Uzbekistan youth involvement in the MDG campaign is strongly linked with social inclusion of youth in their local communities. Young people in Uzbekistan are very active and have great potentials to realize their ideas. Millennium Development Goals are global indicators of development and thus by creating adequate tools young people can realize more effective educational and social projects through joint efforts.

Prehistory

3rd World Youth Congress held in Stirling, Scotland in 2005 was the significant event for the delegates from Uzbekistan. The objective of the Congress was to stimulate a large number of youth-led development projects amongst the world's most disadvantaged people and widely inform the young leaders about the challenging indicators of Millennium Development Goals.

The 3 young representatives from Uzbekistan participated at this event and exchanged their future ideas on better achieving the MDGs in their home countries. After returning to Uzbekistan, each of them made presentations on youth development through promotion of MDGs and about World Youth Congress. The slogan "Be the change" (it was used at the Congress) inspired many young leaders of the world countries.

The next step was done towards creating the MDGs Youth Network in national level.

The MDGs Youth Network in Uzbekistan started with the student's conference organized jointly by the United Nations Country Team in Uzbekistan and the University of World Economy and Diplomacy during November 2005. The objective of the conference was to promote & galvanize the young people to take active participation in forums related to the issues of education, gender equality, child & maternal health, combating against communicable diseases and increasing living conditions in their communities. The UN agency experts presented the issues targeting MDGs in global and national context. Students were explained the successful achievements done by the Government and by the assistance of international donor agencies to promote the MDGs in Uzbekistan. Another priority was to inform the future politicians, economists and lawyers into the core context of MDGs and its value in international world. During the conference, the issues concerning gender equality and empowering girl's education in higher levels and improving the maternal and child health were deliberately provoked with many questions. The completion of the conference was marked with the significant contribution of students into future Action Plans within the frameworks of Millennium Development Goals in Uzbekistan.

Following the student's conference at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, the students themselves initiated the peer-to-peer presentation at the Westminster International University of Tashkent in December 2005. The initial aim was to broaden the horizons of youth involvement into the context of MDGs and provide peer knowledge based on previous conference and special assistance from national experts in the fields of education, health, HIV/AIDS, gender and environment. The first attempt of peer presentation at Westminster University in Tashkent went by with considerable good results and feedbacks. The students felt themselves as professionals in their chosen field and preparation period enabled them to extend their knowledge on MDGs in the global and national levels.

The idea of formulating Youth Network in better achieving the MDGs was uplifted during the "Team Building" training. Most of the students participating on MDGs presentations in Uzbekistan felt a need for an event to tie the relationships with their peers. By this time, there were many enthusiastic students ready to inform other their peers about MDGs. During the interactive exercises, the students got to know each other well to further develop the cooperation among them.

Since this period, with the first initiatives of the students and with the support of the United Nations Office in Uzbekistan, the MDGs Youth Network functions as a tool to empower local young people in accelerating the moments of achieving MDGs in Uzbekistan with the help of youth.