PRESS RELEASE
1ST EAC YOUTH CONFERENCE IS TAKING PLACE 5-6 DECEMBER IN ARUSHA
East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, 1 December 2014:
The 1st East African Community
(EAC) Youth Conference themed The EAC Youth: Think. Speak. Participate
is scheduled to take place 5 to 6 December 2014 at the EAC Headquarters
in Arusha, Tanzania.
According
to the EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Productive and Social
Sectors Hon. Jesca Eriyo, the 1st EAC Youth conference is the first
formal process of engaging
the Youth in the region following the adoption of the EAC Youth Policy
by the EAC Council of Ministers In August 2013. The Policy guides the
Community in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating
programmes geared towards the youth in the region while
ensuring sustainable social, economic and political development.
The
theme of the Youth Conference will be realised through discussions on a
number of interrelated sub themes including; entrepreneurship,
employment, skills development
and innovation; leadership, governance, peace building, human rights
and conflict management; creativity, expression and transformation;
youth and sexual reproductive health and substance abuse; and youth:
environment, climate change adaptation and mitigation.
The
EAC Youth Conference is expected to bring together over 200 youths
drawn from diverse backgrounds taking into account gender, marginalised
youth, rural youth, youth living
with disabilities, youth in slum dwellings, among others. Other
participants include Government officials, Young Parliamentarians, PSOs,
CSOs, professional bodies, Academia/Universities, Media and EAC Organs
and Institutions, Development Partners and other
interest groups.
Notes to Editors
Youth
participation in EAC affairs is provided for under Article 120 (c) of
the EAC Treaty, which provides for adoption of a common approach for the
participation of youth
in the integration process through education, training and
mainstreaming across EAC policies, programmes and projects as one of the
strategic interventions towards the realization of a fully integrated
Community. Youth participation is also grounded in the
EAC Youth Policy, the 4th EAC Development Strategy (2011 – 2016) and
the EAC Strategic Plan on Gender, Youth, Children, Social Protection and
Community Development (2012-2016).
In
furtherance of the aforementioned provisions, the EAC Secretariat has
undertaken a series of interventions aimed at ensuring a more meaningful
involvement of the youth
in the integration process. Recent initiatives include the convening of
the EAC Youth Summit in Arusha, Tanzania 2007 and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd
EAC University Students Debates on regional integration in August 2012,
August 2013, and September 2014 respectively.
The 2nd EAC University debate resulted into the formation of the EAC
Youth Ambassador’s Platform as an information infrastructure that would
accelerate a youth-focused integration through knowledge and experience
sharing from the EAC and within the youth communities
across the region.
The
youth civil society fraternity in the EAC has also been active through
different initiatives to create opportunities for their own engagement
with the EAC processes with
the recent establishment of the East African Youth Network (EAYN) as a
positive step towards a platform to amplify their voices for collective
advocacy and engagement. The EAYN is composed of youth CSO’s and
National Youth Councils in the Partner States.
The
EAC interventions as well as those of the youth civil society in the
region have focused on addressing the contemporary youth challenges such
as unemployment, high HIV-AIDS
prevalence rate, drugs and substance abuse, low participation of the
youths in development among others.
Therefore,
the 1st EAC Youth Conference is convened as a platform to disseminate
the Youth policy, strengthen existing pillars as well as set new
strategies for more sustained
and meaningful engagement of the youth in the overall EAC integration
agenda.
Ends
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