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African governments urged to accelerate youth development
Francis Rwodzi
April 13, 2011

Participants to the high level consultations which included partners, government representatives, experts, parliamentarians and UN agencies, Pan African Youth Union and some national youth councils that were hosted by the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa Ethiopia urged African Union Leaders to expedite the ratification and implementation of the African Youth Charter (AYC).

The high level meeting that was held on the sidelines of the African Youth Forum last week also called upon AU leaders to endorse, mobilize and allocate resources for the acceleration of the medium-term priorities for the plan of action for the African youth decade and also to enact age-specific standards and/or quotas for young people to be elected to parliaments and appointed in government positions.

There was also a strong consensus on building resource base for implementation of youth programs and the enactment of laws that would promote both private and public companies consistently undertake in internship programs that would enable them to develop their life skills.

The AU Commission was urged to collaborate with governments, NGOs and development partners for the effective implementation of the African Youth Charter and to coordinate the effort of all State parties in the implementation of the AYC through standardized tools, indicators and mechanisms for mainstreaming youth issues in monitoring progress towards development targets.

There were also strong recommendations for the African Peer Review Mechanism and the NEPAD program to include the African Youth Charter as an instrument for monitoring and reporting and evolve strategies for strengthening public private partnerships in stimulating domestic resources for implementing youth development programs.

Delegates here called on the Pan African Youth Union to assist in strengthening the existing national youth councils and to promote the collaboration and unity of all youth organisations.

UN and other funding agencies were encouraged to provide technical and financial support to the AU Commission, governments, NGO's and strengthen capacity building for the Commission, youth organisations and government ministries and to allocate specific resources that are directed at youth development issues at country level.

The Civil Society was also urged to advocate for the ratification and implementation of the youth charter, strengthen youth led organisations and to harmonize and integrate programs of the Pan African Youth Union, national youth councils and youth led organisations in their activities both at continental and national level.

In a joint statement the high level delegates said, "We reaffirm our commitment to the effective implementation of the African Youth Charter, International year of youth, decade of youth development and its plan of action and the decision of the Assembly to devote the July 2011 summit on 'Accelerating youth empowerment for sustainable development.

"We reiterate that youth aged 15-35 constitute the majority of the African population and they are the key driving force for Africa's sustainable development and that African Youth still face a lot of challenges including education and skills development, sustainable livelihoods and youth unemployment, vulnerability and inadequate participation in decision making processes," said the delegates.

They also acknowledged the desire of African youth within and outside the continent to be directly engaged in designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms of youth-related projects and programs implemented by various stakeholders and to break the cycle of underdevelopment in Africa.

The participants committed themselves to attaining the objectives of the African Youth Charter, the 10 year Action Plan and the Medium Term priority actions, strengthening partnerships for accelerating youth empowerment for sustainable development and promoting youth participation in all processes for attaining the objectives of the African Youth Charter, International Year of Youth and Decade of youth development.

The high level meeting was preceded by the African Youth Forum which discussed the overall status of youth in Africa, creating opportunities for new generation leadership and development in Africa and the impact of youth empowerment on socio-economic, political growth and sustainability and the future of African Investors.

The forum also discussed North-South and South-South Cooperation, African Union's response to youth development and empowerment process.

Youth development has inevitably become top priority for most African governments to take issues affecting young people seriously especially after youth led revolutions that are sweeping the North Africa with Libya being the latest victim in that part of the continent which has already claimed presidents of Egypt and Tunisia.

Now that Swaziland's King Mswati is under siege, panic stricken governments in Southern Africa are beginning to look in the mirror as the African continent steps up efforts to get rid of outposts of tyranny created by power hungry dictators who have been running their governments with iron fists and ignoring issues affecting young people.

Francis Rwodzi is a journalist based in Harare and the Editor of The New Age Voices

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