Speaking at the APRM’s first Youth Network Workshop held on the 4th of August 2019 in Johannesburg, Prudence Ngwenya outlined the African Union Commission’s plans to sustainable empower Africa’s young people.
The African Union Commission’s Youth division has overseen the drafting , finalisation and ratifiction of several youth-focused policies which are intended to guide member countries in executing Agenda 2063.
The over-arching policy that serves as a guideline for the continent’s youth activities is the African Youth Charter. Every other policy for youth by the AUC and/or its various organs speaks to the contents of the charter.
According to Ngwenya, the most important thing is for various organisations to find ways of translating the Youth Charter into their frameworks so there is unity of purpose and guidelines.
Some of the policies that the AUC has come up with include:
- The African Youth Charter – https://au.int/en/treaties/african-youth-charter
- Decade Plan of Action (2009 – 2018) – https://www.un.org/en/africa/osaa/pdf/au/african_youth_decade_2009-2018.pdf
- African Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment – APAYE
- Aspiration 6 of the Agenda 2063
- Malabo decision for Youth Development (2011)
Ngwenya challenged the delegates to use the available instruments to mainstream the youth agenda into their organisational activities and strategies.
To meaningfully contribute the success of empowering African youths, organisations like APRM and NGOs should come up with ways to encourage youth-led accountability.
Young people should take charge in making sure that member-countries adhere to the African Youth Charter. Every young person in Africa should know the African CHarter and be able to recognise areas that are doing well and those that need attention.
The mandate of the AU Youth Division is:
- Advocacy
- Brokerage
- Catalyzing action at country level
- Demonstrating best practices from various African countries
- Engaging for collective impact. A partnership and mutual accountability framework to facilitate collaboration for results and coordination of activities or investments by the diverse stakeholders involved in youth empowerment ecosystem on the continent.
To better serve the continent, AUC has compressed all it does into 4 Es and an H:
- Employment
- Entrepreneurship
- Education
- Engagement
- Health
Given the statistics of African youths being the fastest growing group in the global ecosytem, we hope all these whitepapers and ideas will translate into real gains for African children.
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