International Youth Day

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 realisation of a fully integrated Community. Youth participation is also grounded in the EAC Youth Policy, the 6th EAC Development Strategy (2020/21-2024/25) and the EAC Strategic Plan on Gender, Youth, Children, Social Protection and Community Development (2021-2025).In August 2013, the 27th Meeting of EAC Council of Ministers adopted the EAC Youth Policy as an overarching framework to guide the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects focusing on the youth in the region with the objective of widening and deepening cooperation in social, economic, political and cultural spheres.

The EAC is has since has since implemented the Action Plan of the EAC Youth Policy and the EAC Secretariat and other Organs and Institutions have 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 Summits, the 1st, 2nd , 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th EAC University Students Debates on regional integration. 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 Dialogue on Youth Engagement in the EAC Integration Process 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.

The overall objective of the EAC Youth Conference is to provide a platform for the youth in the region to meet, discuss, and strategise on their effective participation in the EAC regional integration agenda;

The specific objectives of the Youth Conference are to:

a) Celebrate the International Youth Day 2021;

b) Share good practices on youth empowerment through innovation, creativity and transformational initiatives;

c) Discuss the role of the youth in the EAC Integration Process; and

d) Launch the “EAC Youth Dialogue Series”

Haki Nawiri Afrika participated in the launch of the East Africa Community Youth Dialogue Series