International Youth Day

COMMENTARY ON INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY: YOUTH CIVIC ENGAGEMENT 

The urgent need to engage the youth in all issues of local, national and international development continue to engage the attention of the global community. It is a welcome news that since 2000, the 12th of August has been observed as International Youth Day. Young people are key partners in development at the community, national or international levels. Whether it is Ghana’s National Development Plan, Africa’s Agenda 2063 Plan or United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals; the youth are passionate, willing and determined to be worthy players when consulted and given the opportunity to contribute their quota to societal progress. What it means is that young people are asking for meaningful civic engagement which incidentally is at the heart of this year’s international youth day celebration. Many will ask if there is the need to include the youth in decision-making and whether they have something significant to contribute to development. The response to this question is that “you cannot reap what you do not sow.” 

Every developmental plan looks at what the future has to offer and that future depends on the teeming youth. So any decision about the future which excludes young people as the core contributors and implementors is bound to fail. Many youth policies, plans and strategies have and will continue to fail when young people are sidelined. The youth should be valued and mobilized, so that they can use their talents to push forward the national and global development agenda. A day or two is not enough to understand and implement effective programmes that seek to address issues of youth civic engagement; it should be an unending process. The many speeches including this news commentary and events by various personalities and organizations especially our young people celebrating this International Youth Day, is not enough to tackle youth civic engagement. Generation gap which has yielded a huge inter-generational conflict is the root cause of the lack of engagement our youth suffers. This problem was rightly raised years ago by former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, who said (quote) “no one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline.” Meaningful civic engagement starts right after birth.  It means it should start from the home where parents will engage their children on decisions that affect them directly to ask for the least. Institutions especially schools must allow their students and youth to decide and choose what they want to learn and know. World leaders must allow young people to draw up policies and frameworks that they want to use to design and create the future they want to inherit. It is sad that young people in Ghana are celebrating this important day at a time when their right to quality healthcare has been taken away as a result of the industrial action by medical doctors.

The striking doctors are not setting good examples for the youth when it comes to the subject of civic engagement. We hope our leaders and other decision makers will see the urgent need to find better ways to engage themselves to put an end to the many challenges including the increasing labour agitations, unemployment, corruption and the energy crisis. All necessary steps should be taken so that people in the youthful age group can always be the rallying point to advance Ghana's development.

BY: FRIMPONG MUSA – The Youthologist (youth development expert & advocate)  African Union Youth Ambassador  Founder and President, Youth Without Borders-Ghana &  National Secretary, Ghana Muslim Mission Youth    
Tel: +233 (0) 249460223/264460223  
Email: motivatorfm@gmail.com