African youths need to make their voices heard

Africa, with a youth population that is reportedly greater than that of any other part of the world, has a unique advantage and opportunity to mine and harness the potential and spirit of its young people. But there are significant threats facing them.

Given this paradox confronting the emancipation, growth and integration of the continent, significant policy evaluation and redirection is needed more critically than ever before.

Enforced and guided by the vision, hopes and aspirations of the African Union to encompass the integration, rights and dignity of the youth, the AU’s Youth Charter speaks to the values and virtues of the African historical tradition. Harnessing the demographic youth dividend bears the answers and critical solutions to a youth who are confronted with misaligned and misdirected opportunity.

The United Nations World Programme of Action for Youth stipulates key areas of intervention for the youth and reaffirms that the youth are partners, assets and an essential component for Africa’s sustainable development, peace and prosperity.

For African nations to fully encompass their demographic dividend — as per the recommendations of the African Economic Platform Report — the continent needs a holistic strategy to invest in its youth with vested prospects for employability and job creation through sustainable innovation principles, technology and entrepreneurship.

One of the core problems is that African countries, unlike others in the 1980s, did not take an organic and strategic shift in business, economic growth and participation. As a result, African youth remain confronted by issues of poor education, lack of agency, lack of consultation in decision-making, drug abuse, poor intergenerational dialogue, environmental change and juvenile delinquency.

These issues present a need to construct capacity in addressing such threats and for the continent to produce a skilled youth human-resource base. Africa needs to address the inconsistent dialogue between governments, the private sector and civil society as a starting point to address these pressures.

Rising unemployment is a real issue in an unstable African economic landscape that adversely affects the youth and contributes significantly to a backward shift in the continent’s ability to realise prescribed socioeconomic imperatives and objectives. The youth of the continent need support structures to unleash their potential — an issue that needs to be tackled head-on across academia, governments and other institutions.

Articles 10 and 11 of the AU Youth Charter speak to every young person having the right to social, economic, political and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity in equal enjoyment of the common heritage.

These charter declarations only scratch the surface of what urgently needs to be done. Bearing in mind some of these recommendations, youth across the continent need to champion youth policy at state and community level.

A consistent conversation from government level that speaks to the youth and not at youth needs to assure the youth of their responsibility to hold governments accountable for the implementation of a comprehensive and coherent national level youth policy.

Governments in Africa consistently fail the youth by not recognising them as partners and youth fail in their mandate by not strengthening and cementing their position on issues of policy and sustainable development.

With the development of youth policy to target the threats facing them, the inclusion of minority youth groups is critical for the realisation of a shared benefit. These include groups representing those in the diaspora; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community, and those affected and infected by HIV.

It is also vital to transform the education sector, forge intergenerational dialogue, upgrade and implement information communication technology skills training, devote more resources to the needs of girls and young women, promote safe sexual and reproductive rights and tackle child-headed households.

The youth of the continent need support structures to unleash their potential