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‘Together is Better’
FEATURES1 / Letter from the Editor
2 / NAYD CEO Speaks Out
2-3 / AYCAH SIERRA LEONE
Validation workshop
3-4 / National Engagement Report on Economic Justice 30th Nov- 1st Dec 2011
4 / Environment -Tread Lightly: Save the Future
5 / The Importance of Sex Workers Interventions: The Case of TaYA
5-6 / New Country pages
6-7 / ICASA 2011 pre-conference call to action
7-10 / OPPORTUNITIES
Events, Grants, Jobs etc.
10 / Wisdom Corner
NAYD MEMBERS
NAYD CEO Speaks Out
NAYD has become one of the strong voices of young people in Africa. The year 2011 has marked this. NAYD was involved in the African Youth Panel organized by the African Union Commission sometime in April to make preparation for the 17thordinary session of the African Heads of State summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in July 2011 conferring on the theme “accelerating youth empowerment for sustainable development”. This was supported by our own independent online questionnaire for which we had 181 responses from 37 African countries. These opinions will feed into the process to compile the voice of young people to be heard. The results can be seenhere.
Important decision made during the meeting including approval of theDecade Plan of Action(DPOA) for young people (2009-2018) by the African Union. With this in mind major African youth networks including NAYD gathered in Johannesburg from November 7-8, 2011 to discuss a new initiative spearheaded bythe African Monitorto map out strategies to ensure the implementation of the DPOA. It was agreed to form an alliance of youth networks in Africa with the main aim of coming up with strong advocacy strategies targeting the AU, regional economic communities and member states for the implementation of the DPOA.
A country coordinator from Somalia, Aweys Nur had a chance to get involved in the training organized by the African Union and Oxfam international on understanding the African Union, in Abuja, Nigeria. This will help in designing appropriate strategies for the planned advocacy initiative.
The other notable achievement of NAYD is taking a lead in organizing the youth related activities of the recently concluded 16th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa held from 4-8 December, 2011 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.250 young people gathered for a three day pre conference from all over Africa. I will send you the report once it is finalized.We are planning a follow up project on the declaration.
What’s on the plate for 2012?
NAYD will continue playing a key role in the initiative started by the African Monitor. There will be more meetings to craft the terms of reference to outline the working modalities and partnerships to carry out the project.
There is the upcoming Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development next year in June 2011 - how are we going to reflect the views of African Youth in the conference remains a question that we need to ask ourselves and hopefully come up with concrete action plans.
AIDS 2012 is to be held next year in July 2012 in the US, a major conference that will discuss global response to HIV/AIDS. We need to consider how we can meaningfully participate in the conference.
In 2012, we will be developing the strategic plan of NAYD for the coming five years that will be used as a road map for NAYD future activities and programs.
All our ambitions and aspirations will never become a reality if we couldn’t work in partnership and collaboration. For this I just want to highlight the following key points that will ensure better coordination and visibility;
1 Contribute to INSPIRE as it is widely distributed in Africa and internationally. It is a good opportunity to increase the visibility oforganizations and its activities. All articles are also posted on ourBLOG.Please also add your expertise to the Climate Change (http://climate.nayd.org/) and AIDS information pages (http://aids.nayd.org/).
2 I encourage you to promote NAYD amongst your peers in your country so that they will join NAYD using the members join page athttp://www.nayd.org/new/member.php. We would like to have at least 5 new members per month from each country.
3 Please join NAYDYAHOO,facebookandlinkedinsites if you are not already members.
4 You can also mobilize local NGO’s to take up the offer of a NAYD webpage to help them publicise their activities – details athttp://www.nayd.org/web_design.htm
5 We encourage you to post onto the Bulletin Board notices of events and grant opportunities - http://www.nayd.org/news.htm
6 We encourage videos to be uploaded to NAYD TV onYouTubeof any sustainable development activities. We also have aTIG site
I hope the year 2012 will be a fruitful one with all our efforts. Courage and determination!
■
Ephrem Berhanu
NAYD CEO
AYCAH SIERRA LEONE Validation Workshop
At the Ramsy Conference Hall, Liverpool Street- Freetown , Sierra Leone, Action Aid International-Sierra Leone (AAI-SL) in partnership with Africa Youth Coalition against Hunger (AYCAH) on Saturday, 21st January 2012 convened a research validation workshop for two survey reports carried out by AAI-SL.
The study was done in pursuance of the spirit of Articles 107 and 108 of the Local Government Act which places an obligation on both the central and local government to ensure transparency and public participation in local government aimed at determining the degree of citizens’ knowledge of, and involvement in the operations of local councils.
The Saturday gathering which had in attendance representatives of local councils, selected civil society organizations, academics and the media, was convened to capture the independent views and comments of stakeholders on six outlined indicators used as yardstick by the researcher to measure performance tracking of local government structures and operations. It is also according to the Governance Coordinator, Action Aid International, Christian Lawrence, and “validate the key findings in AAI-SL’s November report.”
The research work done by Tassif Koroma, Lecturer at the Fourah Bay College on behalf of AAISL, critically looked at local councils’ operations to establish whether citizens’ participation are visible in such operations to ensure budget accountability, development planning, accountability, procurement and service delivery accountability.
The consultant in his presentation said the outcome of his key findings which needed the input of stakeholders before the launching of the report, came about as a result of an investigation done into the activities of councils in the Western Area and Rural District, Bombali District,Kambia District, Kono District Moyamba District , Bo City and Town Councils .
Peter John Amara
Country Representative
Africa Youth Coalition Against Hunger Sierra Leone
National Secretariat 34 Goderich Street
Freetown-S/L
Tel:+23276460457/78548471/+23233229878 Skype:AYCAH-SL
Email:,
Website:www.aycah.org
National Engagement Report on Economic Justice 30th Nov- 1st Dec 2011
PREAMBLE: The economy of nation or country is the source of its livelihood or demise and therefore a prerequisite to the very existence of any state. Generally, elementary economics have defined the subject matter as “Science which studies human behaviours as a relationship ends and scare means which have alternative uses”. It is against this background that nationals attempt to satisfied there unlimited ones with the limited resources at their disposals. In Sierra Leone the management of the economy of the state since independent has persistency abuse by corruption and a host of many other factors. The main source of income to the Sierra Leone economy:
1. Minerals and mining
2. Taxation in all its various forms
3. Foreign aids for development purpose etc.
However, generating income for all of the process listed above and the allocation and distribution of this resources has been flooded by: poor mining agreement with foreign companies, inept and inadequate tax policies, poor debt management and misused of donor funds, lack of transparency and outright corruption by the state actors (Government) who do not adequately account to the people.
In view of this Civil Society organization, academics and another interest groups decided to come together to have common platform of research and advocacy to engaged government and other stakeholders in the Sierra Leone economic to seek economic justice for the people.
AYCAH-SL an organization that have been working relentlessly with its development partners ( Action Aid International ) to improve on the porous economic situation in the country held a two day national training and lunching on economic justice at the Ramsy house Liverpool , Freetown . The programme which was funded by Action Aid International Sierra Leone attracted over sixty participants from over fifty CSOs , Academics and students from the universities, the private sector, media practitioners and government officials from key financial institution (Finance and Trade) Ministry’s
ACTION PLAN: After two days of rigorous deliberations and expositions, on economic issues affecting the well been of every Sierra Leoneans by the dynamic organizers, Facilitators and participants that were drawn from a wide range of expertise background such as: academia/University, NGO’s, private sector groups, and the government represented by very senior officials from the Ministry’s of Finance and Trade, the following resolutions were raised:
1. To have an Interim Chairman with a Deputy Chair
2. AYCAH Sierra Leone to serve as coordinating secretariat since the initiative is coming from Actionaid International and AYCAH-SL with the backing from the Economics Department –FBC,USL. .
3. The Economic Justice Network to be officially launched before the end of the year 2011 ;
4. It was agreed that membership of the Economic Justice Network will be based on organization, each member organization should be represented by a focal person and an assistant .It must be someone that participated in the first national training engagement on economic justice. ;
5. It was agreed that the Economic Justice Network be registered with SLANGO and MOFED to obtained legal status in other to legitimized operations and this be handled by the AYCAH-SL secretariat and the interim chairman;
6. It was also agreed that a website for the network should be hosted and it is to be facilitated by the AYCAH-SL and the interim Chairman ;
7. A declaration form for membership of the network was issued to each participant to be taken to their various institutions or organizations for ratification and validation and to be returned at the next meeting to be held at Ramsy Conference Hall, Liverpool Street Friday 9th December 2011;
8. The aims and objectives of the Economic Justice Network were tentatively agreed as follows:
Aim: Economic Justice breeds Peace.
Objectives: These were to be specific, measureable resourceful and time bound (smart)
a. Campaign to promote economic equity
b. To increase transparency and accountability
c. Ensuring the implementation of agreed economic policy
d. Optimal utilization of our resources for all of us
e. To ensure access to information
f. To reduce inequality /poverty within society
Access to information to participate in economic building linkages and advocacy. ■
Peter John Amara
Environment -Tread Lightly: Save the Future
Sustainable development is a model of resource use that will satisfy present human needs while also preserving the planet Earth for the benefit of the future generations. The World Commission on Environment and Development articulated what has now become a widely accepted definition of sustainability: “to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Sadly, human needs are being met in our age with little or no regard for the unborn generations.
You may wonder why so much emphasis on sustainable development. The official climate negotiations are not advancing as quickly as the damage we are doing to our Planet, and it is our future that is at risk. As youth, we apparently have lots of dreams to achieve, and we don’t want our green habitat to scorch before our very eyes. We are well aware that the changes in the balance of nature portend grave threat to the security of our shared future. The volatile economic climate continues to define the environment in which we work––and we know it. The planetary ecosystems are failing––and we know it. Hundreds of millions of young people will look for jobs in the coming decades––and we know it. Yet, we as a society pay lip service to the quest for environmental sustainability and sustainable development.
Interestingly though, young people are less locked in the current ways of doing things. We haven’t spent decades living monotonously––we are firing on all cylinders to change the status quo. In fact, it is absolutely exciting! This could be buttressed by the enthusiasm students and youth alike have injected into the NAYD. We represent new ways of looking at the world, things that the older generation could not notice because they’re just used to the way that “things are.” Since the way that “things are” is melting the ice caps and the glaciers, acidifying the oceans––spreading drought, flood and landslides across the earth––liquidating businesses and making people redundant across the globe, it’s a good thing that we are fashioning out new approaches and solutions through impact projects.
And a more brilliant thing is that we are approaching this work with both the fun that creativity requires and the seriousness that our Planet needs. We are not, in my experience, in the midst of a cultural rebellion, thinking mostly about self-expression––maybe much of that work got done in the ‘60s, with the last wave of youthful passion. On the contrary, we are thinking very solidly about a sustainable future––and we are working together.
Nevertheless, it is pertinent to note that only a decisive and staunch commitment by all and sundry will effectively ensure sustainable development. Sustainable development must grow in the economic, social and environmental spheres; in every nook and cranny of the world. And fundamental lifestyle adjustments are required for this to take place.