Enhancing Effective participation of Youth in Africa
As Africa continues to lag behind the Millenium Development Goals, it becomes critical that we re-examine the role that the youth on the continent have played in the last three decades or more, and acknowledge that their contribution has not been supported with strategic policies and interventions.
“Youth service could make a great contribution through changing a culture of confrontation between social actors and thestate and replacing it with a culture of participation in national development”. Vicente Espinoza
As Africa continues to lag behind the Millenium Development Goals,
it becomes critical that we re-examine the role that the youth on the
continent have played in the last three decades or more, and
acknowledge that their contribution has not been supported with
strategic policies and interventions. As such, the young people are
faced with a persistent dilemma as they have been manipulated and
instrumentalised to be agents of extreme violence and conflicts.
Arguably, their positive contribution to development could be augmented
through national youth service programmes. It could help the youth on
the African continent gain a greater sense of responsibility and power,
and may address the increasing challenge of their long standing
marginalisation in decision making, governance, peace and development.
After decades of the challenges relating to youth developmemt in
sub-Saharan Africa, the tide has began to turn, with a growing
recognition that youth can meaningfully contribute to national and
regional development. At the global level, more than ten years have
passed since the adoption of the World Programme of Action on the
Youth, which emphasises that ‘every State should provide its young
people with opportunities for obtaining education, for acquiring skills
and for participating fully in all aspects of society, with a view,
inter alia, of acquiring productive employment and leading to
self-sufficient lives’. Much, however, remains to be done to translate
this goal into reality.
On the African continent, 2008 was the Year of African Youth, yet
the African Youth Charter, adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State
and Government of the African Union in July 2006, has still only been
ratified by 13 countries – needing two more ratifications before it can
enter into force. In January 2009, the Assembly declared the years
2009-2019 as the decade of youth development in Africa. Among the
priority issues identified for action are: education, employment, safe
spaces for recreation and leisure, participation in policy-making
processes at national, regional and continental levels, and health
issues.
Despite the existing enabling frameworks at continental and
regional levels, and in as much as youth participation in
decision-making is crucial to both policy making and youth development,
national governments have not been very effective in honouring their
commitments and obligations in helping the youth realise their full
potential as actors in governance and development agendas. National
development policies do not concern themselves much with youth, and
policies that do exist for young people tend to be fragmented and
isolated from core national eradication plans. Further, intense and
acute povertypresents chronic challenges, and the second reason - our
perception - remains one which has done more harm than good in
attracting youth participation in the governance and development
debate.
Our society’s perception of youth development and empowerment is
based on a somewhat tokenistic approach to addressing youth and their
experiences, and refusing to recognise the intrinsic worth and value of
young people. For too long, vision of youth development at national
levels has been narrowly bounded by role differentiation established by
adults, resulting in an adhoc engagement with the youth. In this
regard, the opportunities that are available to enable young people
develop skills and to use them productively, are not optimally
utilised. In many instances, such opportunities that could be availed
to the youth are squandered and sometimes hoarded by the adult
leadership, whose affinity to clinging onto executive offices are well
known on the continent. One does not have to look so far out to realise
that succession debates at various levels of political, economic and
socio-cultural interactions on the continent are not always publicly
known, resulting in further marginalisation and disengagement of youth
from the very system that is supposed to protect and nurture them.
Thus, there must be deliberate investment by African governments in
some of the positive factors that the youth exhibit, as well as attempt
to reduce the negative factors that deter youth partipation in
decision making. One such approach is to engage youth in national
service programmes which could animate new forms of citizenship and
political participation, strengthen democratic values and practices,
and provide pathways for the integration of youth in the development
agenda. But can national service programmes overcome the political and
economic challenges and provide the experience of collective work and
collective productivity? They do, in the sense that this engagement
goes beyond the level of manipulation and token as one spectrum of
youth participation and instead advocates for desirable youth-designed
and implemented programmatic responses.
It is therefore imperative that national governments target
programmes that build social capital. While this may only be seen as an
incremental approach to building confidence of the youth and sustaining
their interest in engaging in national issues, its gradual positive
effects of social capital will be seen in spheres such as neighborhood
vitality and neighborhood safety, a high turn-out in elections and large
numbers of nonprofit organisations that address rights of youth. Could
this possibly lead to democracy, raise levels of economic development,
heighten tolerance of difference and improve government performance?
It certainly may not be a magic wand that one would expect but the
gradual impact of such investment should be seized with determinism,
with a view of addressing chronic challenges that relate to
operationalising existing national youth programmes in a fragmented
manner.
Such national youth services programmes, characterised by an ethos
of repaying the state through service for a benefit provided by the
state such as higher education, should be pursued because they are
perhaps the most deliberate effort to stimulate development.
Arguably, there are three different ways in which youth can be
involved in service, but each strategy has different consequences.
First, service for the development of youth, for example through
education, could delay the attainment of autonomy and does not
necessarily contribute to the integration of young people into society.
Secondly, military and similar forms of service could be ways of
forming national capital and helping young people develop certain
skills, but they always pose serious problems in reintegrating young
people into civil society. Lastly, a more appropriate intervention is
service through the participation of young people which helps to form
human and social capital, encourages autonomy and self-esteem and
supports the development of intergenerational relationships. It also
helps build bridges between communities.
Beyond the foregoing policy reorientation, one may wonder whether
national African governments will seize the opportunity to address the
situational chronic apathy of youth engagement in national development
agenda. It will involve going back to the basics, going back to the
community to harness the social capital that exists in the youth. It is
safe to assume that this approach can enhance the realisation and
intent of the many regional and international declarations and
instruments that promote the rights of youth. I would also call for the
scaling down of expectations that have arisen from existing ambitious
government programmes and instead propose for a deliberate focus on
action plans of national youth service programmes that will help to
achieve the broad objectives of national development.
Although the size of the youth population presents huge challenges
for national African governments, the opportunity to reap a dividend
from the sheer numbers cannot be overlooked. It calls for the African
leadership to seize the opportunity to reorient their youth development
programmes towards a more practical approach of national youth
service, and provide a greater sense of responsibility and pride, which
will arguably lead to effective and sustained engagement of youth in
the development agenda of the continent.
Sandra Oder, Training for Peace Programme, ISS Pretoria
