius and England, and got the opportunity to meet the French Spiderman Alain Robert after watching him climbing the World’s tallest tower Burj Khalifa as part of the opening ceremony.

But I have not forgotten my roots and the problems in Morocco. I am still in contact with Moroccan associations that combat poverty and lack of knowledge, helping them as much as I can.

ILYES EL OUARZADI: "I connected Blogger to my http://flavors.me page - http://flavors.me/ilyes"

Bonjour à tous les Montréalais!

Vendredi 7 mai prochain de midi à 14h au Centre Sheraton, se tiendra un diner-conférence organisé par Desjardins et la Chambre de commerce du Montréal Métropolitain auquel M. Kent Nagano, directeur musical de l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal participera à titre de conférencier!

Au plaisir de vous rencontrer à cette occasion!

Kent Nagano

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Corporate accountability on sustainable activities demonstrates a willingness to further dialogue with stakeholders (people, customers and society in general) and increase transparency. The most commonly used media for accountability are reports, corporate social responsibility reports, annual reports etc. Those can be found for example on the website of the Global Compact (http://unglobalcompact.org/COP/notable_cops.html), corporate website or the Global Reporting Initiative website (http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/E033E311-68E7-41F9-A97F-9F3B94F3FE40/4042/GRIReports19992010_14Apr2.xls)

Accountability is an effort to disclose balanced, accurate, unbiased information to stakeholders. However, being fully accountable is difficult for businesses, who in theory are meant to only seek short term profit and financial outcomes. Business mindset can encourage companies to take benefit from a better image or fake accountability (ex Green-washing or Blue Washing - ex. using the UN Global Compact (UNGC) as a branding tool - the UNGC is only a platform for businesses where civil society has very little to say).

What is good information? Knowing the truth of a company's actions is very difficult. Some company have fair, somewhat honest disclosure. There is of course a lot of hypocrisy in the field of CSR too. Doubt is always necessary as well as critical mindset.

Every people interested in the field should spend time knowing about how companies disclose, what civil society organizations say in their report (http://www.business-humanrights.org/). Being critical is important but should start people are informed of issues and existing initiatives (ex. accountability initiative such as the Global Reporting Initiative, the Carbon Disclosure Project, and many many more).

For critical thinking:
http://globalcompactcritics.blogspot.com/
http://www.corpwatch.org/
http://www.publiceye.ch/en/

It goes without saying that Canada is a extremely rich country: 12th in the ranking of the World Economic Outlook Database-October 2009 from the International Monetary Fund.


According to the Government of Canada, "in 2008, over 75 percent of the world’s exploration and mining companies were headquartered in Canada. These 1293 companies had an interest in some 7809 properties in Canada and in over 100 countries around the world." (http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/ds/csr-strategy-rse-stategie.aspx)

However only 5 companies (0.0000000001% ......) in the mining are active participants of the Global Compact, the largest voluntary corporate social responsibility initiative, which includes more than 5000 companies worldwide. Of the 62 Canadian business participants from the United Nations Global Compact, 24 percent currently appear as delisted. Delisting is a sanction given by the Global Compact to companies that have failed to produce a Sustainability report for more than 2 years.

Canada also does not have a Global Compact Local Network, while most of the other OECD and BRIC countries have one. What is Canada doing?

In the mining sector, it is most expected companies are accountable of their human rights and environmental performance. The most material issues in the sector are community relations. human rights impact assessments, environmental management systems to name the big ones. Recently, Bill C-300, the Corporate Accountability of Mining, Oil and Gas Corporations in Developing Countries Act, proposed that Canadian extractive companies operating in developing countries adhere to environmental and human rights standards, like the Alien Tort Claim Act in the USA. Discussion are underway…. and big lobbies put such a pressure in a country where the mining sector is so important.

Now, the Social Responsible Investment perspective…. Most of those companies are publicly listed, which means that big pension funds invest in companies that often do not have their social license to operate! Also universities endowments invest in those companies, while some of their students study environmental issues, human rights law etc… Should all of them know and be enlightened citizen.

I hope Canadian companies are more accountable and this proposition becomes a law. That would make me prouder of Canada than I am now...

Further readings:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15547
http://unglobalcompact.org/news/18-03-30-2010
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/782562--make-the-canadian-mining-industry-more-accountable
http://www.blackfireexploration.com/

Metallica Resources Inc. New Gold Inc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minera_San_Xavier

Gabriel Resources Ltd
(UN Global Compact participant)http://unglobalcompact.org/participant/4088-Gabriel-Resources-Ltd-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ro%C5%9Fia_Montan%C4%83

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying this happy and festive period of the year. Best wishes of health, happiness and prosperity to all of you, young leaders out there!

For me, I had some pretty good news this week. Actually, I received a formal invitation to participate in the first NMC World Youth Meeting for a Sustainable Future which will take place in Bari (a city south of Italy) from January 19th to January 21st.

This summit is organized by the Italian Government, the Apulia Regional Government and the National Agency for Youth in Italy of the European Youth in Action Program in collaboration with Inter-American Development Bank, ILO, UNESCO and UN-HABITAT among others.

So, I am really happy to start 2010 with more energy and drive and pursue my engagement in my local and global community. One of my top resolutions for the coming year will be to lead by example and work harder in all the projects I started or will start in the future.

More importantly and as the co-founder of an international youth initiative called "MOMENTUM: Mission, Passion, Expression", my short-term goal is to publish the second edition of the MOMENTUM magazine that will be available online very very soon (in the beginning of January probably). By the way, I'd like to thank all the TIG members and the other young leaders who sent us their submissions (articles, poems, artwork). It's greatly appreciated! Keep up the good work :)

To read the first edition of MOMENTUM magazine, visit this link: http://momentumweb.ning.com/profiles/blogs/momentum-mag-1-2009-is-now

To read the first MOMENTUM Bulletin, visit blog entry: http://momentumweb.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bulletin-momentum-1

I recommend you to visit our Website at http://momentumweb.ning.com/ to be part of our network of young leaders who care about global issues acting locally and thinking globally.

We will be pleased to have you on board ;)

And if you want to become a MOMENTUM Volunteer or to represent our Project in your country, don't hesitate to email us at: info.momentum@yahoo.com


HAPPY NEW YEAR AND BEST WISHES!

Ilyes EL OUARZADI
Montreal (Canada)

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying this happy and festive period of the year. Best wishes of health, happiness and prosperity to all of you, young leaders out there!

For me, I had some pretty good news this week. Actually, I received a formal invitation to participate in the first NMC World Youth Meeting for a Sustainable Future which will take place in Bari (a city south of Italy) from January 19th to January 21st.

This summit is organized by the Italian Government, the Apulia Regional Government and the National Agency for Youth in Italy of the European Youth in Action Program in collaboration with Inter-American Development Bank, ILO, UNESCO and UN-HABITAT among others.

So, I am really happy to start 2010 with more energy and drive and pursue my engagement in my local and global community. One of my top resolutions for the coming year will be to lead by example and work harder in all the projects I started or will start in the future.

More importantly and as the co-founder of an international youth initiative called "MOMENTUM: Mission, Passion, Expression", my short-term goal is to publish the second edition of the MOMENTUM magazine that will be available online very very soon (in the beginning of January probably). By the way, I'd like to thank all the TIG members and the other young leaders who sent us their submissions (articles, poems, artwork). It's greatly appreciated! Keep up the good work :)

To read the first edition of the MOMENTUM magazine, visit this link: http://momentumweb.ning.com/profiles/blogs/momentum-mag-1-2009-is-now

To read the first MOMENTUM Bulletin, visit blog entry: http://momentumweb.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bulletin-momentum-1

I recommend you to visit our Website at http://momentumweb.ning.com/ to be part of our network of young leaders who care about global issues acting locally and thinking globally.

We will be pleased to have you on board ;)

And if you want to become a MOMENTUM Volunteer or to represent our Project in your country, don't hesitate to email us at: info.momentum@yahoo.com


HAPPY NEW YEAR AND BEST WISHES!

Ilyes EL OUARZADI
Co-founder and executif director

BULLETIN MOMENTUM # 1 - MOMENTUM

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Be careful about International House in New York. I innocently applied for a housing in this place for 6 months, but I did not know it was actually a SCAM.

I went through a very bureaucratic process. First I had to pay a NOT REFUNDABLE 65 USD fee for the application. Then, there are admission criteria that I really think I was fulfilling, but I then received a letter telling me I was denied the housing.

I then asked why I was denied the place, and after 3 phone call attempts, the person told me that I did not fulfill the criteria in the same extent than other candidate, but could not explain why exactly or specifically.

She told me that it was like a university application!!!
I am really upset against International House, which basically steals international students or young people's money!!!!

I you feel you were in the same case and this is actually a SCAM, please write me a email at: sigar14@gmail.com.
The more we are the more powerful we will be.

Cheers,

Simon

The Alliance for a New Humanity (ANH) is thrilled to announce the launch of the ANH Startfund, an initiative of the Fred Foundation.

Beginning this year, 2009, this initiative builds upon the Fred Foundation's Startfund, which began impacting lives and communities twelve years ago by empowering individuals and organizations. The goal of the ANH is to connect people, who, through personal and social transformation, aim to build a just, peaceful, and sustainable world, reflecting the unity of all humanity. The ANH Startfund has the goal of putting this transformation into action.

The ANH Startfund offers co-funding for projects that are proposed by inspired individuals and organizations. With its financial support, the ANH Startfund aims to contribute to the empowerment of people. The focus of the ANH Startfund is to support projects that have the potential to contribute to a functional, balanced and caring society.

If you have a project in the fields of health, community, or nature/environment that you believe truly impacts society in a positive and sustainable way, please apply! This is an incredible opportunity to realize your dreams of creating positive social change.

Wondering if your project fits the criteria? Here are some questions to ask yourself.
Would your application demonstrate that:

1. The project is based on an inspiring and/or new idea?


2. There is a clear plan in place of how to put the idea into action as a project?


3. The project leader is committed to executing the plan and accepting full responsibility for it?


4. The project has the potential to make a long-term impact and is it replicable in other places?

Although the categories are broad and the Startfund committee open-minded on what will be funded, there are some restrictions. The following projects will not be considered: in general the construction or rehabilitation of buildings, the making of films, websites, books, brochures, unless these are (an) essential part(s) of the project.

Past projects which have been funded by the Startfund include:

• Bulgarian Environmental Partnership Foundation - the bicycle as public vehicle in Sofia (2007)


• Stichting Sathsathai - Toilets & smokeless cookers for Bolde Pediche in Nepal (2006)


• Stichting Derde Wereldhulp - Home for HIV positive street children in India (2005)


• Pablo van der Lugt - Bamboo as alternative product for construction in Europe (2004)

Visit the ANH website website for further details and the online application form!

I am on my way to New York, going there for a three months internship at the UN. I will use this blog to share my thoughts during my internship at the Global Compact Office.
I am now on the Greyhound bus still in Toronto.

After I worked in a corporate responsibility research firm in Toronto, I will now try to expand my knowledge in this area and learn more about all the stakeholders that are part of Corporate Social Responsibility. I think the UN is the best place to analyze such issues.
So far, my research mainly focused on the private sector perspective and how CSR can contribute to the value of a company. I am very interested about human rights issues, while this is a personal interest.
The bus is leaving see you soon.


... Well I realized the Greyhound bus had wifi! Great!

So yes I am writing this blog to organize my thoughts a bit and share my experience with those who dare read my poor English... whatever..

Before coming back to the goals of my internship I will briefly write about why I am going there and maybe why I was selected for the internship.

I have been passionate about global issues since my studies in history. In France, I studied history and political science. My program was B.A Multidisciplinary Social Science, History and Arts. I especially enjoyed a course on international relations and the history of socialism from Serge Wolikow. My passion led me to study International Relations at Laval University in Quebec, where I could further my knowledge by studying international economy, IR theory, environmental global governance.

I had the huge opportunity to work at TakingITGlobal on a project from IDRC, Microsoft and a Swiss development Agency whose aim was to develop IT infrastructure in developing countries. This was opportunity to see how a CSR project work, who the stakeholders are, and what make a project successful ... or not!

Then after completing some courses in business I had the huge opportunity to work in a Corporate Social Responsibility / Social Responsible Research Firm called Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. There I did a qualitative assessment of more than 600 publicly listed companies (listed on worldwide Stock Exchanges), to analyze the policies of multinationals (MNFs)and their relations to their actual (or what is publicly known) performance in term of environmental social (labor and human rights) and governance/anti-corruption norms. This led me to learn a range of issues I did not know before, and I gained expertize because I had to compile in my research all the reputational issues of MNFs in one database containing more than 2000 companies. I learned what the main issues are, but I only had the broad picture in relation to those issues.

I realized that the way company report their environmental performance is far from being the same for all companies. In accounting a company can hide a range of issues to increase the way their valuation is perceived by financial institutions or people who want to invest in those company.
But when social/environmental/governance (ESG) issues are in question, this is much worse!

There are some initiative that took place recently such as the Global Reporting Initiatives and other business initiative such as Responsible Care that compel companies to benchmark their reporting. This is great but not enough. I think government hold a responsibility to render those companies much more accountable. This is a first step to a cleaner, responsible and more transparent economic growth.
There is a great need to make accountability uniform and sufficiently transparent so that the financial markets take into account new metrics to valuate companies.

I also learned that corruption is still pandemic and companies policies in this area can be really weak (there are of course best practices). Also I was amazed to see companies that have a competitive advantage BECAUSE they are non-transparent (the worst are private equity firms). Most of those non transparent company are registered in fiscal heavens, do not pay taxes locally.

Some Banks also do not have thorough anti-money laundering mechanisms and specific policies.

When I talk about non transparent companies I am mainly referring to emerging market companies located in Brazil, Venezuela, China, India, Russia. Those are the worst in term or accountability. Not that all are doing bad, but their reporting is quasi non existent. So that at the end we never do what they do (good or bad).

I will post this blog as it is... that is to say very disorganized and come back later to talk about other issues I have in mind.

L'équipe de Liaisons Locales CANADA et de TIG a le plaisir de vous annoncer les deux prochains débats en ligne destinés à tous les membres francophones de TIG:

1- OBAMA: quel espoir pour les jeunes?

2- Renouveau de la plate-forme TIG: idées et suggestions!

POUR PARTICIPER, CONNECTEZ-VOUS SUR TIG PUIS CLIQUEZ SUR CE LIEN: http://projects.tigweb.org/clccanada/chat/

Soyez au rendez-vous le mardi 28 avril à 13h EST, ce seront les derniers débats de l'année pour le projet CLC-Canada, donc ne manquez pas cet événement en ligne!

Pour savoir l'heure à laquelle commence ce débat, dans le pays où vous résidez, utilisez ce site: http://www.timezoneconverter.com/

Au plaisir de vous rencontrer le 28,

L'équipe francophone de TIG

Hey everyone !

This past week, I participated in a conference called QO (stands for Quebec-Ontario) organized by AIESEC Canada in partnership with AIESEC HEC. It was a 3 day conference where we learned more about AIESEC, met with some cool AIESEC alumni in addition to other amazing activities (simulACTION, banquet...)!

I also took some time to discuss with the francophone TIG team about the topic of our next live chat. We came up with diverse ideas: discuss Obama's message of change/hope, talk about climate change...

If you have other suggestions, please let me know.

Cheers!

ilyes

Salut à tous !

Je profite de cette fin de semaine pour vous mettre au courant des activités tout aussi intéressantes les unes que les autres auxquelles Yassir (le coordinateur de l'engagement des jeunes à Montréal) et moi avons participées le mois dernier. Je vous donnerai également un aperçu des événements qui seront organisés par l'équipe francophone de TakingITGlobal et plus particulièrement de CLC-Canada le mois prochain !

Yassir a représenté TIG auprès d'importantes organisations jeunesse dont Jeunesse Canada Monde (JCM). L'équipe de JCM a accueilli Yassir à leurs bureaux à Montréal où il a été question de penser à un partenariat entre JCM et CLC-Canada. Suite à cette rencontre, JCM et TIG sont désormais partenaires en ce qui a trait à l'organisation d'événements à Montréal. Autrement dit, les jeunes participant aux échanges avec JCM seront invités à participer aux ateliers que Yassir organisera à Montréal. Ces ateliers porteront sur divers sujets comme l'engagement communautaire, les changements climatiques, le Web 2.0... En passant, si vous avez des suggestions à nous proposer, soyez les bienvenus! En contrepartie, Yassir a promis à JCM de leur offrir plus de visibilité sur TIG. C'est pourquoi on a fait, entre autres, la promotion de JCM, de sa mission et de ses programmes dans les "newsletters" qui sont envoyées mensuellement aux membres de TIG vivant au Québec.

Au niveau de la promotion des débats virtuels et des webinaires organisés par l'équipe francophone de CLC-Canada (Justine, Yassir et moi-même), le Forum jeunesse de l'île de Montréal a déjà commencé à nous aider de ce côté. Comme vous pouvez voir sur le site du FJÎM (http://www.fjim.org/v3/ptp.asp), notre prochain débat francophone "L'avenir de la langue française dans le monde!" est en vedette et est classé dans la catégorie "Participation citoyenne"! Je profite de cette occasion pour remercier Sébastien Lemire, Agent de participation citoyenne auprès du FJÎM, de sa collaboration très appréciée.

À travers ce "live chat", TIG invite tous les francophones à débattre de la question suivante: quel est l'avenir de la langue française dans le monde ? Des panélistes dresseront un portrait de la situation actuelle que vivent les francophones et des défis qu'ils doivent relever pour assurer la survie de la langue française. Pour rejoindre l’événement : le 31 janvier, à 14h EST/ 9h GMT, visitez http://projects.tigweb.org/clccanada/chat

Visitez http://events.tigweb.org/22049 pour plus d'info.

Pour les Québécois inscrits sur TIG, vous avez sûrement reçu, en version anglaise ou française, le bulletin "Quebec Connections" qui vous est envoyé mensuellement. Je vous invite à le lire et à participer aux événements qu'on vous propose afin de joindre l'utile à l'agréable !

Demeurez tous à l'affût de nos activités à venir. Je compte organiser des webinaires portant sur le Web 2.0, les ressources de TIG pour les organisations, les pages de projets... ainsi que des formations de leadership pour les jeunes à partir du mois de février.

Justine de l'équipe francophone de TIG organisera la semaine prochaine une présentation sur le Web 2.0 destinée aux organismes jeunesse. Je vous inviter à lui envoyer un message à justine@takingitglobal.org si vous voulez y participer.

Pour ma part, je suis à votre écoute si vous avez des suggestions, des questions ou autre. N'hésitez pas à m'écrire à ilyes@clc.takingitglobal.org

Je serai occupé ce mois prochain vu les activités en ligne et sur le terrain auxquelles je compte participer/modérer. Entre autres, je représenterai TIG dans une conférence d'envergure organisée par AIESEC Canada en partenariat avec AIESEC HEC. Cette conférence se déroulera du 6 au 8 février à l'hôtel le Gouverneur à Montréal et regroupera des étudiants dynamiques et ambitieux des différents campus universitaires du Québec, de l'Ontario et des Maritimes. Des invités de marque du monde des affaires et de la scène communautaire seront présents. Si vous êtes membre de AIESEC Canada, je vous encourage fortement à y participer!

J'ai l'impression de vous avoir rempli d'informations, mais j'ai encore beaucoup d'autres nouvelles à vous annoncer. C'est pourquoi je vous recommande de revisiter mon blogue ainsi que les autres ressources de TIG pour vous épanouir en tant que leader !

Au plaisir,

Recently, I have launched a great project called MOMENTUM: Mission, Passion, Expression. I'm the co-founder of this project and magazine aimed at connecting youth entrepreneurs to connect and help each other. More information about this project is available online at http://www.momentumweb.ning.com/ .

Récemment, j'ai lancé un projet appelé MOMENTUM: Mission, Passion, Expression destiné aux jeunes entrepreneurs. Ce projet consiste en un magazine et un portail web dont le but est de regrouper les jeunes leaders pour s'entraider. Pour plus d'information, visitez http://www.momentumweb.ning.com/ .