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You’re not doing the youth a favour by giving them money to facilitate their agendas, particularly in the forthcoming elections. They want investments and opportunities to pursue initiatives that contribute to peace-building efforts and help build strong institutions. This is according to Deogratius Magero the Technical Advisor on Youth Economic Empowerment at Plan International.
The elections are two weeks away and young people are leading the pack in preaching peace and advocating against election violence.
Deogratius believes that the youth in Kenya have the gravitas and what it takes to end violence and promote peace. Especially as the electioneering period reaches its peak on August 9th.
“Many young people are already working tirelessly to end violence by reshaping the very definition of peacebuilding. They’re helping to build strong institutions and implementing solutions to reduce violence, deliver justice combat corruption and ensure meaningful participation in their communities,” says Magero.
The youth are an integral part of the peace and election violence conversation because many rogue politicians take advantage of their joblessness. In the past, according to different media reports and documentaries, young idle people were given measly amounts to cause disruptions during elections.
That’s one of the main reasons the media refers to them as rowdy youth. However, there are different organizations that are intentional about changing the rowdy youth narrative. Instead, they want to ensure that young people actively engage in building communities and preserving peace and cohesion.
“There are hundreds of youth-led groups, networks and organizations such as Commonwealth Youth Peace Ambassadors Network, International Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Development in Africa (IPHRD), Women Volunteers for Peace, Kenya Model UN and Global Peace Foundation. These organizations are making a difference in youth-led peacebuilding,” said Magero.
Sustainable ways to empower the youth to build peace
According to the youth advisor, these are some of the ways that stakeholders can support the youth actively to engage in peace-building efforts:
- Involving youth as partners instead of beneficiaries in programs and interventions. Deogratius believes that duty bearers and stakeholders should invite young people to the decision making table within national and organizational agendas.
- Capacity building for youth leaders so that they can create positive social change in their communities. This is through peer-to-peer engagement where they learn from and mentor one another.
- Channelling more financial resources to youth-led initiatives and organizations. “More than half of youth-led organizations operate with just under $5,000 (Ksh 594,250) per year. It’s a mere 11% that operates with a budget of $100,000 (Ksh 11,885,000). We should create more programs that diversify the recipients of funding. Additionally, we should invest more in youth-led organizations instead of duplicating programs,” said Deogratius.
Stakeholders were urged to practically support youth-led initiatives at the Youth Peace Leadership Summit held in Strathmore. At least 10 organizations were in attendance and pledged to bank on young people to build sustainable peace.
