Malawi youths and rhetorical leadership

As the country celebrates 49 years of independence on July 6, the role of the youth is becoming questionable, especially with increasing unemployment rate. Youth Consultative Forum (YCF), a youth organisation based in Lilongwe, petitioned Parliament on June 25 this year on the lack of youth participation in development.

“Despite the introduction of legal and policy instruments, youth development has stagnated and practically has not been a priority focus for successive governments that have only mastered rhetoric and lip service to the youth of Malawi,” reads YCF petition.

Lucky Mbewe executive director of another pro-youth group, Youth Empowerment and Civic Education (Yece), agrees.

“We have not made much progress since former president Kamuzu Banda introduced the Malawi Young Pioneers (MYP) that used to train the youth in various job skills. The successive governments just use the youth for political propaganda,” says Mkandawire.

And youths are now at a crossroads, the revised National Youth Policy remains a draft since 2007 with no hope of progress.

“It is our conviction that the continued delay to adopt an updated youth policy is a mockery to youth development in Malawi and unfair to youths that constitute the largest proportion of the population,” adds the YCF petition.

The result has been costly. Huge sums of money are being poured into addressing poverty and idleness of the youth, which has resulted in early pregnancies, crime, congested prisons and police cells and drug abuse.

But the National Youth Council of Malawi (NYCOM) established in 1996 to address challenges affecting the youth seems to have supported the country’s future leaders over the years. NYCOM executive director Aubrey Chibwana says they encourage the youth to be in clubs or organisations so that they can be meaningful citizens.

“Government and other development partners, through NYCOM, reach out to these youth groups. The youth groups receive training in leadership, project management, life skills and sexual reproductive health, among other areas,” says Chibwana.

More recently, he says, youths have been enrolled as interns in various organisations under NYCOM to increase their competitiveness on the job market. The number of youth organisations has increased from 12 to 150.

“The major challenge is that resources that are allocated for youth development are not proportional to the number of young people to be served. However, over time the sector has witnessed increased resource allocation, though not substantial,” says Chibwana. He believes that what

Malawi needs is to harness these positive elements in the youth and redirect them towards national development.

“We need to ensure that we start mainstreaming youth in all our development programmes, to offer the youth opportunity to add their voice and be relevant,” says Chibwana. He gives South Africa as an example that has vibrant youth programmes.

“As a country they realise that they have no option but to invest in the youth. In their planning they put the youth at the centre of national programmes and allocate adequate resources.”

Chancellor College political analyst Blessings Chinsinga says politicians have abused the youth by using them in party youth wings such as Youth League of Malawi, Young Democrats and Youth Cadets.

“The youth are abused when there is an imminent threat from the opposition parties,” he says, adding: “We haven’t transformed the way in which the youth wings are used. They are not being used as nursery beds for leaders but as instruments of terror and short- time political mobilisation.” Chinsinga argues that being a youthful country, the development of Malawi relies heavily on investing in the youth. “This population can be a blessing or a curse depending on how they are used. [They are] creative and energetic and can develop this country. But as we speak now there is a huge gap,” he explains.

He regrets that government failed to carry on with the positive role MYP established such as having training bases across the country where the youth trained in various skills such as bricklaying and carpentry.

But Alex Mseka, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, says government has programmes such as opening technical colleges and several institutions offering informal skills development in conjunction with the Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education Training Authority (Teveta). He added that government needs involvement of the private sector because it cannot meet all the needs of the youth alone.