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MBABANE - August 12 is the International Youth Day. This is a day dedicated to youth to celebrate them and to reflect on the plethora of challenges young people are facing today, in Eswatini and around the world.
Celebrated for the first time in 2000, the International Youth Day was designated by the United Nations as a way to promote better awareness of the World Programme of Action for Youth, a policy framework and practical guidelines for national action and international support to improve the situation of young people around the world.
This year, the International Youth Day theme is ‘Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages’. It sends the message that sustainable development is only possible with action, participation and solidarity across society and generations. No one should be left behind, neither the young, nor the aged.
Challenge
Young people across the world face multiple challenges: From global issues like climate change, environmental degradation, migration and threats to peace and security, to personal challenges related to lack of quality education, employment opportunities, political participation, issues with physical and mental health, and wellbeing.
We leave our youth a more contested, interconnected, globalised and complex world, and they need fair access to resources, socio-economic and political empowerment to be able to meet these multiple challenges.
Here in Eswatini, the Eswatini National Youth Policy of 2020 lists challenges faced by young people in the country as unemployment and poverty, teenage pregnancy, HIV/ AIDS, gender-based violence, poor access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, and low secondary and high school transition rates.
The pandemic and civil unrest have exacerbated these challenges. In such circumstances, it is hard to reach one’s potential, to realise one’s talents and thrive – for the benefit of all. Hence, we owe our youth support. In the European Union (EU), we have declared 2022 as the European Year of Youth.
Dedicating
We are dedicating this year to the vision, agency, engagement and participation of all young people in order to build a better future that is greener, sustainable, more inclusive and digital, for a better, safer and peaceful world. During the European Year of Youth, in Europe we are listening to our young people’s voices with the objective to co-create with them more and better opportunities to study and work. We wish to see the same in our partner countries such as Eswatini.
We are committed to helping young people and women in Eswatini with skills and jobs which will empower them to build better lives for themselves. Better lives for youth equals a better future for the country.
The EU Delegation to Eswatini marked the European Year of Youth by joining forces with Bushfire, the internationally acclaimed music festival, to bring learners to the EU Bushfire Schools Festival held on May 26, 2022. The event celebrated youth creativity around the issues of climate
MBABANE - Between 2010 and 2015, the European Union (EU), through the ‘Support to Education and Training Programme’ (SET), contributed E158 million towards free primary education (FPE) in Eswatini, helping the country’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal 4 ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’.
The SET programme has assisted over 163 000 children and helped the country achieve a 97 per cent enrolment rate at primary school level. The EU has also assisted with the review of the schools’ curriculum to make it competence-based and thus to improve quality of the education and training systems.
The challenge is to ensure transition to affordable high school education, make education relevant to the needs of the labour market and ensure the employability of youth. We are proud with our support to the education sector, as we believe in the transformational role of education, which is also the most powerful equaliser in society, if accessible and of high quality.
Summit
This year, the United Nations (UN) is organising a Transforming Education Summit at the UN General change and nature conservation. We were happy to join more than 600 learners from high schools across Eswatini, exploring their artistic talents, expressing themselves in the many languages of art and determined to pursue their dreams. It was a day of joy and an opportunity to engage with youth. Over the last two years the EU in Eswatini has been supporting young people in Eswatini to reshape their future through the project ‘Women and Youth Drivers of Change’ in 10 communities within the Lubombo and Shiselweni regions.
Implemented by COSPE Eswatini and with the assistance of partner organisations such as Kwakha Indvodza, Luvatsi, Gcama Mfati and Swaziland Community Multi-Media Network (SCMN), the project brought together women and youth in communities with the aim of working together to create better livelihoods for themselves as well as engage within their communities.
Competed
Women and youth, as both individuals and groups, competed with business ideas for seed grants to develop small and micro businesses, they learned how to peacefully express their concerns in terms of access to land, inclusion on decision making in their communities at tinkhundla level, became better aware of human rights issues that the women and youth face.
This has in turn garnered relationship-building within communities and with the community leaders, fostering more solidarity and inclusion, and a dialogue between generations to make their communities stronger and more prosperous. This project is one recent example demonstrating the EU’s commitment to supporting young people in Eswatini, together with other development partners and local civil society and NGOs.