The focus fell on youth development issues in Africa at the recent African Youth Forum, held on 4–6 April in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the African Union (AU) headquarters. However, while several notable recommendations were made, many questions were also left unanswered.

Part of a series of meetings held in preparation for the June/July AU Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the African Youth Forum was organised by the Human Resources, Science and Technology Commission of the AU and had the same theme as the coming AU summit, namely ‘Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development’. The forum was preceded by two days of high-level consultations on youth development issues and funding, and followed by an extraordinary session of the Bureau of the Conference of the Ministers of Youth (COMY III).

At the opening of the forum, Jean-Pierre Ezin, the AU Commission’s Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology (HRST), highlighted the need for the full involvement of the youth in Africa in the development process.

The pre-summit youth consultation is designed to come up with list of recommendations to present to the AU summit in Malabo. Some 300 boys and girls from the five geographical regions of Africa and the diaspora participated in the forum, where they debated and recommended issues for discussion at the Heads of State meeting in July. These 300 young participants, mostly youth federation representatives, represented the 53 AU member states, but there was very little to no participation by civil society organisations.

In the five days of the forum, most of the panellists and presenters spoke on behalf of United Nations (UN) agencies such as UN Women, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) or the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as well as other international foundations.

However, as the forum is designed for the participation and consultation of Africa’s young people, more time and resources could have been devoted to home-grown initiatives. Although funding is an on-going concern, we still need to find other methods of getting young Africans to participate in this type of forum and ensuring that their voices are heard loudly and clearly.

This is especially relevant in the light of the fact that the rationale for the forum was that the AU Commission considers African youth a special resource that requires special attention, not only because of the demographic bonus but also because of the youth’s inherent energy. The forum is also intended to strengthen Africa’s participation and engagement in the International Year of Youth, with a view to ensuring that African concerns and priorities are adequately reflected. The primary objectives of the forum were stated to be to raise awareness and call for effective commitment and actions on the part of all stakeholders and partners at all levels to effectively include youth concerns in development policies, programmes, strategies and practices in Africa.

More specific objectives of the forum were: demonstrating compelling evidence of youth empowerment for sustainable development; deliberating on how the youthfulness of the African population could be both an asset and an opportunity; deliberating on challenges that the youth face in general and proposing key recommendations for consideration by Heads of State and Government; promoting the sharing of experiences, good practices and lessons learned in mainstreaming youth development into sustainable development agendas; and showcasing the significant innovative advancement of African youth, including the diaspora, in research and scientific activities.

After this forum and the various attendant meetings and consultations, many questions still remain unanswered: What is a youth issue? Is it not the same as any other societal issue? Why should the youth be any different from any other group in the wider community? Is youth not part of society? While these and other related questions were not answered adequately in the forum, many presentations were made about entrepreneurship and innovation, leadership and other topics that did not come close to addressing the real issues.

One of the notable recommendations that did come out of the forum was the reaffirmation of the commitment by Africa’s youth to the effective implementation of the African Youth Charter, the International Year of Youth and the decade of Youth Development and its accompanying Plan of Action.

As the July summit is approaching and has only eleven weeks to go, it is every young African’s hope that the recently held forum will actually influence the decisions of heads of state in Malabo in July and not end up being just another talk shop.

Written by Eden Yoahannes Yosep, Consultant, PSC Report Programme, ISS Addis Ababa Office.