The year 2006 has been monumental for African young people, for the fist time in its history has the African union convened a platform for National Youth Councils and Equivalents Structures (NYCES’s) with the view to include them in the process of the drafting of a Pan African protocol, most significantly the adoption of the African Youth Charter by the Assembly of Heads of State
And Goverment gave to young people a sense of achievement and regard for their interest by the leadership of the continent. This milestone follows on the heals of both the New Partnership for Africans Development specifically its Strategic framework for Youth and the Pan African Youth charter and are drown from the following principles and expectations(AU,2006).
Policy should take into account of the changing needs of new generations, does not assume knowledge about the needs of youth.
Youth development needs to be holistic and integrated, recognizing the different needs of young men and women – New trends in international and national human development recognize the need that development should be suited to the specific needs of its intended target.
Youth development is the responsibility of governments. African Government’s policies and interventions should seek to involve young people and have a genuine consideration of their needs to enhance policy and service delivery at all levels.
Young people's participation in African society, institutions and policy making is necessary and important and constitutes a real and significant center for the continents future development.
It acknowledges that African youths are not a homogenous group and that youth policy should acknowledge their diversity, and reinforce the need for unity amongst young themselves.
We should recognize that the above are constructs, influenced by amongst other the Braga Youth Action Plan of the World Youth Forum (1998), Dakar Youth Empowerment Strategy (2001) and the World Program of Action for Youth (1996) and is informed by the outcomes of the African Youth Forum (2005), African Union Youth forum 2006 and the World Youth Report of 2005.
It is important to understand the current focus on young people and their genuine empowerment cannot be tokenistic or temporary .The fact that young people make up 30% (African Union,2006) of the continents general population and constitutes the fastest growing segment thereof is a signifying indicator, emphasizing that politicians have to pay more attention to the needs of youth not only because they constitute a significant voting bloc but also to emphasize that government planning needs to take into consideration shifting demographics. Consider the following for such a justification. consider that while Africa has the worlds fastest rates of urbanization, such urbanization unlike in Europe or South east Asia is not driven by the creation of jobs but by hordes of youths fleeing rural poverty, war and a general lack of opportunities(AU,2003). In the last two years Africa has shown in some countries economic development growth rates of upto to 6.4 %, however much of the growth in African economies has been without the creation of new jobs (Commission for Africa,2005).Unemployment in some of Africa’s emerging liberal economies such as Namibia, Botswana, Uganda and even in one of the giants of the developing world South Africa all still hover around 30%. Africans remain pervasively poor with 50% of the population living on less than $1 a day(UN hahitat,2003) The African is characterized by their relative under par levels of educational attainment and poor health (commission for Africa,2005). In the 1970’s, 1980’s and most of the 1990’s, African economies where characterized by low levels of investment in heath care, primarily because of shrinking/stagnant economies (with high levels of inflation) and pervasive conflict (Commission for Africa, 2005), consider then that this was during this time that Africa was hit by the spread f the HIV/AIDS virus and consider further that the continent was grappling with the crisis of malaria, polio, maternal and infant mortality. Again the brunt of burden fell on the shoulder o the continents increasingly youthful population.
The last decade or so has presented Africa with numerous new challenges including Universal access to tertiary education, access to information and communications technology and new phenomena such as intergenerational relations (World Youth Report, 2005). It is however expected that Africa’s share of the worlds most a marginalized youth will rise from the current 19% to 26% in the next generation (African Union, 2006). Thus the fast tracking of Africa’s future development based on an outlook sensitive to young peoples need is justified.
To that end young people are challenged to provide leadership and take this new policy framework and create for themselves tangible benefits, this challenge in particular is more profound for young women. It is important to be mindful that even though Africa’s young people constitute a significant segment of the marginalized on the continent, that the situation and future outlook for young woman is even bleaker. Consider for example that in 2002 Africa recorded the highest infant mortality rate (86/1000) In the world and further that African women have the highest rates of fecundity (AU, 2006), the emotional and psychological burden this creates for young women. Likewise maternal mortality in Africa stands at 1/16 (AU/UNFPA, 2003),
By 2004 no country in SADC had achieved its target of achieving 30% gender representations in National parliaments, in fact some had lost ground in achieving that target (Namibian, 2005). By 2006 Africa has had only one female elected to the presidency of an Afrcan state, while by this time it had some 5 young men under 35 having attained the presidency. The leadership of most youth and other structures reflect the same culture. Clearly it is evident that young women as a social force are neglected and marginalized.
Aside from providing a genuine political framework for young women the further challenge of actual participation exist. Whether organic or by design the evident lack of women in the leadership of African Youth Institutions has to be questioned and addressed. Using the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Platform for Action (1995) , The African Youth Charter (2006), The African Charter on the Rights of Woman, (2003) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)specifically goals 2-6 as a springboard for this praxis.
It stands then to reason that the key and often neglected processes that allows for the genuine empowerment of young women, are their involvement in both the conceptual and implementation processes of Africa’s development and their deliberate inclusion in all such mechanism, the empowerment of Africa’s youth is needs a multi-pronged, multifaceted approach and it needs at al times to consider the precious situation for woman
It follows that in the history of such initiates such as the charter on Youth, that woman are only involved in the end stages. It follows also that women particularly young women are seldom involved at decision making and strategy development stages but are often called upon to rally behind as foot soldiers of such mechanism. This platform strives to empower young women by exposing them to the gender challenges, creating a platform where they develop strategies and mechanism for action so that participants are then able to lead and implement the outcomes of this forum. The idea is that Participants should be exposed to the charter as early as possible so that they are able to organize themselves into an action platform. This will lead to a concurrent reaping of benefits for both the continents young men and women.
When we plan and implement policy, we should strive to do so in a deliberate and conscious gender sensitive setting. As we plan the ratification and implementation of the Youth charter we should remain mindful of the important role of young women.
