YOUTH ADVOCACY IN AFRICA, THE SOLUTION !

 

 

YOUTH ADVOCACY EFFECIVENESS IN AFRICA ! HOW TO REACH THE VULNERABLE, MARGINALIZED AND YOUNG GENERATION.

Advocacy is the foremost approach for engaging young people in designing, implementing, and evaluating policies and programs that address challenges that affect their well-being. Young people are the advocates of change.

Advocacy is pivotal in achieving human rights principles and outcomes geared towards empowering youths in Africa to take up space in achieving political, economic, and social sustainability in the continent. Youth are the driving force behind economic prosperity in future decades.

The complexity of social change, policy influence, and limitation of digital media create considerable challenges in achieving the expected advocacy outcomes of youth and children in society. Efforts at advocacy are often constrained by different institutional and pragmatic challenges such as the status of children in society, the hierarchical family, social and political structure, and the inherent intricacies of international development.

Children and Youth Advocacy in Africa: Context, Approaches and Lessons

UNICEF launches Youth Advocacy Guide, written by African youth

UNICEF YOUTH ADVOCACY GUIDE

In Africa, the complicated human rights context and the perception of children in society create major challenges for effective advocacy by young people. The patronizing and patriarchal nature of society still affects the perception and participation of children and their civic engagement roles.

Moreover, despite the technological growth in the continent, this has not altered the status of children in society. The digital divide between parents and children often leads to greater parental control of the use of social media although major inequities exist in terms of access and utilization of digital media by a different group of young people hence hindering effective advocacy.

Moreover, other challenge's facing the achievement of the child's rights agenda and the ability of youths to be their spokesperson are poor lobbying and advocacy skills, lack of political space for participation, shortage of financial and human resources, lack of platform for the exchange of best practices, fragmentation and lack of coordination.