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Young Africans set the agenda for a future

© Klaus Holsting

A Youth Panel in Addis Ababa told the African Commission steered by the Danish premier minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, that young people in Africa want to be listened to, they want to have access to education and work, to gain political influence and to participate in building up their society and a future.

The Youth Panel was organized by the Danish NGO-Forum. Here are extracts from the statement from the youth panel meeting in the Ethiopian capital.

Youth employment

Youth employment continues to be a challenge facing almost all the African countries. We are calling for policy change to enforce the linkages between the skills supplies and the labour market demands with strategic measures to address pertinent issues of youth employability, employment creation, equity and equality. Given that youth are the largest population group on the continent, attention to their concerns is imperative for the positive direction of the African future.

Women

We acknowledge the central role that women (including young women) play in our families and communities and the fact that they are subjected to gender inequality, violence and cultural malpractices such as FGM e.t.c. We are calling for a serious commitment by our national governments to address such malpractices and discriminating practices against women of Africa.

Education

In Africa, education continues to be a key sector that shapes the future and prosperity of our continent. Education is a basic human right and therefore access to quality education should be mandatory across all levels of education. We are calling for massive improvement in the learning environment such as continuous improvement of the curricula to address African values and good ethics, budgetary allocation and quality teacher training programmes.

Climate change and economic growth

The reality of climate change can no longer be ignored, as its negative impacts to social and economic growth are more obvious now than ever before. We are calling for greater commitment by developed countries to cut down their emissions, partner with developing countries on issues of sustainable alternative sources of energy, and support the adaptation and mitigation processes. The growth of our countries should address the equal sharing of resources (trickle down effect) and ensure sound economic policies and strategies that involve the marginalized majority and minority in development, implementation and evaluation.

Aid effectiveness and partnerships

The development process in Africa should embrace ownership, be people centred, and community driven while allowing a bottom up approach when it comes to decision making. Aid that comes to Africa should be meaningful and aimed at responding to the real challenges facing African people. We are calling for more sound foreign aid that has elements of accountability, transparency and popular participation. Mismanagement and corruption has proved to contribute to the underdevelopment and dependency of Africa. Any terms that inhibit African self-management on social, political and economic interests must be discouraged.