My participation at the 3rd Pan African Youth Leadership Summit by Gabriel Adeyemo

The ExeD of UNAIDS delivered a powerful communication that was well received by the assembled youth leaders!

His statement emphasized innovative ways for ensuring that young people become a positive force for change. He said the African continent must invest in education and job training, particularly in a new economy based on ICT. The EXD stressed it was important to implement social protection networks to reduce the insecurity of young people. He called for a new social movement with greater participation from young people on the debate about socio-economic growth, development and social justice.”We are doing a World Commission from here,which will have a youth component,in order to reflect on the actions to be undertaken leading to the end of the epidemic in the Continent”, added the Executive Director.

Later in the day, hundreds of youth leaders exchanged innovative ideas and best practices during two panel discussion: 1) How young people can contribute to a post-2015 development agenda and reach the UNAIDS vision of Getting to zero,within the framework of follow up to the CrowdOutAIDS initiative; and 2) How sport and culture can be harnessed to mobilize youth for the MDGs.
The symbolic passing of the torch between a young Moroccan whose country hosted the second Pan African Youth Leadership Summit and a youth leader from Burkina Faso was one of the highlights of the day!(the event is featured in the UNAIDS web site).
The Executive Director invited a delegation of youth leaders to join him for a meeting he had with President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso.
The day-long programme wrapped up with the screening of feature films in the framework of the mini-FESPACO film festival.
Day 2 featured thematic sessions on capacity building and strategic partnerships with youth leaders, in the framework of peace building and the post-2015 development agenda; good practises and platforms such as those launched by an organization called Futur Answerz were well received by the youth delegates; promotion of job creation for young people; and the incidence of armed conflicts in the spread of HIV/AIDS in conflict-proned zones.

In the debate that followed the sessions, the youth leaders called for strengthening their networks and hold policy makers accountable for future progress on AIDS. They expressed a keen interest to forge a strong network of young leaders to take ownership of the AIDS response.

Day 3 featured the Youth Ministers from Cote D-Ivoire and Burkina Faso and other international stakeholders. The final declaration and outcome of the 3rd Pan African Youth Leadership Summit was presented to them respectively as they pledge of making sure other youth minister get to work and act on it when they shall be presenting it at the African Wide Conference of Youth Ministers, April 2013. Dr. Djibril from UNAIDS HQ spoke on behalf of all young people in lobbying these Ministers not to see the document as another sheet/outcome in their archives of declaration but to making sure that “actions are being taken on every single elements projected in it”.

Visit the link below to view the declaration.

The 4th Pan-African Youth Leadership Summit will be held in around November or December 2013 in Dakar, Senegal.