4th Africa - Europe Youth Summit | Abidjan Youth Declaration X AU-EU Youth Plug-In Initiative Youth Agenda
The overarching theme for the 5th AU-EU Summit “Investing in Youth for a Sustainable Future”, the Summit slogan “Together for Youth, With Youth” and the African Union 2017 theme of the year, “Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in Youth”, has laid the foundation for a strengthened and meaningful inclusion of youth in the Africa-EU partnership.
Young Africans, Europeans and Diaspora have therefore been actively involved in the preparations for the 5th AU-EU Summit through the 4th Africa-Europe Youth Summit (Abidjan, 9-11 October 2017) and the unprecedented AU-EU Youth Plug-In Initiative (Addis Ababa, Brussels and Abidjan, 29 October to 29 November 2017).
The 4th Africa-Europe Youth Summit, organised by the representative bodies of youth on both continents, brought together 120 participants from both continents, selected through an open call with more than 7500 applicants. The main outcome of this Youth Summit is the Abidjan Youth Declaration, capturing the key political recommendations addressing the concerns of young people in both continents.
In accordance with the aim for the Summit of bringing concrete deliverables to the table for the Africa-EU partnership in the years to come, 36 amongst the Youth Summit participants (AU-EU fellows) have continued the work in clusters on 6 priority thematics: Business, Job Creation and Entrepreneurship; Education and Skills; Peace and Security; Governance and Political Inclusion; Climate and Environmental Preservation; and Culture, Sports and Arts, including 3 cross-cutting issues (gender equality, migration and digitalisation).
In an intense 5-week period, The Abidjan Youth Declaration is the political chapeau of the Youth Agenda, and the discussions and conceiving of the deliverables in the Youth Agenda have taken a starting point in the recommendations of the Declaration as well as the discussions on the 6 thematics undertaken amongst the 120 participants during the Youth Summit.
The AU-EU Fellows have been tasked to i) present the role of youth within each thematic, ii) provide youth perspectives on existing and planned initiatives, and most importantly to iii) develop new and innovative proposals for concrete deliverables, presented here in the Youth Agenda. These deliverables together with the recommendations from the Youth Summit will provide inspiration and hopefully direction for the Africa-EU partnership in the years to come.
The Youth Café, as a youth-led and youth-serving organisation works with young men and women around Africa as a trailblazer in advancing youth-led approaches toward achieving sustainable development, social equity, innovative solutions, community resilience and transformative change. The Youth Café fully supports the AU-EU Summit.
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