EU grants youths stake in development
The European Union (EU) has launched a Youth Sounding Board, a platform for young citizens’ contribution in moulding the organisation’s development agenda.
The board, inaugurated in Lilongwe on Thursday evening, comprises 15 youths that bring in diversified expertise in fields such as economics, climate change, gender and governance.
They were drawn from 350 applicants from across the country after the EU issued a call for expression of interest earlier this year.
Presiding over the ceremony, EU Ambassador Rune Skinnebach said: “We will look to this board to guide and inform our interventions in the country so as to ensure that they are relevant and meaningful to those we intend to reach out to.”
He observed that the youths form the majority of the country’s population, but lamented that the country has not harnessed their potential yet.
Observed the envoy: “Instead of this youth bulge being seen and used as an opportunity to renew the continent’s social and economic capital, young people remain the most marginalised and forgotten.”
One of the board members Wendie Chipofya Okenzie, a certified financial analyst said she would use her position to push for policies that affect vulnerable youths.
“Being on the board will give me a platform to amplify my voice so that we have policies that directly affect youths out there both in Malawi and all over the world,” she said.
The Youth Sounding Board has been launched after the EU Commission and High Representative last year adopted a Youth Action Plan in the European Union external action for 2022-2027.
This is the first-ever policy framework for a strategic partnership with young people around the world to build a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future.
