{"id":2799,"date":"2020-03-19T00:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-19T00:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanyouthcommission.org\/?p=2654"},"modified":"2020-03-19T00:28:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-19T00:28:00","slug":"ayc-participated-in-the-african-youth-consultation-on-the-job-creation-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africanyouthcommission.org\/new\/2020\/03\/19\/ayc-participated-in-the-african-youth-consultation-on-the-job-creation-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"AYC participated in the African Youth Consultation on the Job Creation Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

African Youth Consultation on the Job Creation Campaign, held on the Margin of the AU Summit, 7 February at Intercontinental Hotel, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the sidelines of the African\nUnion Summit, ONE Africa in partnership with the Office of African Union Envoy\non Youth brought together young people from nine countries for a one-day\nAfrican Youth Consultation on Job Creation. The 20 participants discussed\nhow to mobilise young Africans\u2019 opinions on key policy commitments and reforms\nthat can enable African countries to create 1 million decent jobs annually by\n2021. The meeting set the stage for reaching out to 1 million young Africans to\ndrive the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AYC was represented by Ms. Natalie Sonia Mukundane, Executive Chairperson and Mr. Kawsu Sillah, Executive Secretary. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ms. Natalie Sonia Mukundane, Executive Chairperson<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mr. Kawsu Sillah, Executive Secretary<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Opening <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ms. Aya Chebbi, AU Youth Envoy <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The opening remark was delivered by\nMs. Aya Chebbi, AU Youth Envoy. She thanked the participants for honoring the\ninvitation to attend this important youth consultative meeting. She informed\nthe gathering that the Republic of South Africa is chairing the AU in 2020 and\nthe theme of the year is \u2018\u2019Silencing the\nGuns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa\u2019s Development\u2019\u2019. <\/strong>Ms. Chebbi\nnoted that for younger generation,  \u2018\u2019Silencing the Guns in Africa\u2019\u2019<\/strong> means;\nSilencing Poverty and Hunger, Silencing Youth Unemployment, Silencing Gender\nBased Violence, Silencing Corruption, Silencing Climate Crisis as these are\nsome of the root causes for conflict and violence on the African continent. She\nchallenged the young people to own this important campaign and create awareness\naround it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aya used the opportunity to\nintroduce the participants to some of the legal instruments adopted by AU such\nthe African Youth Charter and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, Governance\nCharter, the protocol for free movement of people, goods and services, as well\nas the structures of the AU, notably the Executive Council (composed of Ministers\nof Foreign Affairs) responsible for AU agenda setting before the General\nAssembly, AU Peace and Security Council similar to the UN Security Council,\nPermanent Representative Council (PRC composed of Ambassadors), Assembly (composed\nof Head of States and Government) and Specialized Technical Committees (STC on various\nissues such as Youth, Sports and Culture etc). STC meets every two years.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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cross-section of participants <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Chebbi said the idea of this meeting is to bring the AU closer to the youth, advocate for move the agenda from youth peace and security to youth peace and development, inclusion of youth part of the Government delegation to attend AU\u2019s summit (at least 2 representatives from each member state), encourage intergenerational dialogue and collaboration amongst youth-led networks (she applauds the African Youth Commission\u2019s work in this area). The envoy noted that youth are not well organized in AU spaces and that need to be improved; youth need to co-lead with current African leaders for mentorship and leadership, need to strength working relationship between pan-African networks and finally encouraged collaboration between youth movement (African Youth Commission \u2013 AYC and Afrika Youth Movement – AYM). She thanked everyone for kind attention and wished them fruitful deliberations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edwin\nIkhuoria, Interim Executive Director at ONE Africa,<\/em><\/strong> presented\nthe Job creation \u2013 what we know from ONE campaign. In his presentation, he\nnoted that youth work should not be done as usual and should be revolutionary,\nright investment should be done in youth as it\u2019s time to empower them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Edwin Ikhuoria, Interim Executive Director at ONE Africa<\/em><\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Ikhuoria highlighted that the\ndrivers of war are, if the opportunity cost is not higher, then the likelihood\nof youth involving in conflict will be higher; if young people are not\nengaged\/employment there will be a lot of Peace fund, stand by force and peace\nkeeping missions in Africa. He emphasized that from 2020 the fight has to be an\neconomic fight (job creation, economic empowerment etc); need to move from rhetoric  to action; the rest of the world is getting\nolder and Africa is growing younger (2.5million enter in labor force from now\nto 2030); 10-12 million young people entering job market, only about 3million\ngets a job; five countries including South Africa faces youth unemployment with\nrising unemployment rate to above 40%; Urban youth are disproportionately\naffected by joblessness; but the real problems is that fewer decent jobs exist\nacross the continent; informal sector creates most of the jobs in Africa (not\nmere jobs should be created but it should be decent jobs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went on further to identify\nthe following 3 broad problems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n