Youth development and security in Africa

This article was published in The Broken Rifle, December 2013, No. 98

 

Find it here: http://www.wri-irg.org/node/22757

Youth development and security in Africa by Dereje Wordofa,

Over 65 percent of Africa’s total population is below the age of 35 years. This makes Africa youthful continent with huge potential for active labor force, immense human energies and reservoirs of creativity for economic, social and political transformation. The prospect for young people to transform their communities and nation could be enormous.

Young people can become forces for positive change if young men and women play constructive and important roles in building peaceful and thriving communities. This will be possible when youth groups are taking responsibilities as citizens and agents for social change, take active part in non-violent actions and innovatively invest on community-based initiatives.

However, unemployment and lack of educational opportunities means that many are living in poverty, involved in armed conflict, and subject to exclusion. According to the Africa Union statistics, over 10 million young Africans enter into the labour market each year. So, young people can be instruments and drivers of conflict. Social exclusions and deprivation of youth has often been used as an explanation for the involvement of young people in violent conflict.

Major structural factors that underline youth exclusion and lack of opportunity include: unemployment and lack of livelihood opportunities; insufficient, unequal and inappropriate education and skills; weak political participation; and structural gender inequalities and socialization practices. Besides, legacy of past violence i.e. protracted armed conflict can lead to a vicious cycle in which violence becomes the norm rather than the exception.

Experiences show that when a large number of young people are jobless and have few opportunities for positive engagement, they represent a ready pool of recruits for ethnic, religious, and political extremists seeking to mobilize for violence. In this case, young people become source of insecurity and instability. Conversely, if youth acquire life-skills combined with leadership know-how, they can direct their efforts to transforming the ugly conditions of violence, inequality, and poverty into peace and inclusive prosperity. They can contribute toward to the security and well-being of their communities.

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization committed to peace and social justice. It is particularly focusing to promote alternatives for youth affected by structural violence, inequality, and injustice. Building youth entrepreneurship, leadership skills and nurturing nonviolent approaches to solving problems are key aspects of youth development. The AFSC programs involved youth in alternative to violence

program; youth have participated in rehabilitation work and in peace events and work. Because it is believe that effective young people’s involvement in civic activities can build their social. Importantly, working with youth as peace builders has unique advantages as young people are more open to change, are future-oriented, innovative, courageous and knowledgeable about their peers' realities.

Young people in Somalia participating in life skills training

The AFSC programs enabled young people to go through the ‘Public Achievement cycle’ such that they would take up leadership roles in their communities by undertaking practical things e.g. garbage collection, sports and repairing roads. They also appreciate how to work together in participatory groups and learn the culture of tolerance to different viewpoints. Concurrently, AFSC runs projects to support the creation of employment opportunities and generation of regular income. This is through training on various vocational skills and business management. The trainings also incorporated counseling and mentoring. Some of the trained youth had already opened businesses and are earning a living out of the skills acquired from the project. 
 

Youth voices are vital such that they participate to influence policy and decisions that affect their life and educate the public through paintings, poetry, music, dance, drama and sports. In this respect, AFSC supports creation of youth platforms where young people expressing their voices on peace and reconciliation in society. Young people have fostered dialogue and built relationships between communities.

The role of youth often depicted in a negative light, either as helpless victims affected by violent conflict, as criminal gangs or child-soldiers. This means young people are inherently violent, perpetrators or vulnerable. These challenges and problems are normally embedded in local realities of community and nation, but manifest through the conditions and vulnerabilities of the young people. It would rather be imperative to look at the root causes of threats to security and structural issues than depicting young people as source of insecurity and try to mitigate.

So, it will be vital to look at the positive side of young people especially their power and potential as agents of change and natural successors of the next generation. It is only when the latter is recognized that we all are able to cultivate and invest on those potentials. More focus on youth development is the way forward in Africa by cultivating capacity for innovation, creativity, leadership, and economic wellbeing. Young people will then become engines of Africa’s security, peace and development.