The boardroom may conjure images of stuffy meetings filled with suited people poring over flowcharts. But at one of the biggest international children’s charities, an 18-year-old from south London is overturning the stereotype.
Harry Phinda took up the position of youth adviser to Unicef’s board of trustees earlier this year and is hoping to make a big impact.
“My role is to be just another board member, to give my perspective on certain issues like the budget or where the teams within Unicef work,” he says. “But I want to bring a fresh approach to the work and we are talking about the lives of young people, so I think you should have a young person there to help that.”
Harry’s interest in international affairs was sparked by his citizenship teacher. When he got the opportunity to enter a Unicef competition to challenge world leaders, he jumped at the chance. Along with three of his peers from Croydon, Harry travelled to Rome in 2009 to present a report to world leaders at the G8 summit raising the group’s concerns about global poverty and combating HIV and Aids.
“We got picked out of 400 groups to present to the world leaders,” he says. “The whole experience was amazing, but the most important part was creating the report. I carried on working with Unicef because I believe in the things they are trying to achieve and I wanted to give it my all.”
Anita Tiessen, deputy executive director at Unicef, believes it is exactly this enthusiasm that makes young people so beneficial to the board.
“The decision over whether we should have young people on the board was taken about four years ago,” she explains. “We were doing a lot of work in the UK on participation and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and we began to think that we should have participation in other areas of our work. Our own governance was one of the missing parts of the puzzle.
“The young advisers contribute to every area of conversation and also act as really good spokespeople outside of the boardroom. The experience gives them a good understanding of what is involved in running a large organisation.”
Support and ideas
Harry is offered support to help him understand all the board and budget papers and to develop his ideas that are put to the board.
“There could be some prejudice about young people that they don’t have the qualifications or experience, but Unicef prepares you for that in order to make you feel valued at the board meetings,” says Harry.
“Unicef is taking a step forward in showing that young people have a voice,” he says. “There is a feeling of gloom among young people and it is therefore crucially important that the government engages with us as we have a lot to bring on a range of subjects including the economic recovery.
“Being on the board is something I have been blessed with so I am really going to use this as an opportunity.”
