Youth should be at centre of programmes

Donors have become increasingly interested in financing youth-related programmes. However, the impact has not been significant due to lack of an integrated approach.

The donors have not replicated what they have successfully done to support gender equality projects. Here, a donor working group on gender equality that identifies areas that complement one another and provide proper coordination of programmes has brought immense gains.  

Two areas that have received donor attention in recent years are high levels of unemployment and radicalisation among the youth. In 2011, the US Agency for International Development’s (USAid) launched the Yes Youth Can programme in response to the 2007 post-election violence that was largely perpetuated by young people.

The programme was aimed at creating gainful economic opportunities by empowering young people to effectively engage in governance and development.

Young people organise themselves into bunges to build their capacity to engage with each other, the government, markets, and communities.

The programme has created over 5,000 bunges (parliaments) spread across the country. However, the $48 million programme has faced a key challenge in coordinating its implementation, compromising the envisaged results.

In the wake of increasing terrorist attacks in recent years, the British High Commission’s Department for International Development launched an initiative to tackle youth radicalisation and extremism.

It has similar objectives as Yes Youth Can, namely to address unemployment, poverty, and marginalisation as a key strategy to addressing youth radicalisation. However, the two programmes do not seem keen to share lessons and infrastructure, which would reduce the cost of implementation. 

The European Union is involved in another donor initiative to support youth through vocational training to provide skills and create jobs.

Success in donors’ engagement with women in Kenya is a clear demonstration of how planning and a properly coordinated approach could impact the target population.

Although the level of financing is a good gesture and a fine entry point to lift the living standards of young people, the magnitude of the problem calls for increased funding and partnership with the government and civil society.

Development agencies should also create interest in little-explored areas such as arts and culture, information, communication and technology, and sports.

It is equally important that more resources be channelled to programmes that help youth to develop leadership capacity and good governance.

Accountable, responsible, and responsive leadership would be a good ingredient to our polity. Youth participation in politics is still low. As the Mo Ibrahim Foundation recently said, Africa’s defining challenge is not lack of resources but lack of leadership.

Finally, donors must put youth at the centre of their initiatives, not as mere beneficiaries, but as contributors of knowledge and solutions.

There is a need to create a central coordinating authority. It is critical to involve the youth in its design, implementation, and evaluation.

Mr Obonyo is a Global Young Diplomat and the external adviser on the UN Habitat’s Youth Advisory Board. [email protected]