the fourth panafrican summit of youth leaders of the united nations (afriyan-january 2014)

8/13/2019 The Fourth PanAfrican Summit of Youth Leaders of the United Nations (AfriYAN-January 2014)

1/17

The 4th

PAN-AFRICAN SUMMIT

OF YOUTH LEADERS OF

THE UNITED NATIONS

13 January to 17 January 2014 Report presented

By: Felix Haingura (President of AfriYAN Namibia) &

Tikhala Itaye (Vice-President of AfriYAN Namibia)


2/17


3/17

The Opening Ceremony

The welcome and the introduction to the

Summit were presented by the Mr Pap

Moussa Sow, President of ROJALNU,Mr Aliou Sow, President of the

Senegalesse Youth Council, Mr Alioune

Gueye and Ms Angela Guimarses, Vice-

Secretary-General of the Brazillian

National Youth Council. The

presentations were quite profound with

moving statements. It was highlighted that the theme of the Summit Youth Unemployment is

depicted as a time bomb we should try diffuse.

The challenges to this issue is that schools in most African countries do not prepare the Youth

for productive jobs and that measures are not being adopted that will be suitable for the working

world. Bad governance is another problem we are faced with for it hinders the growth of

economic sustainability. African Youth need to take up their full potential to reduce Youth

unemployment. Private enterprises, agricultural sectors, non-governmental organisations,

government, all sectors need to collaborate in the development of our countries, for change to

happen, we must all work together. Furthermore, we need to focus on social mobilization, Youth

participation and the Youth need to develop initiatives that are innovative. Mr Alioune Gueye

boldly stated that, Africa should be built with and for Youth.

It was mentioned that in Brazil the Youth call on the governments to support them. The 2002

conference in Indonesia where Ministers of Youth got together and placed the Youth on their

agenda is a step forward and the governments need to support the Youth and make them a

priority.

Statements by officials on issues of African Developmentwere made by Dr. Mamadou Daillo,

Regional support team UNAIDS for East and Central Africa, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin,

Executive Director of UNFPA and Mr Cheickh Hadjibou Soumare, President of the West

African economic and Monetary Union Commission. It was highlighted that the Youth should be


4/17

the spear heads of transformation. Social ill justice is playing a barrier to progression and we are

calling for social cohesion. Countries need to invest in research and technology as well so that

they may emerge higher than constantly depending on donor money. In Kenya, the Youth are the

pioneers of new technology, so the Youth are an investment and not an expense. Dr. Osotimehin

stated that countries to strengthen and empower Youth and invest in their capabilities. Access to

resources need to be given to young people. There is growth in Africa that is not inclusive that

excludes the vulnerable population and there is a need to invest in human capacity, according to

Dr. Osotimehin, If you do not put money out, you will not get good quality. We can only

expect a turnover in our economies if we put education and health first.

Mr Cheickh stated that it is important to look into the co-ordination of facilities towards the

training of young people. The Youth should be given the opportunity to express themselves and

they constitute the well-energy to move forward. Culture may play an important role but we are

in a new generation, new society and therefore we need a new mentality.

Unfortunately the President of the Republic of Senegal could not attend the Summit. However

the Prime Minister of Senegal presented the opening statements on his behalf. The profound

statements that were expressed were that, the Youth should be considered as the essential human

capital and through empowerment and availability of resources we will be capable of attaining

employment opportunities for the Youth. It was estimated that 1/5th

of the global population in

the world represents the Youth and therefore governments need to work on building ambitious

policies. The UN hasbeen working intensively towards the MDGs and the Youth need to do the

same. The Prime Minister also agreed that all actors need to be involved, the civil society and the

private sector.


5/17

1stPlenary Session

Placing Youth at the Heart of the UN post-2015 development Agenda

The Honorary Chairman of ROJALNU, Dr. Djibril Diallo opened up the session. The session

was presented by panelists such as the Minister of Youth of Niger, the Minister of Health ofNiger and a Youth leader from Ghana, Samuel Kissi. In this session each panellist was allocated

time to present on the topic. Young people emerged as key agents to social change.

The Minister of Youth of Niger highlighted 5 critical issues that affect Youth unemployment:

1) Lack of access to quality education2) Gender Inequality, women and young girls are still neglected when it comes to education3) Discrimination4) Lack of employment opportunities5) Current social and economic inequality that must be reshaped

With that mentioned he concluded to say that as Youth we need to effectively advocate for

positive change and that there needs to be universal access to Sexual Reproductive Health

services and information so that they are equipped to face the challenges in the world.

Samual Kissi focused on the implementation of the International Conference on Population and

Development (ICPD) process and had mentioned 4 important aspects that we need to focus on:

1) To create decent work opportunities and not just any time of work2) To provide education that includes practicality in their teaching curriculum3) Promote healthy living4) To have meaningful Youth participation and leadership5) To invest in the capability of the Youth

A recommendation was made to visitwww.ICPDbeyond2014.orgto know more about what they

are doing. We need to realize the knowledge is power and therefore education is important for

the Youth.

Some information was shared on what is being done in Niger, they have adopted some measures

to guarantee economic sustainability, the boy/girl ratio has increased in higher education and the

promotion of basic education is their priority. They have community radios to promote access to

information for those in the rural areas.
http://www.icpdbeyond2014.org/http://www.icpdbeyond2014.org/http://www.icpdbeyond2014.org/http://www.icpdbeyond2014.org/


6/17

After the presentations were presented, Tikhala Itaye and a few other Youth leaders contributed

to the discussion. Tikhala had added that it is important that we invest in teachers and the inputs

that go towards producing quality education, good teachers are resigning because of poor

salaries thus the inputs also need to be a priority that need to be invested in. Some Youth

leaders questioned the implementation process of policies, how they are not effectively done.

Thus when policies are made then the governments must be hard-pressed to strictly work

towards them.

2nd

Plenary Session

Youth Unemployment, Exploration of Proposals and Avenues: Perspectives of Ministries of

Youth and Employment

This session was presented by Mr Benoit Sambou, Minister of Youth in Senegal, Mr Mahamane

Baby, Minister of Employment, Professional training and Official spokesperson of the

Government of Mali, Mr Driss Guerraoui, Secretary-General of the Economic, Social and

Environmental Council of Morrocco and the President of the Young Entrepreneurship Network

in Senegal.

In this discussion it was laid down that unemployment is a problem all over the world and it

affects the Youth from fully participating. Countries need to take advantage of the agriculture

production, processing and services to create jobs and the Youth should make use of their utmost

potential to add value to these sectors. The public civil sector cannot cater to all Youth therefore

we need job creativeness: the government needs to provide information, guidance and training

centres to the Youth. Furthermore they need to focus on creating the right conditions to enable

job creation. Countries need to ratify and commit to the provisions of the African Youth Charter

in order to create conditions for Youth employment.

The Youth have their future in their own hands, they need to speak up and claim resources. Some

strategies that arouse where that: we need to promote Youth integration, come up with a National

Youth Entrepreneurship event to promote Youth entrepreneurship and mentoring, establish

concepts of producing and consuming our local products than depending on imports (informal

sectors can be formalized which would become profitable to the State). The biggest issue in


7/17

Africa is the wastage of resources and embezzlement so the Youth need to advocate against such

issues.

In Mali, they have amended their Labour code in order to enable recruitment, they invest in

vocational training, they have linked education and vocational training and they have established

a project in the rural area for Youth training. Moreover they have a National Labour Centre

where they have implemented a volunteer program which encourages National Integration.

According to Mr. Mahamane, Leaders need to offer the space and the Youth should occupy the

space.

3rd Plenary Session

Partnership of Youth from Africa and the Diaspora: Solidarity for Development

This session was presented by Miss Gine Hargitatay, Miss Jamaica 2013, Mr Hama Souvi from

Mauritania, Partnership and Resource Mobilization Officer of ROJALNU, John Yearwood

representing the United States, Louis Marital Ndoumbe representing Europe, Achal Rokia

representing North Africa and Marie Tomoifo representing Central Africa.

This discussion focused on the importance of collaboration, partnership and networking. It was

advised that:

1) We need to create and build a knowledge bank/blog where we share information.Building a bridge between Africa and the diaspora can help a nation advance in

technology, obtaining skills and knowledge by learning from each other.

2) We need to make a contact list, a global one and encourage programs for the governmentto sponsor oversees study and have joint partnerships with other nations.

3) We need to focus on training and obtaining skills that can help our own countries.

4th

Plenary Session

The Challenges of the Demographic Dividend and efforts towards and AIDS free generation

This session was presented by Mr. Benoit Kalasa, Regional Director of UNFPA, First Lady of

Chad and The Director of a National Woman Centre in Nigeria and Youth Leaders from Benin,

Cameroon, Egypt, Botswana and Kenya.


8/17

The resolutions from this presentation were that this Summit provides a base for advocacy in our

various countries and it initiates programs that will develop the skills of the Youth. There is a

need to address the development issues especially for the marginalized and we need to aim to

achieve an equitable and sustainable economy. There are approximately 38 million Youth in

Africa that are aspiring for jobs, freedom and social justice and there cannot be sustainable

growth without employment. Some interventional areas that can promote employment are in

micro-economic policies, entrepreneurship polices education and training.

With the issues on HIV/AIDS it was stated that adolescents and the Youth are being orphaned at

a terrible rate. HIV/AIDS mission under the UN has made significant progress in the reduction of

the infection. 5 million people in the world are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS and young

people are in the centre of this epidemic. We are faced with social economic and social crisis

however informal networks have begun to demand HIV services to young people based on social

justice. The UN has developed action plans and it is therefore time for full participation and

empowerment of the Youth. AIDS in Africa is still unfinished business so we need the

determination and the drive as Nelson Mandela, we should leave that legacy as young people.

For an AIDS free generation, we need to look into ways to control the birth rate, establishing

Youth friendly health services and encourage and empower the Youth to know the HIV status

and in protecting themselves. Concerns were placed on those in the rural areas without access of

proper health services, out of school Youth and that early marriages need to be done away with.

With the Impact of demographic reduction in fertility rate, it is important that family have fewer

children. There is this sugar daddy phenomenon which will be reduced if employment

opportunities are visible. Young girls are taken advantage of, Culture taboos and parents are not

communicating with their children about sexual activities this needs to be addressed.

Many Youth leaders placed their concerns that we need to embark on discussions on finding

solutions practical tools and action plans that we can adopt than constantly discussing what we

need. Tikhala Itaye had an opportunity to add that, we have been talking about we need to do

this and that and I believe its time we focused on HOW we do it.


9/17

Nigeria has a Youth enterprise scheme that has created over 24 000 jobs, however it was not

mentioned on how exactly they manage to achieve this. Great speakers are not willing to put

their words in action. As Obama said, change is now and young people need to act now.

Recommendationcame from the Director of a National Woman Centre in regards to the rural

areas: road show in rural areas for young people and take issues on radio because it is cheap and

reaches rural areas and it reaches all parts in the country and you can use film and TV to

entertain and educate as well as making documentaries about issues and view them in different

languages. In addition, we should learn to take command and do not always depend government.

5th

Plenary Session

An illustration of Decentralization Efforts and Implementation of Youth Policies at the Local

Government Level.

This session was presented by Mr. Robert Beugre Mambe, Governor of the District of Abidjan,

Cote dIvoire, Mrs. Ayanda Dlodlo Special envoy of President Zuma (The 1stLady could not

attend the Summit), Mr. Abdoulaye Balde, President of the Senegalese Mayors Association, Ms.

Shirley Gibson, former Mayor of Miami Gardens and Mr. Aliou Sow, President of the

Senegalese Youth Council

In the Senegal structural unemployment they look into unemployment policies were they

recommend tax reduction as an incentive to the private sector to encourage Youth

entrepreneurship. They prep young people to work with community leaders in rural areas in the

production of agriculture programs and have set aside 5 billion to Youth programs.

Mrs. Dlodlo added that in South Africa, the National Youth Commission Act was put in place

which is a Youth subsidy strategy to pave way to Youth training. President O.R Tambo stated

that a nation is fruitless if a nation engages on Youth issue but never invests in them. so

investing in our Youth is a solution.

Ms. Gibson had stated that Mayors have a duty to play in their constituency and meeting the

expectations of the people. As a former Mayor, government Ministers need to be transparent

about their promises in what they are able to accomplish and what you are not able to

accomplish.


10/17

Youth advisor to President of Cote dIvoireshared that the President in their country has taken

the Youth issues at heart. Their country has invested in internship for the Youth by funding

companies to implement internship programs. A challenge that they face is that the Youth that

receive funds for programs have misused the funds. So it is important that the Youth learn to

utilize funds properly.

6th

Plenary Session

Concurrent Panel Discussions sessionsIn this session, the participants were divided into four groups and given different topics to

discuss. The topics were:

-What constitutes effective prevention for young people today?

-The development of mobile technology, an opportunity for African Youth.

-Initiatives and best practices for young people using HIV/AIDS response as an entry point to

accelerating the achievement of the MDGs.

-Volunteering, a source of experience and employment opportunities for Youth.

Mr. Felix Haingura was selected to lead the topic on volunteering, in his contribution he spoke

about National Youth Serves (NYS) Volunteering Programme. He spoke about how he is a

volunteer at NYS. How it works is that a person is taken for a period of a year to train in general

administration, after a year it gives weight to your CV and prepares you to professionalism.

NYS takes all grades, 10 and 12 for training which has 4 steps in Civic Training and Military. He

added to say that volunteerism should be served for free to different Ministries, NGO and

Community development programs.

He also spoke about Credit for Youth in Business (CYB) as one of the programme which

empowers the young entrepreneurship to assist them with loans without collaterals: so far this

programme has assisted a lot of young people in Namibia.

His recommendation was to see all National Youth Council in African Countries to have such

programs to assist young people.

Tikhala Itaye participated in the 1st topic on AIDS prevention, which was presented by

representatives from UNAIDS from South Africa, Mr. Paska Kunitha. He shared on the Crowds


11/17

out AIDS project which has created a movement of young people to take action against

HIV/AIDS. It was recommended that we visitwww.crowdoutaids.orgto join the movement, and

to get information on action plans and framework.

Due to time constraints we did not receive feedback from their other discussions that took place.

Furthermore, on the objectives of the MDGs and UN post-2015 Development Agenda, the

experience of the Millennium Villages, a video conference was connected with Professor Jeffrey

Sachs, founder of Millenium Villages Project, who stated that there is great potential in our

communities that we need to tap into. He had highlighted that we should accelerate the progress

that has been done towards the MDGs and that our visit to the millennium village should inspire

us to do the same for our various countries.

7th

Plenary Session

Detrimental Practices and the Development of Young People

This session was presented by Nafissatou Diop, Senior Advisor at UNFPA in New York, Malick

Sene, Executive Secretary at the High National Council on AIDS in Mali and Bidia Deperthes,

Senior Technical Advisor on HIV under UNFPA.

In this discussion it was highlighted that Youth should organize themselves to claim their rights.

The Youth need to have vision and fight to implement their big ideas. As the Youth we vote in

Heads of State so we have the power and it is the Youth who can push them on the missions they

promised. Young people need to come up with initiatives that will enable the development of

these countries.

Traditional and culture has been a barrier to eradicate gender based violence. 100 to 140 million

girls & women have been subjected to female genital Mutilation (FGM) a culture practice that

affects many young girls. In Somalia almost all women are affected by FGM. This affects a

womens physical and mental well-being and causes social implication. With that in mind,

women cannot participate in the economic, labour, social and political life because of debilitating

health and social problems.

A condomize campaign gave a presentation and they said, the Youth should Keep their crown,

cherish their life, love smart, play safe, stay alive and do anything in their power to remain HIV
http://www.crowdoutaids.org/http://www.crowdoutaids.org/http://www.crowdoutaids.org/http://www.crowdoutaids.org/


12/17

free and avoid early parenting. It is important that the Youth are more educated on HIV and

their health which could lead to making a better health decisions. It was also recommended that

we visitwww.allaboutcondoms.orgto get more information about prevention and campaigns.

The 8th

and 9th

Protect the goal campaign Plenary Sessions.

Young People at the Heart of the Protect the Goal Campaign and the Cultural Dimension

In this session we had Mr. Jeffrey Webb, Vice-President of FIFA, Richard Grant, Steering

Committee Member of the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network and Actor and Mr.

Benjamin Buyemere, ROJALNU focal point for West Africa.

FIFA and UNAIDS have partnered under the Protect the Goal campaign in the fight against

HIV/AIDS. This was an initiative to bring HIV awareness to those in the stadiums about the

issue and a way to use sports to advocate for

Zero discrimination, Zero New infection and

Zero AIDS related deaths. This campaign

will officially be launched in Brazil at the

world cup.

This is also a way to re-awake and re-engage

the people, the Youth can take their idea in

their countries and create a Protect the Goal

documentary using local soccer teams and

with dance and Art or playing games with children in rural areas in order to use it as a tool for

community outreach and testing. Culture maybe an issue when it comes to Health services but

culture was created by people so therefore it can change.

Each country was awarded with a soccer ball to promote protect the ball

campaign in their countries signed by the Vice-President of FIFA.

Unfortunately we did not come with ours because the airport security

stopped us from carrying a ball on the plane. After fighting for it to travel

with us, we did not succeed and the ball remained behind.
http://www.allaboutcondoms.org/http://www.allaboutcondoms.org/http://www.allaboutcondoms.org/http://www.allaboutcondoms.org/


13/17

The Millennium Village Visit

The Millennium Villages are designed to help rural African communities to achieve the MDGs.

The projects functions on principalities such as to be in line with local and national development

strategies and plans, to share the costs with the beneficiaries depending on their capacitiesto promote appropriation and scaling-up of the programs by the governments.

There are several components that it focuses on:

Agriculture/Agribusiness

Education

Health

Gender and Community Development

Infrastructures

Environment

PartnershipMonitoring and Evaluation

At the Millennium Village we visited the community centre, where we were informed that the

centre is used to share information on health. They attract Youth to come to the centre by having

entertainment or sport activities. In 2013 they tested 4000 in the community for HIV and they

found that only 5 people tested positive.

Other projects under the village is farming onions, groundnuts and peas, they also have milk

production and fishing. They have established 10 schools in the community and have invested in

community development, women empowerment and income-generating activities. It was stated

that this project has achieved all the millennium goals in this community.

[Community school]

[Onion field]

[Fishing]


14/17

The 10th Plenary session : Closing Ceremony

The closing ceremony focused on the adoption of the general report on the Summit and the

Dakar Declaration that is attached to this report. To end the Summit well, it was stated that, now

is the time to all go home with more hope and focus.

Acknowledgements and closing remarks on the Summit.

We would like to thank UNFPA, UNAIDS and the National Youth Council for giving us this

opportunity to learn, to gain information and obtain knowledge that will help us fulfil our vision

under AfriYAN.

We would also like to Thank Dr. Djibril Diallo (in the

picture on the left) for making this Summit possible.

The Summit was a great platform to network and to gain information. However, most of the

sessions did not allow full participation of the Youth to express their views and to contribute: we

hope that the next Summit the Youth leaders are given the platform to share ideas and to interact

more.


15/17

The 4th

PAN-AFRICAN SUMMIT OF YOUTH LEADERS OF THE UNITED NATIONS

A CALL FOR ACTION FROM DAKAR

We young people, from 54 countries of Africa and the diaspora to the 4th Pan-african Summit of

Young Leaders of the United Nations for the achievement of the MDGS, held in Dakar from 13

to January 17, 2014 on the theme "The youth unemployment in the agenda post 2015:

Recognizing that Africa is replete with a very large proportion of young people without

employment; and by lack of decent employment opportunities and many are victims of the worst

forms of exploitation;

Considering the need to place the demographic dividend problem for young people is central to

the economic development of our country

Recognizing that issues such as unemployment, underemployment, FGM to HIV and sexual

and reproductive health problems are plaguing youth and whose solution requires a holistic

approach;

Considering the relevance of initiatives and programs for youth development including:

CrowdOutAIDS, ACT2015, CICPD Beyond 2014 Protect the Goal;

Considering that the Network Organizations Youth Leaders of the United Nations MDGs(ROJALNU) is a youth branch of the Network for African Renaissance and the Diaspora;

Supporting Co-sponsors of the 4th Pan-African Youth Summit Leaders of the United Nations,

the presidents of Senegal Macky Sall and Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali to bring these

recommendations of the 4th Pan-African Youth Leadership Summit at United Nations meetings

of Heads States of the African Union, the Francophonie Summit et Assemblee Generale

Desaux the United Nations;

Endorsing the statements from previous meetings of young leaders;

Make the following recommendations:

1. The two formulation of specific objectives in the post 2015 development agenda of the United

Nations, the first on youth empowerment and the second on sexual and reproductive health of

young people and the elimination of HIV in the agenda post 2015 United Nations;

2. The inclusion of priority actions and recommendations from the summit when planning and

budget allocations frameworks and development agenda of governments and cooperation


16/17

programs of international institutions including financial institutions, civil societies and private

sector;

3. The effective implementation of the African Charter in cooperating the youth through national

policies and programs;

4. Prioritise employment and sexual and reproductive health of young people in national plans

and international development;

5. Implementation of mechanisms to provide adequate education system to the needs of the job;

6. Focus on technical and vocational training;

7. The maximise volunteer programs that promote youth creativity;

8. To increase incentives encouraging the private sector to invest more and create new

employment and learning opportunities for young people ;

9. To support youth entrepreneurship;

10. To grant free access to quality primary schools for girls and boys and the promotion of

continued studies to secondary and university for girls and women;

11. To strengthen policies and programs to prevent teenage pregnancy and young adolescents

and the integration of comprehensive education on sexual and reproductive health and HIV in the

school curricula;

12. To take into account of all young people without exclusion those from rural areas, the

disabled, the minority groups and those from rural backgrounds as target groups in the policies

and programs development;

13. Support the establishment of sustainable and effective partnership between young people and

the African diaspora to promote decent work for youth;

14. The creation of national fund to fight against HIV / AIDS in all respective countries of

Africa;

15. Creating a ROJALNU Special Fund for Employment and Entrepreneurship Young people;

16. Supporting national representations of ROJALNU in each country through technical and

financial support;


17/17

We, the youth leaders of the United Nations; participants at the 4th Pan-African Youth

Summit Leaders 13 to 17 January 2014 in Dakar, we are committed to:

1. Apply to ourselves the principle of accountability within the same limits as those in which we

hold you responsible;

2. Being alongside Governments through a strong and active citizenship for the implementation

of policies and strategies for the fight against unemployment and the promotion of sustainable

development;

3. Contribute to the development of national economies and the challenge of development in our

country;

4. Dakar will be the start of a series of consultations that will lead to the 2nd Global Young

Leaders United Nations MDGs Summit in September 2015 including holding pre-Youth Summit

World Summit in December 2014 in San Salvador de Bahia in Brazil;

5. Participate effectively and efficiently in the process of organizing the 4th World Summit of

Mayors in Abidjan in September 2014 with the organization of a pre youth summit.

Made in Dakar , January 17, 2014.

The Participants

the fourth panafrican summit of youth leaders of the united nations (afriyan-january 2014)

Documents