Tim O’Connor talks about the success of the Kony 2012 campaign but warns it must yield results or risk making Gen Y disillusioned.

For better or for worse, the Kony 2012 campaign represents the future of social activism.

The video that went viral with over 150 million hits has been alternately praised and slammed. Championed for highlighting the issues of child enslavement in conflicts and criticised for oversimplified and outdated information, Tim O’Connor from UNICEF Australia tells 3Q that aid agencies must learn how to engage the next generation.

O’Connor, who has worked with victims of Kony, says ousting him is merely the beginning with the most important work needed to assimilate children back into their communities.

But the Kony campaign doesn’t touch on the major child soldier recruitment going on in other regions closer to Australia. There are more than 250,000 child soldiers fighting in 20 conflicts around the world with several conflicts in South East Asia.
What do you think? Was Kony2012 a good thing or a bad thing overall? And should Australia be focused more on this issue in it’s own backyard?

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Tim talks about his work on the Thai-Burmese border with child soldiers who are either recruited to join militias at the age of 13 to fight the Burmese military or are conscripted by the Burmese military themselves.

Social media experts estimate that Kony 2012, is both the most popular and the fastest growing ad for a brand, cause or political campaign to ever hit the web.

Learn about Invisible Children spent years mobilising on the ground before the viral campaign

Check out five lessons aid agencies can take from Kony 2012 to promote their own cause

UNICEF is involved in demobilizing, disarming and reintegrating child soldiers back into their communities. Not an easy job when the children carry physical and emotional scars – some girls bring children borne as the result of rape and few have the skills to attain employment. Communities can also ostracise returning children. People outside the transit centres, including other children, often fear the former child soldiers or resent the special support they are given.

Cate Wood explains why super should be part of maternity leave payments if we are to correct inequities in the system.

It’s been called a national disgrace by the ACTU. At the moment, over 60 per cent of women will be reliant on the pension because they do not have enough super to retire on.

The national chair of Women in Super, Cate Wood, tells 3Q that some good changes are in the wings but more needs to be done — including paying superannuation during maternity and leave-without-pay periods.

Women do badly out of superannuation. After 20 years of compulsory superannuation, women have much less in their superannuation funds than men.

According to the latest figures from the ABS the average payout for women at age 65 is $112,000 whereas for men of the same age, it is $190,000.

The reasons? More part time and casual work in lower paid jobs, time away from work for family commitments and a wage gap of up to 20 per cent between men and women.
Do you think it’s time to change the way super works for women? Read below and find out what we can change to make sure Super works for everyone.

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It’s estimated that six years out of the workforce can cost the average woman $77,000 in super—something that could be significantly reduced if women continued to receive Super payments whilst on paid and unpaid maternity and parental leave.
Just over 70 per cent of all single pensioners are female. Divorce or death of a partner plus a disengagement with super has left women nearly destitute.

But there is some help on the horizon. The mining tax will help lift compulsory super from 9 per cent to 12 per cent from July 1 next year until 2019-20.
And from 1 July, the Government will be assisting low income earners by ensuring no tax is paid on the superannuation contributions for Australians earning up to $37,000 – instead, that money will be directed into their superannuation.
Sixty per cent of the beneficiaries of this policy are women
There is also a new movement towards getting young women engaged through super funds like Care Super which has 60% women in its membership and is appealing to the youth market, by using former swimmer Giaan Rooney as their ambassador.

EMC director Peter Lewis looks at the great Australian sickie.