2014: window for youth?

Forty–nine years after the country attained independence from the British rule, Malawi is still being haunted by nostalgia of the imperialistic colonialism.

The definition of freedom and independence seems to be “colonised’’ or confined to the absence of war and attainment of self-rule. However, in democratic system of government, independence must be more than just the political freedom from the governing control by another country. Independence must be defined as a free state of mind, by individual or collectively as a society, from a political and economic dependency.

True independence furthermore, need several relevant governance policies and conditions be established for the abstract sense of it to substantially qualify for its singular definition. The semantics of the words freedom and independence are basically condensed into this syntactic structure of political governance: developing and promoting justice, respecting human rights, fighting against poverty through the creation of wealth for all citizens in a way to narrow the economic gaps and harmonise social, cultural, political and economic disharmony.

Yet, it seems, the post-colonial hangover remains a cloud on the horizon.

Despite good governance, support for democracy and citizens’ participation in policy processes being critical elements for development and poverty reduction in every country, experience and the general trend in Malawi demonstrate that local citizens, especially the youth are not liberally involved in conceptualisation, decision-making, implementation and analysis of youth-based-development policies.

Information and the privilege to participate in local governance is only restricted to the literate and educated few and these are most often taken to represent views and act on behalf of the general community and youth population in the country, without prior consultation.

By and large, the youth lack interest and capacity to demand and enjoy their basic development rights. There is limited political space for youth participation and the capacity to engage the decision makers and advocate for better services.

Among several factors contributing to this situation is lack of general information about human rights and responsibilities. These often result in violation of the very rights which would probably help protect them from all sorts of abuses.

Ironically, Section30 of the Malawi Constitution states that “all persons and peoples have a right to development and therefore to the enjoyment of economic, social, cultural and political development and youth, women, children and the disabled in particular shall be given special consideration in the application of this right”.

Subsection 2, of the same chapter further assures the citizens that “the State shall take all necessary measures for the realization of the right to development. Such measures include, amongst other things, equality of opportunity for all in their access to basic resources, education, health services, food, shelter, employment and infrastructure”.

Lack of economic opportunities due to several factors including, self-accumulation of wealth by political leaders—cashgate being the case in point—has  serious social implications as the inability to gain financial independence affects young people’s dignity and ability to pursuit higher education, or to start a family.

While unemployment rates remain high among the more educated youth, the very vast majority lacking economic opportunities is the low-skilled youths that have less than a secondary school qualification and over 60 percent are illiterate.

In fact, low-skilled youths represent 42 percent of all unemployed youths. Girls are particularly vulnerable, with a staggering 23 percent of those not in schools being forced into early marriage, according to the 2012-2016 UNICEF Malawi Child Protection Strategy 2012-2016.

Besides, even among those youths who are in employment, they often work under precarious conditions. As it were, the country is still struggling with various governance issues.

Nevertheless, the May 2014 elections are an opportunity of great substance for the youth to advocate for participatory democratic systems and access to policy information held by the state and any of its organs if such information is required for exercise of citizens’ rights to hold their duty-bearers accountable to public resources and better service delivery. Hence, setting a precondition for the elections in form of citizen-candidate social contracts would help create an enabling framework for addressing the key challenges on policy issues which could be translated into improved governance and sustainable socio-economic development for all Malawians.

The author is a Programme Director for Umodzi Youth Organisation (UYO), an institution which is currently implementing Democracy, Human Rights and Governance Programmes.