READThe Forum for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
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By Aya Chebbi - 01 July 2015
The Forum for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) had been just an idea a few years ago. However, last week, during its 2015 Annual Meeting in Abidjan, the African Development Bank hosted a full day of panel discussions dedicated to CSOs. The CSO Forum is aiming at promoting closer cooperation and engagement among CSOs, the Bank, and regional member countries in order to optimize development results and sustain development impact.
Over the past years, our African unity has been tested constantly to realize that unity is not a one-day celebration or a mere occasional response to threatening events happening across the continent. Unity, instead, shall be a continuous collective struggle and solidarity.
In 2013, I was shooting a documentary called “Kenya’s Conscious Transformation” under the Africa Inspire Project, when Kenya witnessed the Westgate attack. At least 67 people have died.
Nkiruka Nnaemego has over fifteen years of experience working directly with children and youth focusing on green entrepreneurship, policy advocacy, research and training on volunteerism, peer mentoring and community development. Nkiru is a lawyer, an agricultural and livelihood, environmental activist, customer service and development practitioner who has passion for Volunteerism and Mentoring. In 2008, she founded and currently runs a youth organization – Fresh & Young Brains Development Initiative. She also founded Alexijan Consults in 2013 as a Consulting Firm aimed to promote social, green and business entrepreneurship among youth and professionals. Through her leadership and commitment, Nigeria currently has the National Youth Manifesto on Agriculture, Youth Advocacy Toolkit on increased investments in Small Scale Agriculture, Handbook for children on Clean Energy, Sustainable Agriculture and Peak Oil, Green Entrepreneurship Workbook for youth and community volunteers, among others.
Rose Wachuka a Kenyan lawyer and an International Affairs scholar spoke to Aya Chebbi FFD’s blogger about her views on climate change.
How can we not think about the future for Africa if the future is Africa itself?
I grew up with multiple identities that I questioned throughout my teen years. The strongest identity I was brainwashed with, is being “Arab”. Since primary school, my education, which curriculum I didn’t choose, has been mainly about the Arab civilization and the invention of the zero! My library has been full of books of Gibran Khalil Gibran and Mahmoud Darwish.
Since the early 20th century, Tunisian women played a key role in securing the independence of their country. August 13, 1956, marked the promulgation of the Code of Personal Status (CPS) that included progressive laws aiming at the institution of gender equality.
In order to address the future of youth policies in North Africa, it has become necessary to look at the system before and after the ongoing revolutions and political change in the region. Among many indicators to assess youth policies, I would like to explore two crucial ones: youth legislation and youth participation. I will take Tunisia as an example and explore its youth policy based on those indicators.
The dramatic political changes and instability in North Africa following the civil war in Libya and the partition of Sudan, in addition to the conflicts in Syria and Mali, have created new waves of movements in the region. The crisis has two main faces; the sub region serves as either a transit or final destination for sizeable mixed migration movements from neighboring countries, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
