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Youth Policies in Africa

Date: Mon, Jun 8 2015 |
Time: 12:00am

Youth Policies in Africa

 

 

Assessing National Youth Policies in Africa: Five country experiences

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA, 12-14 DECEMBER 2007

Young people constitute a substantial share of the population of most Sub-Saharan African countries and of the region as a whole. This creates a need for practical policies and related programmes to engage youth effectively in all aspects of the development of their countries.

The Governments of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda are addressing this need by enacting youth policies to support the growth and inclusion of young people. The workshop “Assessing National Youth Policies in Africa” brought together representatives from these countries, as well as the UNDP, UNFPA, and the African Union Commission, to share and evaluate youth policies and related programmes. The meeting also served to strengthen commitment to the African Youth Charter and promote related activities for the Year of African Youth in 2008.

Objectives

  • To review progress in the implementation of the national youth policies and programmes of five countries that have significantly advanced their work for youth development in the last year.
  • To support a discussion that identifies the lessons learned to date in implementing national youth policies and analyzes the obstacles encountered to achieving desired outcomes.
  • To identify tools, activities, and approaches that support successful implementation, monitoring and evaluation of youth development policies and programmes.
  • To recognize areas for further capacity development to ensure continued advancement of youth development policies.
  • To foster inter-regional collaboration for youth development in Africa and encourage the alignment of national youth development work with the regional commitments encapsulated in the African Youth Charter.

Follow-up recommendations

The discussion and activities undertaken at the workshop identify four initial areas for potential follow-up:

  • There is immediate value in sharing experiences across youth ministries to learn from and build upon each other’s implementation of policies.
  • Ministries responsible for youth development require further support and assistance to mainstream youth development initiatives in national planning and to integrate youth issues across government structures and departments.
  • There is a collective need to strengthen national platforms of youth organizations in order to have strong partners in all stages of implementation of the national youth policies.
  • There is a need to promote harmonization between international, regional and national commitments to youth and to leverage these to promote youth development activities.

Please refer to the documents below for more information on the workshop and its outcomes.