Youths have a role to play in decision making

By Winston Muleba JR

One scholar once said, “no one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. And Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations also said, “young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.”
With this in mind, it important to acknowledge and appreciate that in every region of the world there are new initiatives, projects and programmes in which youths are participating in decision-making. Research shows that organizations and networks of young people have emerged at the local, national, regional and global levels, demonstrating their capacity for advocacy, communication and negotiation, and their commitment to challenging injustice. The demand for recognition of the right of young people to be heard, to have their views given serious consideration, and to play an active role in promoting their own best interests is far from universally respected, however this demand represents a profound challenge to traditional attitudes towards young people in most societies throughout the world and Zambia is no exception.

Studies indicates that participation in decision making processes gives young people the opportunity to have a say about what is important to them, allows them to ‘own’ decisions made about their lives, increases self-confidence and skills, and empowers them. Meaningful youth participation in service delivery and policy development, in recognition that young people have the right to have a say in decisions affecting their own lives is valuable and has a range of positive outcomes for young people and those who engage with them. Participation should be meaningful and this can only occur when young people are adequately informed and supported in their involvement; their contributions are valued, they believe the work they are doing has a purpose, and they see the change occur and are provided with feedback. This then means that youth’s participation requires a commitment from government, services and other stakeholders, to adequately resource the process and to build a culture where young people are able to contribute in valuable and meaningful ways. Without adequate resources and commitment to the implementation of youth participation policies and practices, services are at risk of engaging young people in tokenistic ways.

Kamaleshi Sharma once said, “Young people ought to be seen as sources of energy and potential, and as the bearers of our future. And yet, so often, they are seen as obstacles, or peripheral to our real concerns. They continue to face neglect or worse, on account of their young years. Millions remain illiterate, while unemployment rates among young people are two to three times higher than those amongst adults – the result not just of lack of opportunity, but also a lack of experience and skills. Our societies cannot build a future on these weak foundations.”

Many politicians, community leaders and others are far from convinced that harnessing the active involvement of youth represents an effective strategy for achieving better outcomes. Youths in Zambia are stereotyped by adults as being irresponsible, immature, lacking capacity, inexperienced, ambitious, aggressive and impatient. This is the reason why youths do not make constructive suggestions when they are consulted sometimes, because they know that their suggestions would not have an impact.  Youths feel discriminated against by our own elders, as well as by the media, schools and churches, by our local community, by civil society and by political parties. A narrow youth lens has widened, in the belief that allaspects of national life have a youth dimension, and that our work must reflect that.

Therefore, youth participation in organisations and communities have a lot of  benefits some which include: bringing new perspectives, ensuring programs are responsive and effective, community capacity building, promoting inclusive and cohesive communities, and developing social competence and social responsibility. But for the fact that a youth-adult relationships in all spheres of life have been characterized by the notion that adults are superior and more knowledgeable, while young people are not fully mature, are inferior and have very little to offer.  This attitude leads to the belief that adults are entitled to control many aspects of young people’s lives without their consent. Consequently, adults often take it upon themselves to make decisions affecting young people without their participation. In such situations where young people are involved, “adults still speak more often than young people, interrupt their sentences, frustrate their involvement within society, and hence cause them to withdraw from participation.”For effective participation, young people must also be authentic and think through their involvement right from inception.

World Vision’s case studies on young people’s participation in peace building in Somalia, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya indicates that it is a misconception that young people are empty vessels who are there to receive knowledge and instructions, this hampers young people’s effective participation in decision making processes. Young people are often not given the space to explore, form and express what they know or want.  For instance, the songs, dance and drama through which young people raise issues; propose solutions and appeal to decision-makers e.g. Donchi kubeba song by dandy crazy, this song was written and sang by a youth, it had a lot of message in it and it hooked a lot of peoples mind in the 2011 general election. This is just an example of what a youth is capable of doing and the impact on society.

Effective participation requires that young people affected by conflict should be listened to and their views taken into account in peace, conflict management and reconciliation processes.  This has proven to be a challenge at community level especially in villages, as these processes generally take place under the framework of traditional conflict resolution mechanisms managed by adult clan heads, traditional chiefs and, sometimes rigid, bureaucratic government officials. On the other hand, it is a clear fact that young people tend to exclude themselves from decision-making. The question is, why? This is likely because young people lack confidence or think that they do not have the skills. Young people sometimes do not put forth any extra effort in order to overcome certain challenges and give durable solutions to their ongoing concerns.

Some cultural beliefs, religious faith, political affiliation and peer groups contribute negatively to the youth self-esteem and confidence.  Some other attitudes that undermine our participation in decision making are that too many young people feel that their views do not matter, that they cannot influence outcomes and that democracy does not work for them. They underestimate the influence they have because they have not been given the opportunity to explore and discover their potential to cause change.

However, for young people to learn their rights and responsibilities, Government of the day should provide access to information and education and training for them. The youth should be schooled in democratic processes, citizenship, decision-making, governance and leadership such that they develop the technical skills and confidence to participate in these processes and advocate for dedicated and adequate resourcing to support youth participation in decision making processes. The government should advocate for young people to have equitable access to participate in their communities, the government should promote participation strategies that engage young people in supportive and meaningful ways.  Leaders should advocate for the active involvement of young people in designing, planning and evaluating youth policy and service delivery frameworks. They should also advocate for the active and supported participation of young people in their individual care planning and case management. This means that every young person should have the right to social, economic, political and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity and in equal enjoyment of the common heritage of mankind.

Some main obstacles to young people’s participation in decision making processes include:

a) Culture of social exclusion: Few institutions encourage or invite the participation of young people in their decision making processes at national level. “Some forums where decisions are taken are very restrictive and are not open to the public”. We then consider the difficulty of our participation in decision making processes as part of a larger problem that affects the entire society.

b) Inflexible organizational culture: highly structured and formal decision making processes – e.g., in order to participate in a decision making process often one has to be a member of that organization. This prevents many youths who are not members of the organization from participating. Few organizations exist in which young people can meet, discuss, and plan activities together. As young people are encouraged to form our own associations but without support, this then makes it hard to find a place in adult organizations.  Many young people see little advantage in joining organizations or in taking part in political life, since they do not believe that the organizations concerned will meet their needs.

c) The culture of apathy: some young people think that they do not need to participate in the decision making processes. “We have learnt to leave everything to those in the higher hierarchy who do everything on our behalf but sometimes they do not do this as we would like, it happens everywhere: in the church, school, association, etc.”

d) Unemployment: Young people in Zambia describe employment as a major area of discrimination against youth.  Going back to school as young adults is almost impossible, as few vocational training institutions have been established.  The common perception of young people as reckless and irresponsible adds a further layer of disadvantage.  As a consequence, they are highly vulnerable to a variety of social ills, including family break-up, aggressiveness, and high levels of prostitution, vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases, irresponsible paternity, drug abuse, and criminality.  Regarding the fact that young women prefer to participate more in faith-based institutions than they do in the community organizations are as a result of repressive socio-religious norms (imposed on young females in particular).

Nevertheless, although a significant proportion of the youths may be healthier and better educated than before the task of investing in them as a whole is also extremely complex, as the disadvantaged are subject to so many pressures and obstacles in their journey to self-empowerment that. They can easily be overwhelmed; these include malnutrition, disease, poor formal education (or none at all), drugs, early marriage, unwanted pregnancies, inadequate or non-existent health services, orphans heading their AIDS-orphaned families, trafficking, prostitution, unrealistic expectations, extreme competition for such jobs as exist, unemployment, refugee-status and recruitment into crime and civil conflict.

The progress of civilization is largely determined by the extent to which each individual is given the opportunity to contribute to the development and advancement of society.  The world’s 1.2 billion young people aged 15 - 24 constitute 18 per cent of the global population and are an essential part of this process. Aside from their material and intellectual contributions, youths offer unique aptitudes and perspectives that must be assimilated into the broader development paradigm and translated into effective action on the ground. Unfortunately, negative perceptions of youth, the failure to help them develop to their full potential, the inability to recognize that investing in youth benefits national development, and the consequent unwillingness and incapacity of society to fully involve young people in a meaningful way have effectively deprived the world of a resource of inestimable value (World Report on Youth, 2007).

The government should then identify the strategic intervention areas, of which according to my opinion the hereunder are the most effective areas; Youth work, education and training; Governance, development, youth network; Youth enterprise and sustainable livelihoods; Advocacy and partnerships for resources mobilization; Programme monitoring and evaluation

Youths are a crucial segment of society; they are the basis for future development. Young people are social actors of change and can serve as a pressure group to lobby governments in defining their priorities. It has been clearly stressed that “youth are not only the leaders of tomorrow, but the partners of today”.

The former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan underlined the role of youth as actors who have real expertise complementary to that of academics and researchers.  It is important to strive towards the involvement of young people as active citizens.  It is very sad to note that as youths in Zambia we are mostly remembered in times of elections and used as tools for violence.