Youths can advance social change

By Winston Muleba JR

Change was arguably the most used word of the year in 2008, in the U.S. elections. President Obama rode the promise of change “Change we can believe in” to the White House. His election was trumpeted as a mandate for change.

It’s very obvious that the change he championed cannot be achieved by him alone, unless other stakeholders are engaged. Among the stakeholders referred to in this case include youths who are globally considered as valued and respected asset to society. It is a well-known fact that Youths have genuine and meaningful opportunities to work with each other and with policymakers to impact issues of importance. 

Some initiatives appreciate the value of young people in public problem-solving and provide young people and adults with information, tools and support to work effectively together as partners, allowing opportunities for youth to take ownership of parts of the process mobilize others and become powerful role models. 

In view of this the role of youth in society has been getting higher on the agenda in the last several years across the globe. Zambia being a developing country with gradual economic development and growth in transport, healthy, education and other sectors. 

In line with development of new technologies in most of the sectors and the gradual emerging of young entrepreneurs in both private and public institutions, the role of young people as agents for change is being appreciated though. At the same time the need for youth participation in governance processes is increasing and young people globally are starting to get a chance to participate in planning, creation and execution of policies aimed at youth.

Education, employment, social inclusion, health and many others, are amongst some of the challenges identified as most pressing in the list of young people's concerns, hence  the need for greater collaboration between institutions and youth in the areas of youth policies, youth employment and provision of adequate social services. It seems, the field of social entrepreneurship in Zambia is in its infancy, and most likely lack awareness and credibility. 

Social entrepreneurship is basically the application of entrepreneurship in the social sphere. Social entrepreneurship initiates a new way of thinking and solving societal problems. How different are social entrepreneurs from business entrepreneurs? In simple language “Social entrepreneurs are motivated to address a social need whereas business entrepreneurs a financial need” but one must understand that supporters and funders of social entrepreneurship are business entrepreneurship meaning they are almost same but serve different purposes. It is these purposes that can help transform Zambia in one way or another.

Some youths in Zambia are potential social entrepreneurs, who can address the problems based on their local contacts. In view of this they can look for opportunities to create social value, uncover the best approaches for realizing those opportunities, and build social “capital.” That capital can be passed on as inheritance, rather than debt, to the next generation. 

Among some other youths who have taken it upon themselves to see to it that social change is advanced by youths in Zambia are the likes of Erasmus Mweene, Esanju Maseka. 

Erasmus is a young leader who is currently a student pursuing a bachelor of arts in social work and development at university of Africa. He is a youth who is so passionate about social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, philanthropy and HIV/AIDS awareness. As a young leader Erasmus biggest achievement has been the declaration of his project as the best job creation project among the 45 projects from Africa, Asia and Europe at the 3^rd Rhodes youths forum 2012 in Greece. Furthermore, he is currently working on the establishment of a youth entrepreneurship training centre with an aim to transforming unemployed youth from job seekers into job creators through the demand driven approach to enterprise creation business development training. Erasmus execute his work as an innovative and social change youth through six international organization, in this view he is serving as a regional president for kairos society, a global shaper world economic forum, Global youth adviser for Gimme mo youth foundation, Country Coordinator for global youth innovation network, Ambassador for duke of Edinburgh international award and Founder, youth activism for change.

In addition to this Esanju Maseka an ambassador for Edinburgh duke award program and student at Mulungushi University urges youths to think outside the box. "remember that few of us are born with a golden spoon in our mouths hence  guardians mostly manage to provide us with food on our tables, clothes on our back and a decent education they can afford, we must then begin asking ourselves what we can do to improve our livelihood beyond that which is provided to us by our Guardians but that which can bring about social change, it could be locally or globally." As such, Esanju regard self-development as a key focus that must be embraced by young people of Zambia today.

Serving as an ambassador for one of the world’s leading programs for young people, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award program, and a program which seek to develop young people through taking them outside their comfort zone and also encouraging them to give back to their communities Esanju, in her last remarks said that it is not our altitude but our attitude that determines our aptitude. Thus it becomes imperative that we must seek to develop ourselves such that when opportunity comes we can embrace it. For, “the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 12v11).

In most areas of Zambia’s ten provinces, social enterprises are becoming the new ladders of societal change instigating creative approaches and larger community involvement while producing various benefits to the community and reducing the strain on public funds, donations and grants by international organizations. 

As social needs continue to rise among populations while government coffers are drastically allocated to so many national programmes and activities, social enterprises then emerge a self-sustaining, business-oriented and highly effective method of meeting social needs. 

Seeing that youths are regarded as people who can advance change, work within, between and beyond established organizations, social entrepreneurship is the way to try especially that it is a global movement that is producing solutions to many of the world’s toughest problems and transforming the way we think about social change. The boom of the field of social entrepreneurship, and its promise as a means of addressing the daunting social problems that Zambia currently faces, are of particular importance for policymakers.

It must therefore, be realized that Zambia has got potential youths who can address social needs passionately and helps others discover their own power to change, thereby changing a nation by helping them envision a new possibility and recognize how it can be broken down into achieving steps that build momentum for change. 

President Barack Obama, during his campaigns said if one voice can change a room and if one voice can change a room then it can change a city and if it can change a city, it can change a state and if it can change a state, it can change a nation and if can change a nation then it can change a world.

The idea that youths are change maker should be integrated starting in grade school so that they can become comfortable with the ideas and skills necessary to effect change early on. From childhood, it is important to nurture young people’s willingness to try out new ideas. 

When youths are encouraged to test out their ideas in a safe and non-judgmental environment, they learn to value their own ideas, and valuing one’s own ideas is crucial especially in line with social entrepreneurship. High schools, tertiary institutions and the general community should keep on encouraging students to ask questions and take initiatives. 

Additionally, schools should create programs that help youths develop empathy. Emotional learning is just as important as cognitive learning, though schools focus almost entirely on the latter. Developing empathy help some youths understand how they can fit into the larger world, helping them to understand others better and to build teams. Another option that targets the more practical skills of youths is to create programs that would expose them to problems and then help guide them through the process of constructing a solution.

Finally but not the least, the government and other stakeholders could do more to celebrate youth-initiated social problem solving for the reason that  youths are capable to lead grassroots efforts with innovative ideas that can drive social change. They represent the antithesis of the old model of top-down development of social policies and programs. They can actually think big, start small with local efforts, target problems that have a local expression but global relevance, such as access to water, promoting small-business creation, or waste management. The innovative solutions that can validate in local context often get replicated in other geographies and can spun new global industries. This is why innovations involve the deployment of new business models that address basic human needs.