Youth and Society (YAS) head of programmes Mwandida Theu has called on the M’mbelwa District Council and other stakeholders to champion interventions that uplift the welfare of young people in Mzimba District.
She made the call on Saturday during an orientation session with the council secretariat and others on the 2025-2030 National Youth Manifesto, a blueprint championed by YAS in collaboration with Youth Decide Campaign.
Theu said YAS is engaging councils and other stakeholders to, among others, prioritise specific policy demands of young people in their programming for better youth development.
She said: “We launched the Youth Manifesto 2025-2030 last year and after meeting stakeholders at national level, we have decided to engage district councils and other stakeholders on the need to adopt the manifesto and to popularise it to the grass root communities.
“The manifesto is important because we feel it will help to empower the
youth to hold duty-bearers accountable, ensuring the youth participate in democractic governance systems and respond to their challenges.”
M’mbelwa District Council director of planning and development Walter Chikuni said the manifesto resonates with the council’s development plans.
He said: “This initiative is recommended and we welcome it because our District Development Plan [DDP] and Social Economic Profile of 2024-2030 are youth-centered.
“We will adopt this manifesto and include it in our yearly budgets and programming. We will also take advantage of the revised K5 billion Constituency Development Fund to respond to some of the issues outlined in the manifesto.”
Meanwhile, Mzimba Institute for Development Communications Trust executive director Christopher Melele said the civil society family will help popularise the manifesto to grassroots communities.
“We will also hold the council accountable to respond or address issues raised in the manifesto,” he said.
The manifesto is being funded by Open Society Foundation
