Promoting Regional Collaboration for Youth Empowerment and the

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Recently, UN-Habitat and the Commonwealth hosted a high-level youth consultative conference attended by over 60 participants from 12 African countries. The conference is the first in a series of discussions slated to be held in the whole Africa region with the intention of designing process and developing strategies which will promote regional collaboration for youth empowerment and particularly the One Stop Youth Center Model across Africa through the engagement of the Regional Economic Forums.

The conference drew participants from Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the Southern City of Livingstone, Zambia. The youth and representatives of Governments, United Nations Agencies, Regional Economic Forums, and international organizations shared best practices and lessons leant on the development and management of Youth Resource Centers to support youth empowerment in Africa.

The conference was opened by Dr. Hamid el- Bashir the UNICEF Country Representative, and the United Nations Resident Representative, Zambia. Also in attendance were Mr. Mathias Spaliviero representing UN-Habitat, Mr. Victor Mensah representing Commonwealth, Ms. Perpetua Miganda, the Principal Gender and Community Development Officer, East Africa Community (EAC) Mr. Timothy Gakuu, Director of Youth Affairs, Kenya and Mr. Nuhu Bulu Zoaka, Director of Youth, Nigeria Federal Ministry of Youth Affairs and Mr John Suzyo Banda, representing International Labour Organization.

Dr. Hamid el-Bashir, thanked UN-Habitat and Commonwealth for organizing the conference. Mr. Hamid highlighted some the initiatives being undertaken by the United Nations in Zambia under the Delivering as One initiative which includes youth empowerment programmes to address the many challenges faced by young people. He called on the participants to share their experiences and draw up possible synergies towards developing a framework for empowering young people across Africa. Dr. Hamid further called on youth to lead the development process with fresh ideas and not just be beneficiaries of programmes. He suggested to the participants to integrate the following concepts in the framework for Youth Empowerment for Africa;

Youth Programmes and centers must be inclusive

Youth programmes must be multidimensional

Develop programmes that should address the concerns of youth with disabilities who represent about 10% of the population

Programmes that address issues of education and youth employability.

Education needs to be oriented to employment.

Youth Programmes should consider innovations

Emphasis shuld be placed on documentation of good practices and successful programmes other than reinventing the wheel.

Strengthening partnerships across all the United Nations agencies through United Nations Development FrameworksStrengthen partnerships with the private sector and Corporate Social Responsibly towards community and youth.

Prevent violence against youth and vulnerability of youth

On his part Mr. Mathias Spaliviero explained that UN-Habitat is a global agency whose focus is to have Sustainable cities in all countries including Africa. He noted that Africa is confronted with two factors that are evolving according to two parallel trends “youth and urbanization” which are all growing at increasing rate with young people increasingly concentrated mainly in cities and towns. We need to transform this reality into opportunity by promoting sustainable urbanization, employment and correlated social youth integration. In UN-Habitat we are convinced that youth interventions and formation of key partnerships with regional Economic Forums offer the best construct for understanding and producing lasting change to benefit young people. In addition to its policy advisory work, UN-Habitat has been implementing pilot projects in East Africa which included the One Stop Youth Centers Model, he said.

He further explained that the Model is based on the principal of providing youth with spaces in urban centers which belongs to them in which they can start to organize themselves, access information that is relevant to them and receive training in entrepreneurship and mentorship. Good example of the Model is found in Rwanda where the centers are being established in all districts in the country.

In her address, Ms. Perpetua Miganda, said the EAC Treaty provides for a people centered and social development approach to encourage the participation of a wide number of stakeholders in EAC activities. To address issues of education, healthcare, skills development and training, EAC Council of Ministers has adopted a number of policies including the Youth Policy. However “it is time to move from policies to action. We need to address the issues we are talking about in the policies like the lack of youth access to employment, affordable healthcare, education, housing and youth vulnerability to political manipulation. The strategy to put in place One Stop Youth Centers to address these issues in the Africa is therefore very much welcomed by the EAC” stated Ms. Perpetua Mi Miganda.

In his closing remarks, Hon. Chishimba Kambwili, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Zambia stated that the youth bulge witnessed globally, presents an opportunity for countries to review their social and economic status. He expressed his Government’s commitment to harness this large population of young people through human capital development and skills development to enable them contribute to the productivity of the nation. The Youth Ministry strategically looks at young people as assets and seeks to fully integrate them in the national development programmes. The Ministry is currently undertaking, the youth employment and empowerment strategies, that seeks to provide a framework for informed and effective support system in the design, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes that will promote productive and job rich growth for the Zambian youth” Mr. Chishimba Kambwili concluded.

Most Speakers at the conference including Mr. Victor Mensah, Commonwealth, Mr. Gakuu, Director of Youth Affairs, Kenya and Mr. Zoaka, Director of Youth, Nigeria Federal Ministry of Youth Affairs and the UN-Habitat Youth Advisory Board, all emphasized the need to set up proper Youth Resource Centers that provide good training programmes and support meaningful youth empowerment in Africa.

Other participants included representatives of National Youth Councils, Federal Ministry of Youth Affairs, Nigeria, Ministry of Youth Zambia, Directorate of Youth Affairs Kenya, Plan International, DEAF Aid, Action Aid, Water Aid, International Ecological Safety Collaborative Organization, International Labour organization, TEENS Uganda, KiBO Foundation, Africa Youth Trust, East Africa Social Enterprise Network, Interchurch organization for development cooperation, Youth Alive, Zambia.

The meeting ended with a declaration read during the closing ceremony. The declaration calls on African Heads of State and Government and Regional bodies to set up and support the establishment of One Stop Youth Centre’s (OSYCs) as hubs for youth development and empowerment.