African nations have let down their youth

The African Youth Charter addresses the need for the empowerment of young people and their participation in the development of Africa (African Union 2006). A youth can be defined as someone who is young. Furlong (2012) states that while recognizing that member states use different ages to define youth, the United Nations defines a youth as someone between the ages of 15 and 24. The African Union charter (1999) defines youth as those aged between 15 and 35. The African charter was adopted in 2006 and came into force on 8 August 2009. As of April 2013, 41 countries had signed out of which only 31 had ratified the document. This essay will discuss how the African Youth Charter has failed to be fully implemented (despite being in force in the last six years), leading to the social, political and economic problems still faced by young people in Africa today.

First of all, inorder to properly tackle the problems youths are facing today in Africa, every country should have effective youth policies as stated in Article 12 of the charter. These are principles that deal with challenges such as lack of access to quality education, high unemployment rates and lack of involvement in government. According to the State of the Youth Policy 2014, 31 countries have no national youth policy. Of these 14 are in Africa, 9 in Asia, 5 in the Americas and 3 in Europe. Anectodal evidence also suggest that various countries are at different stages of the process (Kimenyi, 2013).

Education is said to be the key to success. The African Youth Charter’s Article 13 provides for education and skills development. Even though education has been made free in many countries in Africa there are still challenges in most public schools. Infrastructure is poor, there is lack of basic things like chalks,classes, desks and poor morale among teachers due to low salary. In response to this, education has become commercialised in terms of remedial classes. Passing of exams is linked to attendance of these extra-tuition, and in some instances leakages where teachers sell examination papers to students (Francis, 2002). Furthermore, girls from poor families are asked to give sexual favors to teachers in exchange for tutorials, leakage and other exams-related activities.

Most of the education systems in africa are not of good quality for the development of skills. The African job market could soon be filled by ‘half-baked graduates’ who lack adequate skills. It can be said that education is becoming a ‘for-profit’ activity and the notion that knowledge should be shared is dying slowly.

Unemployment is major problem for many young people in Africa today. Declining growth and economic restructuring have led to poor labour absorption. According to the World Bank (2013), South Africa has the highest unemployment rate in Africa of people aged between 15-24 at 53.6 percent followed by Libya (51.2), Egypt (38.9), Gabon (35.4). Botswana (34.1) and Guinea having the lowest rate at 1.5 percent. Unemployment leads youths to criminal activities. According to Jorge Saba Arbache of the World Bank, unemployed youths are often exposed to conflicts and illegal activities many of them fall prey to armed conflicts. This is true because unemployment has led to the radicalisation of some youths in Kenya to join Al Shabaab militant group, where they are promised ‘good money’. Some youths have also been radicalised to join Boko Haram in Nigeria.

It can be further said that unemployment in South Africa has led to xenophobia attacks of nationals of other African countries. According to an Inter Press Service article by Tommy Trenchard in January 9, 2013, a high unemployment rate in Sierra Leone is fuelling drug use among the country’s urban youth. Even as youths engage in antisocial activities those who start entreprenual works do not get the condusive environment to do their business. Hawkers are denied their rights. Those who sell clothes along the streets of Nairobi are always chased away by city officials. Some of them loose their goods or are injured.Consequently, these youths turn into mugging and other vices that result to the rise of insecurity in the cities.

Article 2 of the Youth Charter provides for non-discrimination in terms of race, ethnicity, religion or any other grounds. First, discrimination has been experienced in Kenya where youths of ethnic Somali origin are stereotyped as belonging to Al Shabaab. They are treated by law enforcers and the rest of society as if they are not Kenyans. Fatma an international relations graduate student from the United States International University (USIU) narrates to Umar Stambuli how she faced discrimination from a news editor (Stambuli, 2015).

We further see that there is discrimination in terms of gender, which violates Article 23 of the charter. Julie (2012) states that the 2012 gender report in Nigeria shows imbalance in education and that nearly 50 percent of young women become mothers before they turn 20.

Article 24 of the charter also caters for the physically and mentally challenged youths. This special group of people is discriminated in many ways. In Mathari Hospital, the largest mental hospital in Kenya, has appaling conditions. The way patients, many of them youths, are handled leaves one wondering whether we live in a just society. The wards are crowded and dirty. Other youths have been neglected by their relatives. The facilites and medication are inadequate. Disabled youths continue to suffer widespread stigma and discrimination.

Another form of discrimination is racism, which is still rife in Africa. Moore (2014) lists six countries that are hostile to people from Sub-saharan Africa: Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Algeria and Tunisia. It is very sad to see that people who belong to the same continent discriminate against others due to their skin colour. Racism is evil and should be condemned in every possible way. Youths from sub-Saharan Africa cannot go to work in these nations. This frustrates efforts to build African unity.

There are cultural practices that are harmful to young people in Africa and article 25 of the charter provides for their elimination. First, in traditional African society women were undermined and were not treated as being equally to men. This persists in many places. Second, practices like female genital mutilation and early marriages need to be eliminated. FGM is still widespread in Africa. According to UNICEF as of July 2014, the countries that have the highest rates are Somalia (98%), Guinea (97%), Djibouti (93%), Egypt (91%), Sierra Leone (90%), Mali (89%) and Sudan (88%). FGM affects girls and women physically and emotionally. There is the possible transmission of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV because of the sharing of the instruments. The girls are often tortured.

Early marriages are also common in Africa. Ijaiya states that early marriages are common in Nigeria where girls under the age of 12 years are betrothed to an adult male. She further states that in Nigeria there are reported cases of vasico-vagina fistula, a condition of giving birth when the cervix is not well developed. These are some of the physical effects that happen to the girls. Emotionally, the girls become depressed due to dropping out of school and others are not ready to be mothers.

As earlier stated, many nations in Africa have national youth policies but they are only in paper and little is bieng done to put them into practise. Therefore one could conclude that the the African Youth Charter has been ignored.

It is clear that the youths in Africa are facing challenges despite having a charter that addresses their needs.The African Union should emphasise that all member states should have national youth policies that are working and helping the youth. This should be done by ensuring that during every summit the heads of states of member countries present a report on how their youths are progressing, with evidence.

*Vincent Mirang'a Mwangi is in his First Year, studying for a BA in International Studies at the University of Nairobi.

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