12-14 September 2012 Addis Ababa , Ethiopia Presented by Dr. Raymonde Agossou,

1. 4th Ordinary Session of the Conference of the AU Ministers in charge of YouthAffairs. (COMY IV) 12-14 September 2012 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Presented by Dr. Raymonde Agossou, Head of HR & Youth Division Department for humanresource science & technology

2. COMY ? Whatisit? • Statutory structure of AU Ministers of Youth Development that • validates the implementation report from Member States, • strengthens its delivery capacity and encourages the countries in supporting youth development, • makes recommendations to the relevant bodies, especially to the AU Commission in its coordination role in the follow-up and monitoring of the Ministers’ commitments for youth development issues. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

3. Specific objectives of the COMY revitalize the African commitments on youth; raise/strengthen engagement for sustainable changes favoring development with the meaningful participation of Youth; Strengthen contributions and efforts in investment and capacity building; ensure the implementation of the adopted decisions, frameworks, and policies at national level. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

4. Quick reminders In 2006, the COMY I, the very first of the kind, Held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Outcomes were as follows In 2007 Meeting of the Bureau of COMY I in Tripoli, Libya The African Youth Charter, adopted. Call for its ratification & implementation; The 1st November = the African Youth Day, adopted The Year 2008 = YEAR OF AFRICAN YOUTH, adopted PYU to be revitalized. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

5. Quick reminders – cont’d In 2008, the COMY II was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Among other achievements; 2009 – Meeting of the Bureau of COMY II, held in Addis Ababa The programmes for the Year of African Youth (YAY-including TVET for post conflict countries Request for a youth volunteer program; Request for a Decade for Youth Development (2009-2018) Request for trust fund for youth development. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

6. Quick reminders – Cont’d In 2010, the COMY III held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Outcomes as follows June 2010 – 1st COMY III Bureau Meeting April 2011 – 2nd COMY III Bureau meeting • PoA for Youth Decade adopted; • Framework for Youth Volunteer Corps endorsed ; • Full implementation of the decision from Banjul 2006 requested; • Summit of youth + proposed theme requested; • Common position on African priorities for Youth for Mexico conference requested; • IYY resolution adopted. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

7. 2010 – 2012 : Achievements (1) • June 2010: 1st COMY III BUREAU MEETING, in Abuja • hosted by the Minister of youth development of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, attended by other ministers : • Main objective: reach African priorities and common position on youth development priorities. • Main outcome: African Common Position on Priority areas for Youth Development to be presented in Mexico, August 2010. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

8. 2010 – 2012: Achievements (2) • July 2010: Summit in Kampala: • COMY III report and decision submitted to the Summit – adopted by Executive Council; • Heads of State adopted the proposed theme (without change) for 2011 Summit in Malabo in June-July 2011, one year later. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

9. Achievements (3) • August 2010: Strong African delegation at higher level participated to the Mexico World Conference on Youth • About 40 Ministers, seniors Officers, youth leaders from Africa led by the African Union Commission attended the Mexico Conference on youth, • Strong political support to the Common position on African priorities on youth development that was presented. • All Ministers and Heads of delegation presented respective national engagement towards youth agenda. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

10. Achievements (4) 11 August 2010 – 10 August 2011 – Celebration of the International Year of Youth: • Member States and Organizations engaged specific actions of implementation; • AUC, through Note Verbal made propositions of actions and events to its M/S; • AUC also organized African Youth Day (1st November 2010) through inter-generational dialogue, for Mutual Understanding between youth and high-level leaders. • Arab Spring marked the African end of the celebration of the IYY – raising attention to the “discomfort and despair” of the youth on the continent an beyond. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

11. Achievements (5) • August 2010 – Global Declaration on Youth adopted in Mexico • February 2011 - Partners meeting – planning of all activities for Malabo summit & support mobilization; • April 2011 : pre-Summit activities on & with youth, and COMY III Bureau endorsed the outcomes to be presented to the Summit in Malabo – June 2011; • High level consultations • Youth forum • 2ndCOMYIII Bureau meeting COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

12. Achievements (6) • June 2011 Summit on youth empowerment in Malabo with a very comprehensive decision on the accelerating youth empowerment and employment to sustain Africa’s development – to be implemented through accelerated and concrete actions • Decision on acceleration of youth empowerment (commitment to DPoA) • Declaration on accelerating youth employment with key partners (reduction of 2% per year for 5 years in all M/States). COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

13. Achievements (7) • July 2011: The chair of the Bureau of COMY III participated and presided the African Side event on "Cooperation for Financing the Resource requirement of the AU Youth DPoA during the UN High-level meeting on Youth – United Nations Headquarters in New York. • Heads of State – Benin, Zimbabwe attended and expressed African engagement to implement the AYC and the DPoA, including decision and declaration from Malabo 2011. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

14. Post Malabo – Achievements so far Ways to implementation of Decision • Guideline for accelerating youth empowerment in Africa – consultant appointed by partner (UNDP) • Proposed projects and actions to accelerate youth empowerment (Relevant partners) Ways to implementation of Declaration • Joint initiative to contribute to the 2% reduction of unemployment rate (AUC, AfDB, ILO, UNECA). COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

15. Routine achievements African Youth Charter = more ratifications: 30 official, 32 effective. 6 countries didnothing, still in RED; Continuousadvocacy dialogues and materials production; DPoA = survey in progress for implementation or assessment of capacityneeds on going; AUYVC = on-goingimplementation, training, deployment, evaluation, etc. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

16. Partnership building & ResMob. Non domesticfund: Major partners to date are unfpa, european commission, fordfoundation, acbf, undp, turkey, spain, unesco, uneca, … Interestmayberaised, but engagement isvery slow, not sustained; Domesticfunding: weak if not absent, despite the verbal commitment. SUSTAINABLE IMPACT DESERVES SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

17. Opportunities • Youth population = opportunity for Africa not threat; • Malabo 2011 raised momentum, and all the initiatives for, by, with the youth; • Attention raised by the Arab Spring – leaders, African institutions, Development Partners, Youth voices, • Increasing engagement at higher level (African political Leaders, UN leaders, etc.), • Wide understanding of the current status of the youth and the necessity to provoke the positive change for sustainable impact, • Awareness is high. It is now time to walk the talk! • TIME FOR CONSTRUCTIVE CHANGE ! TIME FOR CONCRETE & POSITIVE ACTION & CONTRIBUTION FROM ALL! COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

18. Constraints/challenges • Narrow perspective of youth participation can also narrow the areas of interventions; • Ministries in charge have multi-oriented portfolio with youth empowerment as the weakest part (Human Resource, technical & financial support, very low investment in youth; • Priority must be given to capacity building of resource constituted by youth and invest adequately in empowerment and employment; COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

19. Constraints/challenges (2) • Weak domestic funding of youth development programme; • Weak communication strategies between the concerned stakeholders; • Too many meetings, too many air tickets, too many per-diem, too much talk, TOO LITTLE AMOUNT OF ACTIONS. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

20. Possible remediation • Youth as partners and agents of development - go beyond sports, culture, recreations, meetings, etc. and consider youth skills & knowledge as opportunity to accelerate development of the continent; • Large majority of the youth, and youth leaders must avoid limitation of interventions and consider wide and multi-sectorial approach to youth through inclusive participation; • Increase investment through domestic funding, alternative source of funding for youth development. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

21. Wayfoward • Reach concrete recommendation in this COMY IV; • Investment plan and mechanism for implementation, monitoring and reporting of the proposed projects; • Encourage and support the national initiatives; • Mobilize domestic resource – innovative approaches in fund raising – alternative sources of fund; • Strengthen partnership and ensure mainstreaming of youth programmes in other ministerial departments and deliver as one on youth development. COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa

22. THANK YOUFOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION JE VOUS REMERCIE POUR VOTRE ATTENTION COMY IV,12-14 Sept12, Addis Ababa