By Amin Kef Sesay
Are Sierra Leonean young people of both sexes willing to put behind the degrading “bra you borbor dey ya” mentality and decide firmly and fervently to take their destiny into their own hands?
When young people are organized, focused and committed to work with the Government, the private sector, International Community and other stakeholders, the solutions that will enable them to lift themselves from mostly grass to grace becomes a looming reality.
Young people owe it to themselves to see all that is good, noble and worthy in them if they are to become the leaders of tomorrow in all spheres of their public and private lives.
This generation must see themselves as contributors to the development of themselves and the society by refusing to take a laidback attitude to life and seeing that their education, talent and skills can make the difference between a bleak or a bright future.
No doubt, one can see that this generation is the most connected, innovative and best educated. They should focus on building a world that is collaborative, diverse, inclusive and emotionally intelligent if they are not to continue to live on empty promises and unfulfilled dreams.
On the part of the Government, policies, programs and projects that directly target youth empowerment and emancipation are what will deliver the young, especially most the vulnerable youth, from idleness, poverty, despair, drugs, violence and crime.
True, the challenge for this generation remains economic independence and ownership, owning their own resources, owning the means of production, having access to technology, decolonizing their minds and equipping them with the appropriate knowledge that would make them owners and drivers of their destiny
The nation that should be created should be one in which we value our youth as entrepreneurs, innovators and drivers not subjects of development.
The nation, they must live in, should be one that is borderless, transnational, multilingual and multicultural.
Youths can be better equipped to fulfill their destiny if there is a constant, steady flow of intergenerational dialogue and co-leadership.
The future of work needs to be about dignity because young people don’t want just jobs, but jobs with dignity. The future of work needs to be about thriving in a fair ecosystem not merely surviving.
Within which context we can obviously see the crying need for an increase of investment in economic and social development factors.
In which direction, the AU has developed several youth development policies and programs at continental level aimed at ensuring the continent benefits from its demographic dividend that need to be domesticated and fully included in national development planning.
The policies include the African Youth Charter, Youth Decade Plan of Action, and the Malabo Decision on Youth Empowerment.
The African Youth Charter protects young people from discrimination and ensures freedom of movement, speech, association, religion, ownership of property and other human rights, while committing to promoting youth participation throughout society.
The Youth Decade Plan of Action focuses on 5 key priority areas namely:
- Education and Skills Development
- Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship
- Governance, Peace and Security
- Youth Health and Sexual Reproductive Health Rights
- Agriculture, Climate Change and the Environment
The TVET Continental Strategy provides a comprehensive framework for the design and development of national policies and strategies to address the challenges of education and technical and vocational training to support economic development, creation of national wealth and contribute to poverty reduction through youth entrepreneurship, innovation and employment.
