Youth forum ends with pledge to boost youth potential

Press Release, 18 November 2006

Addis Ababa, 18 November - The African Development Forum (ADF-V) closed on Saturday with the adoption of a consensus statement vowing, among other issues, to enhance youth capacity and empowerment.

Following a lengthy debate however, young people raised certain concerns and made a number of suggestions. The document will be amended to take these into account.

The document acknowledges that young people face a range of challenges that constrain them from fulfilling their potential. It calls for partnerships at all levels to provide the youth with leadership opportunities.

“Only if such partnerships are created and sustained, with the youth at the helm of all efforts, can African countries accelerate development and put the continent on a path to peace and prosperity,” the document says.

It covers a whole range of issues affecting the lives of young people and suggests actions to improve gender equality, access to education, employment prospects, health issues, civil society involvement, input into decision-making, religious tolerance and conflict resolution.

Key to attaining these improvements, the document says, is implementation of the African Youth Charter, which was launched at the conference. The document calls for including the charter as a monitoring instrument within the African Peer Review Mechanism. It also urges the African Union to set up a task force for monitoring and evaluating compliance with the charter.

In a statement at the ADF closing ceremony, UN Under Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Abdoulie Janneh, commended the youth for the mature way in which they conducted the debates and arrived at a consensus statement.

“You are the best bequeath that our continent can leave to the future”, he said, and added that ECA would be “an ever present ally” to the youth.

Addressing a press conference at the end of the debates, Kenya's Youth Minister Mohammed Abdi Kuti said African governments were under pressure because of the challenges facing young people. He noted that although African countries still had to ratify the African Youth Charter, many had already put in place national youth policies.

A youth representative concluded by stating that the Forum had raised awareness among both young people and their leaders, and that now the youth were taking ownership of processes underway in their countries.