EAC youth ambassadors in ‘high level’ dialogue

Dozens of youth from five East African countries early this week converged at the headquarters of the East African Community (EAC) in Arusha, Tanzania, to discuss the position of young people in the East African federation process.
The meeting, dubbed “first High level youth Ambassadors Dialogue”, ran under the theme, ‘Harnessing young people’s participation in the political process’.
While opening the conference, Mr Charles Njoroge, the EAC deputy secretary general in-charge of political federation, said the participants would use the opportunity to “reflect on opportunities for meaningful youth participation in the [EAC] political processes at the individual, organisational and societal levels”.
The EAC is looking to place the youth at the centre of its programmes, especially given the fact that they constitute about 70 per cent of all East Africans.
Apart from the “high level youth ambassadors dialogue” that has now kicked off, the EAC every year holds the Annual Youth Leadership Summit, which “brings together a number of youth, youth organisations and institutions that work for youth within governments from the region to deliberate on matters that affect youth in the EAC integration process”.
It also runs the programme on EAC University Students’ Debate, which is meant to enhance the understanding and awareness of the youth on EAC integration.
The EAC Youth Ambassador’s Platform (EAC-YAP) was launched in 2015 during the second university students’ debate and ‘ambassadors’ have been selected each year since then.
Those who apply to become youth ambassadors are tested for debating and general intellectual abilities in a rigorous selection exercise.
The EAC-YAP is meant to provide space for dialogue among the youth within the Nyerere Centre for Peace Research. The centre is mandated, among others, to provide opportunities for continuous youth engagement through training, internship, networking and direct interface within the EAC framework, Mr Njoroge said.
The German aid agency (GIZ) is a major funder of East African Community activities and plays a pivotal role in supporting the Youth Ambassadors programme.
Dr Kirsten Focken, the GIZ programme manager, said at the opening of the Youth Ambassadors summit that German support to the programme is aimed at providing “a collaborative, open and inclusive space for young people to critically and objectively reflect on enhancing meaningful youth participation [in the integration process].”
She said the idea is that as the EAC aims to deliver a market-driven and people-centred regional integration, youth, who account for around 70 per cent of the population of the area must be supported to participate in building a sound economic environment.
The topics for discussion were diverse, ranging from innovation, employment, corruption and participation of the youth in politics.