African youth want role in AU summits
Jul 19, 2010
AFRICAN youth meeting in Uganda have demanded that their governments institutionalise the youth forum in subsequent ordinary sessions of African heads of state and government.
By Anne Mugisa
AFRICAN youth meeting in Uganda have demanded that their governments institutionalise the youth forum in subsequent ordinary sessions of African heads of state and government.
They also said they want their governments to ratify the African Youth Charter and support meaningful youth participation aimed at establishing national, regional and continental mechanisms to monitor full implementation of the charter.
The youth’s demands were contained in a communiqué issued at the end of their three-day forum which preceded the African Union Summit. The communiqué will be presented to the African heads of state, whose summit starts on July 25.
Over 100 youth from 40 African countries attended the forum which took place at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe. The theme of the forum was “maternal, infant and child health development in Africaâ€.
The conference was closed yesterday by Ambassador James Baba who represented the Vice-President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya.
The forum was intended to give an insight into what the youth in Africa think about the Millennium Development Goals on maternal, infant and child health and mortality.
The participants said they wanted their governments to scale up life skills and reproductive health education.
Bonolo Cebe from South Africa who presented the communiqué said each African country has unique factors that are leading to unwanted pregnancies of young people.
Baba said poverty still remains Africa’s biggest challenge and called on the youth to develop new approaches to fight it.
He noted that the high rate of global change and dwindling resources are rendering traditional paradigms of development ineffective.
He said Uganda has invested in education with emphasis on science subjects and vocational training so that the youth can full participate in economic growth.
He cited Japan, saying by 1911 everybody in Japan was literate and about 10 years ago, the country had 700 universities focusing on vocational training.
“Japan has no resources. The place is mostly rocky and has not much arable land. But they manufacture electronics and have developed,†Baba said
AFRICAN youth meeting in Uganda have demanded that their governments institutionalise the youth forum in subsequent ordinary sessions of African heads of state and government.
They also said they want their governments to ratify the African Youth Charter and support meaningful youth participation aimed at establishing national, regional and continental mechanisms to monitor full implementation of the charter.
The youth’s demands were contained in a communiqué issued at the end of their three-day forum which preceded the African Union Summit. The communiqué will be presented to the African heads of state, whose summit starts on July 25.
Over 100 youth from 40 African countries attended the forum which took place at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe. The theme of the forum was “maternal, infant and child health development in Africaâ€.
The conference was closed yesterday by Ambassador James Baba who represented the Vice-President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya.
The forum was intended to give an insight into what the youth in Africa think about the Millennium Development Goals on maternal, infant and child health and mortality.
The participants said they wanted their governments to scale up life skills and reproductive health education.
Bonolo Cebe from South Africa who presented the communiqué said each African country has unique factors that are leading to unwanted pregnancies of young people.
Baba said poverty still remains Africa’s biggest challenge and called on the youth to develop new approaches to fight it.
He noted that the high rate of global change and dwindling resources are rendering traditional paradigms of development ineffective.
He said Uganda has invested in education with emphasis on science subjects and vocational training so that the youth can full participate in economic growth.
He cited Japan, saying by 1911 everybody in Japan was literate and about 10 years ago, the country had 700 universities focusing on vocational training.
“Japan has no resources. The place is mostly rocky and has not much arable land. But they manufacture electronics and have developed,†Baba said