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EDITION 5 || Q4 2012

A D D R E S S I N G T H E N E E D S O F T H E A F R I C A N Y O U T H S

THE WORLD BANK DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2013: JOBS IN AFRICA4

EMPLOYMENT FOR AFRICAN YOUTH AN IMPORTANT CATALYST FOR ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION9

INTRODUCING THE AFRICA COMMISSION OF PRACTICE (AFCOP)11

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EDITION 5 || Q4 2012

A D D R E S S I N G T H E N E E D S O F T H E A F R I C A N Y O U T H S

How and why did the Roskilde

Festival Start?It started originally out of the need for

peace, love and understanding the

movement in the late 60's. The

woodstock festival in the United States

in 1969 I guess inspired a lot of people

all over the world, in the western world

for this kind of enjoying the music and

the youth so, originally, the idea was to

make a peaceful and loving festival for

youngstars in the 70's. The first concert

was held in 1971.

what have been your growth

experiences over the years?As far as I remember, at the festival in

71, there was somewhere between 6 –

8,000 people and this year we have

about 80,000 ticket buyers and around

50,000 volunteers, media people and

artists and so on. The festival has been

growing every year since 1971.

Why has the festival taken a social

edge?Actually, in the second festival, the

Roskilde Foundation as it was called at

that time took over the festival, the first

festival was organised by a few

students and a private guy with money.

They organised the festival and the

money disappeared. So, the Roskilde

foundat ion f rom 72 took the

responsibility of building up the festival.

Originally, the Foundation had these

statutes around youth and culture and

the festival has built both its statutes,

rules and conduct on top of the

foundation's statutes. It has been the

whole idea from the beginning to make

a space for youth to be creative,

relaxed, enjoy and experience a lot of

nice music.

The festival has been

growing every year since

1971.

ROSKILDE FESTIVAL SUPPORTING THE AFRICAN YOUTH PANELRoskilde Festival in 2010 provided the African Youth Panel with a bridging grant for 2years to

strenghten the network and allow opportunities for regional summits and dialogue on the African

continent. Rotimi Olawale caught up with the Chairperson of RF, Steen Jorgensen to seek further

understanding on the work of the festival and why it is supporting the African Youth panel.

“ “

NEWSLETTERAYP An in-house publication of the African Youth Panel

Aerial View of Roksilde Festival 2012 during a performance by Bruce Springsteen

Steen at the Roskilde Festival 2012

2


Why is the Festival supporting the African Youth

Panel?Over the last 10years, the festival has tried to make a lot of

visible statements around issues touching on the society.

We have been involved with projects around the Palestine

problems and so on and the environment and we try to

make these statements for 2-3years at a time and be

supportive of different projects that fall within these

statements. We had decided 2years ago on poverty as a

statement because it's an issue with a global perspective

but it's also an issue within the Dannish community just to

have a discussion on whether or not there are poor people

in Denmark. We had cases of homeless people dying from

low temperature on the streets of Copenhagen, in my

opinion, that is poverty as well as what we see in other

parts of the world in Africa and other countries. So, Henrik

(the CEO of Roskilde Festival) and I went to the United

Nations summit in New York in 2010 and met the African

Youth Panel there. And at that time, we were introduced to

the panel and the whole idea and the fact that the Dannish

Government oringinally financed the African Youth Panel

and funding was running out. We also recognise the panel

as a civil society project from the African continent which is

the youngest continent in the world but it's also a continent

where young people meet difficulties in getting their point

of views held and getting influence. The discussion with

the panel in New York convinced us that in terms of our

statutes and rules of ethics, the panel was the right thing to

support. We have a lot of sympathy for the project but we

also see parallel perspectives since the festival itself is

dealing with a strategic direction of creating a social

movement. Connecting with the Dannish reality with the

African reality, we are able to be supportive and glad to be

supportive.

Were you at the first Festival in 1971?I wasn't at the first festival in '71 but was at the second one

in '72

Have you missed any of the festival since '72?Yes. I have been working in the provinces of Denmark in

the 90's but I was here for 14years and then had family and

kids and work for 6years in the 90's and I have been here

for the last 15years.

What is the biggest thing you like about the festival,

one word?(smiles) one word? PAUSE. I am looking for the word in

English. Space will be one word. Roskilde Festival offers

room for everything. You can come here with your ideas,

with your thoughts, personal relations and you're

welcome. There's space for everyone

Thank you so much for your time:You're welcome

The festival has tried to make a lot of visible statements

around issues touching on the society“ “

A group picture of participants at the 2011 summit AYP Members at the AYP summit in Addis Ababa 2011

3


THE WORLD BANK DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2013: JOBS IN AFRICASOLA FAGORUSI

Christopher McDouglas may not be known in

several circles. But his thought which

resonates beyond simple description lingers.

In his book - Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe,

Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the

World has Never Seen, he writes – “Every

morning in Africa, a Gazelle wakes up. It

knows it must run faster than the fastest lion

or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes

up. It knows it must outrun the slowest

Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't

matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle...

when the sun comes up, you'd better be

running.” The Associated Press foreign

correspondent's book where this was

captured was predominantly about the

Tarahumara tribe in Mexico. Living is alluded

to in this quote. Today, humans may not

literally run but every morning, there is a

dreadful need to earn enough to buy a meal,

pay a couple of bills and live with a sense of

dignity. Jobs are the surest means to this

since man no longer literally hunt like the lions

do.

Enter 11pm GMT, October 1st 2012 the World

Bank Development Report 2013 was made

available to the world. The focus was on Jobs.

The president of the International Bank for

Reconstruction and Development, IBRD, Dr.

Jim Yong Kim strongly suggests that, “a good

job can change a person's life, and the right

jobs can transform entire societies....”

Governments in developing nations owe their

citizenry this much. Countries measure, to an

extent, their level of progress on the numbers

of jobs created asides other indices. Political

campaigns are based on promises of the

numbers of job that would be created. Jobs

unarguably are the sources of incomes

individuals have, except you are Warren

Buffet's heir, even at that!

Development has anchorage in job

availability. Crime rate drops, violence is

reduced, poverty is also tackled and the

country fairs better when jobs are available

says the 2013 World Bank report. The debt

crisis in Europe, the global economic

meltdown of 2008 and the growing concern

clearly points at unemployment as a key and

growing developmental concern. Barack

Obama could win or lose the election to Mitt

Romney, on the basis of figures showing how

many jobs have been lost or created, in the

forthcoming November 2012 election. It's

obvious that 'policies are now being observed

through the job lens. In Africa, despite the

huge availability of mineral resources and

other earth treasures, unemployment

remains a pain. It translates that these

resources do not mean better welfare

condition for the people.' Nigeria is aiming at

solving the problem indirectly – Empower a

few to empower more. It calls hers Youwin

and it is for those under 45. In its second

edition, it seems to try to merge last year's

and this year's World Bank Report focus as

the 2nd edition is for women only.

The 2013 report looks incisively at Jobs as

against last year's which zeroed in on Gender

Equality and development. In the 34 years of

the World Development Report series, it is

the second time the apex bank is choosing

jobs as a subject. It is understandable given

the figures. The report says that some 200

million people around the world are today

unemployed. 'That number is particularly

stark for young people: more than a third of

those without a job are under 25 years old,

while around 621 million young people today

are neither at work nor in school. Just to keep

employment rates constant, the worldwide

number of jobs will have to increase by

around 600 million over a 15-year period.',

says Martin Rama, a senior staff at the bank.

The challenge is a tall order in Sub-Saharan

Africa where 10 million youth enter the labour

force every year.

The report discusses how poverty level

reduces as people earn more and that in the

case of women, it allows for more investment

in their children's health and education.

'Efficiency increases as workers get better at

what they do, as more productive jobs

appear, and as less productive ones

disappear.' The report also makes a case for

the need for Public Private Partnership which

accounts for '90% of all jobs.' At the heart of

this however are small firms. Several micro

enterprise birthing and growth helps to create

jobs and those 'jobs equal hope, peace and

stability for fragile countries.' The report

submits that more than 3 billion people are

working, but nearly half work in farming, small

household enterprises, or in casual or

seasonal day labour... and earnings are often

meagre.' In sub Saharan Africa, the report

confirms that 4 out of 5 employed people fall

in this category.

The 2013 report is not all about figures, it also

suggest solutions. It craves that government

have solid structures of macroeconomic

stability, a favourable business environment,

human capital and it also inserts the rule of

law into these needs. The report requests that

labour policies should not be a barrier to job

creation and that job should be bespoke

given the peculiarity of a nation's economy. It

says 'the differences in the structure of

employment across regions, across genders,

and across age groups are striking.'

Technology also has a share of the blame

despite its huge potentials and needs.

Machines are replacing man and the job

market is shrinking. A synthesis would be

needed to ensure that machines are a plus

and not minuses. South Africa still blazes the

trail in terms of economic growth on the

African continent. Without the former

apartheid nation, economic growth would be

pegged at 6%. Foreign investment in the

region is however still solid at $31 billion flow

expected in the year covered.

The report however does not fully review the

role of financial agencies in creating the

financial environment that is largely pro-rich

and anti-job creation. Apparently, the World

Bank would have to continue fostering growth

through its policy inputs, provision of long

term loans for human, infrastructure and

private sector development. Jobs seem to be

the only channel out of impoverishment. It

would have to be both formal and informal like

the report suggests. For Africa, the report in

addition alludes to the need for education and

good health cares. As I write this, the

president of Nigeria's presentation of the

2013 budget to the national assembly is being

aired live. It's the first time education will be

toping the proposed spending even at a paltry

8.7%. It's a $31.3 billion budget. The World

Bank report would merit a place on the shelf

of any developmental economist, expert or

policy maker and interrogator. As expected,

the report is rich with 800 surveys and

censuses used to arrive at its findings. For

governments in Africa, it would not be out of

place to suggest that '... when the sun comes

up, you'd better be running', creating more

jobs and getting people off the street!

' S o l a F a g o r u s i , a d e v e l o p m e n t

communication graduate student and

freelance essayist writes from Kaduna,

Nigeria. He can be reached @sfagorusi.

4


EMPLOYMENT FOR AFRICAN YOUTH AN IMPORTANT CATALYST FOR ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION ROBERT KASENENE

It is difficult to speak of changing Africa's

prospects at all levels of society without

dwelling on the importance of young people

in the equation. For the continent, assuring

its young people with decent, rewarding and

transformative employment could not be

overemphasized today. The significance of a

productive youth population was shown with

clarity when Algeria, Egypt, Libya and some

Arab states were faced with popular

uprising, whose underlying causes were the

lack of jobs and corruption among others.

Economies that are lacking system-wide

absorption of working age populations are

mostly faced with a myriad of challenges as

a result. In their cases, there is usually high

levels of crime and exploitation of low

income and vulnerable groups. Other

phenomena can also be observed. Qualified

individuals cannot find suitable jobs fitting

their skill and education levels. Hence many

start informal businesses and take up low

paying jobs, resulting in underemployment.

But where systems are work ing;

encouraging a strong private sector with

appropriate policy that helps growth, boosts

the creation of new businesses, diversifying

economic activity and promoting local

production; employment levels, savings and

local investment would be high and an

economic path such as that painted by the

Asian tigers (Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan

and South Korea) would be seen.

Africa stands at a critical moment in history

where the right actions taken can mean

important economic yields in the decades to

come. One important aspect here is the fact

that the continent has the youngest

population globally today. Estimates from

analysts project that Africa will have the

largest labor force in the world by 2035. In a

report by the Mckinsey Global Institute,

Africa is projected to receive up to 122

million new entrants in the job market by

2020, but is expected to only create 72

million new stable wage paying jobs in the

same period.

To take fullest advantage of the expected

demographic dividends in the coming years,

there needs to be consistent and sustained

intervention. Granted African Union Heads

of States committed to reducing youth

unemployment by 2% annually until 2015,

but, what does this mean exactly? Specific

actions to this effect are still lacking one year

after this ground-braking decisions by

African Heads of States. An understanding

and consensus, in itself, of what is entailed

on achieving this milestone is also yet to be

reached. There are strategic policy actions

being taken, e.g. the implementation of the

African Youth Charter (2006) through its

r oadmap , t he Decade on You th

Development Plan of Action, but this does

not spell out how or what actions to take to

achieve the 2% reduction. Whilst the

commitment is being displayed, matching

strategic action are a distance behind.

Some of the challenges the continent faces

in creating jobs include the following;

a) Instabilities; macroeconomic,

political and regulatory

b) Expensive services; business,

finance and labor

c) Access; utilities (electricity and

water) and communication (telecoms and

internet).

The challenges can be seen with varying

degrees of intensity on the continent and in

no way do they occur in particular order

across the board. Therefore, continental

action on job creation should take into

consideration these diversities. Different

investments are needed in different

countries. Whilst one might be lacking a

supportive business environment because

electricity and financing are lacking, another

might have favourable conditions in those

areas, but can in-turn have political

instability compounding the problem.

Clearly for Africa, informed and decisive

action needs to be seen now if the continent

is to yield the expected demographic

dividends. Finding local and continentally

generated labor information and data is a

challenge. For this piece, online research

revealed no information produced by Africa

itself. Rather the United Nations and other

global players seemed to have more to say

on the subject than Africa.

If any action is to be or is being taken, then

precedence must be placed on generating

local understanding of the current situation

on employment, especially among Africa's

youth. The African Union Commission

should be leading this drive and regional

youth led organizations and networks, such

as the African Youth Panel on Youth

Employment, Governance and Participation

can play an important supportive role.

By: Robert Kasenene,CoDe Services, MDConnect African Development Blog –

Head Editor

Clearly for Africa, informed and decisive action needs to be

seen now if it is to yield the expected demographic

dividends.“ “5


ON THE HOTSEAT:

Ibrahim CEESAYAYP Chair

6


A Participants at a recent Roskilde Festival 2012B Steering Committee meeting with the Minister for Development in Denmark,

July 2012C Robert Nkwangu, Marwa Jabou, Godfrey, Diana Bulanda and Helder Malauene

at Roskilde Festival 2012

A

B

C

7


COMMENTS FROM AYP MEMBERS AFTER RFComments by AYPSC on the Roskilde Participation:

Ibrahim Ceesay,

The Gambia:

Illuminating and exciting

Christian Kam,

Cameroun :

Life Changing Experience

Thomas Ravn-Pedersen: It has been a pleasure. It has been

fun. It has been a lot of work. It has

been a number of victories, some

struggles, some discussions but the

final result is something all involved

(me, African Youth Panel, the

Steering Committee, Roskilde

Festival, DANIDA, Africa, Denmark)

would be proud of.

Marwa Jabou, Tunisia:

If you feel like being in another

world, meet amazing people,

share thousands of experiences,

just attend Roskilde Festival.

Helder Maluene, Mozambique:

Roskilde Festival is that

place that has made me

sure that together we can

make othe world a better

place to be

Felix Limbani, Malawi:

Roskilde Rocks. The best of

times for the rest of times.

Rotimi Olawale, Nigeria:

The festival has shown what can

be achieved by pulling together

people to work in harmony and

with a common purpose. Its space

for expression is unparalleled.

Robert Nkwangu,

Uganda:

I am happy to volunteer, to

make friends to learn many

things and I hope to take that

back to my country

Diana Bulanda

Roskilde Festival is the best festival that shows the

real diversity and cultural interaction among ourselves

8


SPECIAL GUEST:

Emmanuel Etim, African UnionAt the sidelines of the Conference of Ministers of Youth IV (COMYIV) which held in Addis Ababa last

month, Youthhubafrica's Rotimi Olawale sat down with Emmanuel Etim, Senior Programs and

Partnerships Expert, African Union Commission, Division for Youth to unpack the African Union's

plans and progress on youth development in Africa. Read the interview below

Q: Can you introduce yourselfA: My name is Emmanuel Etim and I work for

the African Union Commission Division for

youth as the Senior Programs and

Partnerships Expert.

Q: Just recently, the Conference of

Ministers of Youth (COMYIV) came to an

end, how will you rate this meeting of

Ministers. We also noticed that the format

for this meeting is significantly different

to other Conference of Youth Ministers,

what necessitated this change and do you

think this change was effective?A: Well, the change was proposed as a

pioneer for a probable change that will

happen to other Conference of Ministers

given the fact that the commission felt that

the ministers needed to be more involved in

the negotiations,discussions and dialogues

that determine the decisions that are being

proposed. This is because the level of

response of countries to implement the

resolution of the commission was felt as the

basis for which the countries need to

participate in even negotiating the outcomes

and that was one of the reasons why this

change was proposed among many other

dimensions to look at it. What was learnt

about it all was the role of national

preparations, in such a way that we may not

necessarily expect the ministers must debate

the issues at the conference, rather we

should st imulate the debates and

discussions around this long time before so

that they are already coming with a position

around the ideas and issues. By the next

conference of Youth Ministers, we should

already start preparing them for it, the

background documents, the dialogue, the

debates, and the consultations that are

required. In fact, I think what this will require

is a National guideline and preparation for the

conference of Ministers which must be

institutionalised so that there are structures

at national levels that will ensure

consultations, preparations, so that when the

ministers come, even if they are there for

thirty minutes to two hours, they are pushing

forward the position of their Government,

which is a representative position to the

conference.

Q: Over the last couple of years, there has

been a major push by the African Union

towards professionalising youth

development and youth work on the

continent. What is your take on this and

what direction is the AU moving on this?Well, at a personal level, coming from the

background of youth development work, it's a

good step in the right direction because again

you want to place value on the work young

people are doing and also the work on youth

and development not necessarily limited to

just the concept of participation or right on the

one hand or experience. We are trying to give

some scientific argument and model to that

experience and to ensure that it is replicable

among other things. I think the other direction

for the African Union, in my capacity is to

advise on what steps should be taken, and

one of the steps that we are advising and

mobilising partnerships for is to establish

Regional Centres for Youth Studies and

Research. These regional centres will serve

as pilot to promote the concept of

professionalising youth work across the

continent, provide trainings, fellowships and

help to generate the knowledge base that is

required for such ideas to be part of the

academic system and part of the body of

knowledge that drives development work on

the continent.

Q : O n t h e i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f

recommendations of the African Union at

each of the Youth Ministers Meetings held

in the past,how do we know or ensure that

these recommendations are being

implemented especially at country

levels?

A: Well, I must tell you the truth. We have

done a lot. I think from the last two

conferences of Youth ministers, we have

achieved 80% implementation rate. The

conference of Heads of State held last year,

we have done 75% of what was required for

us to do. I think the impact of implementing

these decisions need two things. One:

effective communication on what is being

done and packaged for the right audience.

The second is that the constituencies at

country levels need to have access to these

information in order for them to hold their

governments accountable. National level

implementation is a soveriegnty issue,

countries maintain their sovereignty to

determine what is priority for them but if they

have as it were, in a collective sense of

responsibility agreed to a common priority at

the continental level, it is now left for the

constituencies at country level including

youth leaders, civil society and partners to

ensure that the issue remains top agenda

especially when it comes to national

budgeting and implementation.

Q: Can you cite examples of such

recommendations that have been

implemented?A: There are several. For example, the

mandate of the summit said we should

develop the capacity to monitor and track

progress in the continent. We have deployed

fifty young consultants across the continent

who are collecting data from countries. We

have sent four consultants to all the regional

commissions to collect data and we are

finding very important information from all of

those analysis. It does not end there, we

have now put in place a Country Technical

Assistance Mechanism which will now

provide technical and financial support to

countries to respond to targets of the decade

plan of action on youth in Africa by 2018. You

will also notice on the issue of youth

employment that we have already began a

300 million dollars worth of partnership

negotiations across different partners to help

countries respond to the challenge of youth

employment and also in terms of

entrepreneurship, we are putting together a

joint initiative on business support

development services and this hopes to set

up incubators for intra-African business

d e v e l o p m e n t a n d c o u n t r y l e v e l

9


SPECIAL GUEST: Emmanuel Etim, African Union

implementation. The third part is that the

volunteer program has been expanded, now,

even the African Union Commission is going

to be implementing a Junior Professionals

Program based on previous experience with

the AU youth volunteer scheme and we are

also getting a lot of requests from partners

who now want young professionals from

Africa. I think in terms of implementation rate,

it's significant. More countries are requesting

to train the AU youth volunteers. More

countries are giving us volunteers to be

trained and are funding and supporting it and

more countries are taking part in the

initiatives that are been proposed at bilateral

levels. So there's a lot going on.

Q: The African Youth Charter has been

seen as one of such instruments where

the African Union has enjoyed massive

support from countries. It is reportedly

one of very few documents and charters

that in the space of few years has gotten

more than twenty five member state

ratification. How was this feat achieved?A: I think the first thing I need to even mention

on that is that as part of the decisions, the

Heads of States said that the Africa Peer

Review Mechanism should expand its

indicators to include the African Youth

Charter, that exercise has been completed

and now we are at the stage where we will be

sending a youth expert with all APRM country

missions. We will produce monographs of all

country reviews and we are going to be

working with the Ministry of Youth in member

states to ensure that there is a youth on all

national Governing Councils of APRM at

country levels. We have also now began to

make efforts to establish a High Level

Taskforce on the Right of Youth and within

that same framework use the National

Human Rights institutions to ensure

enforcement and accountability. I gave all of

this first to say the African Youth Charter is

not just ratified by thirty countries, we have

moved beyond just ratification. This was

achieved because young people use their

demographic value to ensure that they

created a lot of awareness and information

about it. I must say that a lot of countries had

to respond because of the concern about

youth and their ability to organise and

challenge the status quo. At the political level,

that was one of the reasons why the charter

was widely ratified. It also shows that there

are some interest somewhere politically

speaking to respond to the issues of youth,

however vague as it may be in terms of

implementation, youth organisations played

a lot of role to making sure that more

countries ratified and are ratifying.

Q; Youth Unemployment is growing

bigger by the day on the African

Continent. The African Heads of State

recognised this at the Malabo Summit and

agreed in one of its recommendations to

set aside 2% of national budgets to deal

with it. How would this be achieved?A: For one, we went to the Meeting of the

African Ministers of Finance and Economy to

propose this idea of percentage allocation

and they just said very clearly – civil society

professionals and activists cannot just

distribute the national budget, there is

something called National Accounting and

from what many organisations and

recommendations have suggested for

education, health e.t.c. If we put all of it

together, we are already looking at 120% of

the budget of countries, which is not realistic.

So, one of the things that is making sense for

us is to understand what percentage of the

GDP growth we need to achieve on the

continent for us to have a 2% reduction in

youth unemployment and that discussion

has begun, we have been part of several

conversation to now analyse this. These are

the dimensions, youth employment is not

going to be achieved only by giving young

people training in entrepreneurship, the

economy should be able to absorb the

people who have the skills and be

industrialised enough to utilise those skills

and pay for it. Emphasis will now become

'how to equip young people to start engaging

in issues of broad macro-economic sector

growth and inclusive growth'. That is the next

direction we are taking, to move the

discussions from just employment to

employment that is part of a broader macro-

economic target.

Q: At the global level, the UN is trying to

implement a new youth strategy and one

of the focus of that is to appoint a Special

Adviser on Youth to the UN Secretary

General. At the last COMYIV, one of the

recommendations was to ensure that the

strategy is implemented and also

possibly endorse and support an African

candidate. What's the take of the AU on

this?

A: The African Union is a secretariat of

member states and if this request have come

from countries, yes the AU will play its

traditional role of providing information and

facilitating the consultation among member

states on whom and what criteria would

determine this common candidate.

Q: Related to that is also the mobilisation

on the post-2015 agenda. As you also

know, the MDGs did not take into specific

detail the needs of young people,

especially in Africa. How would the AU

use its clout to facilitate a common

position for youth around the post-2015

agenda?A: I will tell you that we already have a history

of ensuring that African youth issues are on

the global agenda. We did it in Mexico (the

Global Youth Summit) in 2010, we did it in

New York ( UN High Level Meeting on Youth

Development) in 2011, and in 2012. We have

already started talking with the different

stakeholders and we have been part of

several consultations around post-2015 and

the youth agenda for Africa. How this is going

to be elaborated is still going to depend on

what structures have been created by the

United Nations, but in a few months from

now, there will be a delegation of the African

Union to the United Nations to fashion a

concrete activity and engage the African

Group at the UN to push forward the youth

issues as part of the agenda.

Q: Overall, what direction will the AU be

looking at towards youth development in

the coming years?A: I think that it's taking a better shape, a

structured shape and more resources are

coming in. What we are looking forward to is

delivering in the next few years the minimum

status and standard for which a young

person in Africa lives will be transformed

comprehensively and integratedly.

Q: Thank you for your timeA: Thank you very much.

10


INTRODUCING THE AFRICA COMMISSION OF PRACTICE (AFCOP) TAYANI BANDA

The Africa Commission of Practice

(AfCoP) is a bilingual virtual community

of over 1,400 members in over 40

African countries and partner countries.

Most members work in African

governments, civil society, and as

independent results experts in the field.

Its core mission is to build African

capacity to manage for development

results through sharing experiences,

networking and building strong learning

relationships between practitioners in

Africa and around the world. Managing

for Development Results (MfDR) is one

of the pillars of the Paris Declaration on

Aid Effectiveness that was developed in

Paris France, by Development partners,

Aid recipients and other partners in

d e v e l o p m e n t . S e e

(http://www.oecd.org/development/a

ideffectiveness/34428351.pdf ). MfDR

is a management strategy that focuses

on using performance information to

improve decision making and involves

using practical tools for strategic

planning, risk management, progress

monitoring, and outcome evaluation.AfCoP concentrates on the following

areas of action, Strengthening Country

Capacity to Manage for Results,

Improv ing the Re levance and

Effectiveness of Aid, and Fostering a

Global Partnership. The international

community agreed to operate under five

principles; Focus the dialogue on results

at all phases of the development

process; Align actual programming,

monitoring, & evaluation activities with

agreed results; Keep results reporting

system as simple, cost-effective, and

user-friendly as possible; Use results

information for management learning

and decision making, as well as for

r e p o r t i n g a n d a c c o u n t a b i l i t y ;

Manage for, not by, results.AfCoP was initially supported by a

secretariat that was housed at the World

Bank in Washington D.C. till the past few

months when it migrated to the African

Development Bank (AfDB) in Tunis. The

AfDB has subsequently approved funds

for implementation of certain activities

under the AfCoP project. I am privileged

to be in the Core Management Team that

guides the activities of AfCoP. Under that

project, there is a proposal to develop a

concept for youth involvement, coined

“Youth for Development Results”. I am in

the team to work on the concept note.

This very brief introduction is part

request for contribution for ideas to input

i n t o t h i s c o n c e p t n o t e . S e e

h t t p : / / w w w . c o p - m f d r -

africa.org/page/about-afcop to read

more about AfCoP and MfDR What

should this concept look like? What

activities can foster youth action in

managing for development results? Etc.

Tayani Vincent BandaEconomist- World Bank DeskMinistry of FinanceDebt and Aid Management Division

A Saba Badi, Jawol Vera and Bockarie Ensah at the AYP West Africa Regional Meeting in 2011

B L-R Robert Nkwangu, Helder Malauene, Shaymar, Ibrahim Ceesay, Jess Auberch and Christian Kam at the UN Summit in New York 2010C AYP west Africa group in Tamale, the Northern region of Ghana

B

A

C

11

Compiled and Edited by Rotimi Olawale Twitter: @rotexonline

to contact the African youth Panel, visit www.africanyouthpanel.org, or email: [email protected]

For comments and feedback on this newsletter, please email Rotimi Olawale on [email protected]

Design support byDamilola Ade, Sprout Consult. [email protected]

The African Youth Panel (AYP) is a non-profit and non-governmental platform of participation and

exchange among youths in Africa, promoting the culture of development and implementing local,

national and regional initiatives. The African Youth Panel (AYP) was initiated under support of the

Danish NGO Forum in spring of 2008 to enable African youths give inputs into the Danish Africa

Commission processes. The project for the establishment of the Panel was funded by the Danish

Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The panel is currently funded by the Roskilde Festival Society and the

Danish Government.

ABOUT AYP

w: http://africanyouthpanel.org/e: [email protected]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/African-Youth-Panel-AYP/118468611561772

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