In 2013 African leaders adopted Agenda 2063, setting out a continental vision for the next 50 years to build an integrated, prosperous, and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens, and representing a dynamic force in the international arena. The First Ten-Year Implementation Plan of Agenda 2063, spanning 2014 to 2023, outlines a set of goals, priority areas, and targets that the continent aims to achieve at national, regional, and continental levels.
At the heart of Agenda 2063 is an Africa, whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children. Africa has the most youthful and fastest-growing population globally, with more than 400 million young people aged between the ages of 15 to 35 years. The need to leverage the talent, energy, and potential of its youth to achieve the goals embedded in the seven aspirations of Agenda 2063 is imperative.
Young Africans are not only beneficiaries of Agenda 2063 but were active contributors and architects in its development and continue to play an important role in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of Agenda 2063. Accordingly, the African Union places a premium on leveraging the participation of the youth in the execution of the continent’s development blueprint through various structures, instruments, and frameworks such as the African Youth Charter. The Charter aims to empower African youth to contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic and political development of the continent, and equally requires youth to take responsibility for their own development.
Building on the mandate of the AUC and AUDA-NEPAD to prepare continental level progress reports on Agenda 2063, it is crucial that African youth are engaged in the formal processes of tracking progress and deepening the review, reflection, and dialogue among the youth on the attainment of the targets and goals set encapsulated in Agenda2063 Ten Year Implementation Plan.
It is against this background that AUDA-NEPAD, and Atlas4dev, in partnership with the African Union Commission and Maghreb Economics Forum along with Facebook Africa will be organizing a series of regional-level Agenda 2063 Youth Dialogues as a platform through which their needs can be addressed, their voices can be amplified, and their engagement in the realization of Agenda 2063 can be advanced.
The Agenda 2063 Youth Dialogues will serve as a convener, amplifier, and bridge builder for youth and civil society organizations – for purposes of strengthening advocacy and knowledge sharing to inform policymaking, planning, and monitoring of Agenda 2063.
The Youth Café has been invited to be a part of the panel for phase 3 of the project. This phase shall be a convener for the participants to be trained on technical skills (How to write a policy paper, policy design, monitoring and evaluation of the progress report), and produce a regional youth policy report on the Agenda 2063, as well as the establishment of the Youth Network.
Our Communications lead, Malika Pyarali will be speaking during the NGOs presentation on 13th September at 10:20 am GMT+1 | 12:20 pm Nairobi time and the Inspiring Talk & Fireside Chat "Youth collaboration: The Youth Café in Kenya" on the 17th of September at 12PM GMT+1 | 2PM Nairobi time.
We hope to see you there!