Importance of Youth Empowerment

The term “Youth” is best understood as a period of transition from childhood to adulthood. Youth in West Africa, and Africa at large, are important agents of transformation.

Youth:

Youths have a vital role to play in Africa, and to better harness youth, they must know their rights and be given the necessary knowledge and capacity to participate in the social, political and economic development of their respective countries. This will empower young people to actively participate in the national development agenda of their countries in a meaningful way at all levels. Youths are at the center of absolute strength of any nation. Governments in many developed countries, today, are on the forefront in ensuring youth empowerment. They provide policies and programs that encourage youth participation in the society. Moreover, these policies allow youth to have one strong voice in which they can air out issues affecting them.

Unfortunately, we see many African youths being deprived of this. They have limited roles in decision-making processes or leadership programs at both local and national level. Youths are double-edged swords for the continent. While it is true that youth can spur innovation, creativity, social change, economic growth, and enterprise all of which enhance development and transformation, if young people are not well managed, and involved into political representations it can fuel instability, violent protest, and conflict. When there are obstacles to participating in formal, institutionalized processes, young people can rapidly feel disempowered. And, youths often tend to believe that their voices are not been heard, and they are not being taken seriously despite their sensitivity to the demands for social equity and justice, which often leads to youths’ involvement in freedom or independence struggles, mobilizing and campaigning against autocratic governments, and championing opposition to virtual forms of democratic governments.

Youth protests have contributed to changing national leaders, and governments in many African countries over the past years. Early in 2019, Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted following months of youth-led street demonstrations. Around the same time, in April, Sudan youths-led revolution and thousands filled the streets of Khartoum demanding a civilian government, and that protest caused the removal of President Omar al-Bashir. Media reports on streets of these demonstrations routinely highlight the active presence of youth at the helm of these political and social discontents across the continent.

All of these protests were the result of a dangerous combination of a lack of job opportunities, poor economic growth, lack of youth representation, and involvement in decision-making.

Youth Empowerment :

Youth empowerment is a structural process whereby young people gain the ability, and authority to make decisions in implementing change in their own lives and society. The world currently has the largest generation of young people in history, and Africa’s has the youngest population in the world, with more than 400 million young people between the aged of 15 to 35 years. On the positive side, the population provides an opportunity for the continent to address Africa’s sustainable development challenges. Such a youthful population calls for an increase in investment in economic, technology, agriculture, and social development to improve the continent, and this will lead to an increase in empowerment to enable self-determination in youths at all levels.

Sadly, a significant portion of young people in Africa are growing up in countries where chances of empowerment, and living decent lives are negligible and in which many find themselves stuck in positions of inadequate chances to life. These widespread challenges are breeding frustration, culminating in protest, crime, and drug addiction.

Frustration has made youth easy recruits in armed rebel or protest to take down an entire sitting government in many African countries today. Africa is currently facing youth empowerment challenges, and how to channel youths efforts, intellect, and energy for constructive outcomes that will benefit both the individual and the nation at large.

Empowerment will also serve as a driven tool that can be used to increase the degree of interest and responsibility of youths to represent their interests, acting on their authority. Young people are passionate about transformation, and have a huge concentration towards generational change, and becoming leaders. Youth empowerment is often addressed as a gateway to equity, civic engagement and democracy building. Positive change in today’s society can be achieved through empowering and engaging the youths in the society.

Government must invest in youth education, employment, and empowerment. This can be done by government funding projects that allow youths to actively participate in changing their society because, nothing of greatness can ever be achieved by any government without giving importance to their youth. The importance of youth empowerment can never be denied because youth is the base of any nation. The future and prosperity of a nation is secured only when youth are empowered

When youths are responsible enough in a society, they give a rise to an empowered and ideal society. An empowered youth utilize his/her time, and efforts on good activities such as sharing experiences, and ideas to help uplift their fellow youths, and community in which they are living

Benefits of Youth Empowerment :

The importance of youth Empowerment are countless that, I cannot detail out all in this write-up.

Good Education:

The quality of education directly affects the likelihood of employment. Education is important, and it’s a human right. The right education will give youth the opportunity to make better decisions for the future while giving them more options for their careers. A good education can beat anything if you have a creative mindset because you end up creating many opportunities to make an effective source of earning for yourself.

Technological Development:

Youth empowerment increases and improves technological standards in a country. Technology and other important youth innovative discoveries are because of youth empowerment. They take their time and dig deep into science, reason out some important things and make them real. The inventor of one of the world’s giant social media site, Zuckerberg, was in the university before he started thinking about Facebook. He learned some coding skills already from the university. Today, his company have employed many people.

Poverty Reduction:

Youth empowerment can help reduce poverty in any country. When youths are empowered financially, not only does it allow youth to have financial freedom, it also allows them to contribute towards the country’s economy. They assist in the economic activities of the society where they find themselves by creating jobs, and empowerment.

Reduce Crime Rate:

The high rate of poverty in Africa is a contributing factor to the high crime rate. When youths are jobless, and have no source of income monthly, they tend to resort to crime, which is not a good thing. When youths are empowered, the society becomes a better place for all to live. They can fulfil their dreams because they have the employment, skills , and resources they need to reach their full potential. If your nation wants to fight crime, it should start with youth empowerment.

Good Governance :

Good governance is attainable with youth empowerment. A country can never achieve the heights of success if its youth is lacking behind. Good governance is also about giving youth equal opportunities to follow their dreams and goals in life. Not only do the youth get the chance to pursue their dreams, but they also get to boost their sense of self -determination.

They do not utilize their time and efforts in bad activities. Youth of today’s are encouraged to take initiatives for the betterment of society because it’s the young people who provide strong support to society and gives rise to an empowered society. One of the biggest impacts that youth empowerment can ever have on government is that they will no longer wait for the opportunities to come from government, instead, they identify the problem, create an opportunity, and empower themselves along with many others.

In a nutshell, youth development and empowerment are cardinal to the growth and development of any nation. Enhance, attention should be given to youth development and empowermnet at all levels.

Author,

Prinston Anthony sieh moosh Nimene holds a masters degree in International Relation, and currently a post graduate candidate in project management and planning at Uganda Technology and Management university (UTAMU).