Dabesaki Mack-Ikemenjima
When confronted with a question like this, many ideas run through one’s mind quite naturally. I will try to provide three ‘meanings’ the African Youth Charter should have for youth in Africans.
It should mean change! Change in the ways that youth policy is conducted – from just another government framework meant to ‘tick the box’ in international processes to a clear guide for government actions on youth matters. This is possibly the reason that ‘action plans’ were advocated in the first place, in order to provide time bound targets to aid accountability and monitoring and by which outcomes should be evaluated.
Achieving accountability will be difficult, if as it in many countries, there remains clearly no coordination in the way ‘youth policies’ are implemented. By youth policies, I am referring to not just a coherent framework which outlines youth related political statements, but all government policies related to youth, be it in education, agriculture, justice or sports. Thus, like I highlighted in my previous article, we need better structured coordination of youth policies. This has been attempted in Zambia with education policies (although strictly speaking this was for coordination of donor funds) using the principles derived from the Paris declaration on aid coordination. The departments responsible for youth really do not implement as many programmes necessary to achieve ‘youth empowerment’. As a result, monitoring, evaluation and coordination should be key in their roles. They should be generating data on programme effectiveness so as to provide clear basis for future youth services. So the first key meaning it should have is change in the way government-youth business is done.
Secondly, it should mean better youth involvement in national policies! I use the word involvement rather than participation as it appears that participation in policy circles is rather tokenistic in many cases. What is needed is better involvement of youth through the policy processes. Hart’s 1991 famous ladder of youth participation recommends a situation of shared responsibility between youth and adult in the policy process as one of the ideal cases. This will certainly mean that state institutions need to reform. The barriers to youth involvement at the institutional level need to be revised and youth need better engagements on policies that affect them. One way the youth charter envisages that this puzzle can be solved is to ensure their inclusion in delegations to official meetings. This should happen at sub-national, national, regional and international levels. Involvement also implies that young people take responsibilities for their present and future. They should take better interest in playing citizenship roles and in initiating lawful actions that will enhance their fortunes and those of their countries. This much is recommended by the African youth charter, and is an ideal promoted in many countries through national youth service schemes.
Thirdly, it should mean better investment in youth programmes. By this I mean that better focused allocation of resources needs to be made to the ‘youth sector’ as a whole. To my mind, this will mean better established youth services sector such as programmes to support youth who are abusing or become dependant on drugs, youth who are at risk to a range of ‘problems’ including HIV/AIDS, pregnancy or perhaps dropping out of school. Better focused social protection programmes need to be put in place for youth in relation to health and in the work place. How about the juvenile justice system? There are a whole range of services for youth that need to be better organised and accounted for. Not all countries are at the same level in these issues, but it appears that on the whole, better ‘organising’ needs to be done across the board.
The African youth charter should herald a new epoch. Like the surmounting of colonialism between the 1950’s and 70’s, it should mark a new era in Africa. It’s possible, it’s doable, government’s just need to show sufficient political will and get to work.
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Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima is an avid supporter of the youth movement, having played roles in national, regional and international processes relating to the sector. He was formerly a school teacher, policy analyst and consultant at various institutions, his main interests being: HIV/AIDS, adolescent health and post conflict youth policy. His country specific experience includes: Sierra Leone, Zambia and Nigeria.
