Lilongwe-In an effort to ensure the views of the youth-highest population group in Malawi- is heard, national consultations were conducted with support from the UNFPA Malawi country office. The youth consultations were done to engage the youth and draw key recommendations to feed into the ongoing review of the Malawi growth and development strategy II and inform the next development agenda/plan(MGDS III). The national consultation process were premised on the values of inclusion and accountability by ensuring that a broader cross-section of young people as a significant segment of the national stakeholders was sufficiently heard to share their development needs and aspirations legitimately and clearly. These nationwide consultations revealed interesting views from the youth of Malawi. Recommendations from the youth were in the areas of heath, employment, entrepreneurship, education, youth participation and leadership and protection from abuse and violence. The consultations involved all the districts through focus group discussions, key informant interviews and youth meetings. The consultations revealed some insights in the selected areas. “A mother disclosed her daughter’s HIV status to a crowd of people from the neighbourhood at a borehole, which led to the daughter not attending school, since then it’s been hard for her really” revealed one teen club mentor from Mangochi district.
In another discussion, the disabled revealed they face so many challenges including being left out to do things and fend on their own “Some of our friends with physical disabilities are locked inside the house because parents/guardians do not imagine any benefits in sending young people with disability to school.” said youths from Nkhotakota, Mzimba and Chitipa districts.
Among the numerous recommendations, the youth recommended that the government should partner with the private sector in building their skills for entrepreneurship for economic growth-schools and colleges should also be well equipped with techning and learning materials. “While government should increase access to college and informal education institutions and ensuring well equipped vocational skills training centres, it is also important to promote youth internship programmes at institutions that are able to build skills and provide knowledge to young people to start their own business or franchises ”said Pickfrod kamanga from Chitipa district.
The recommendations were presented to the President Peter Mutharika during the National Youth Conference held on 22nd January, 2016 in Lilongwe.
UNFPA in Malawi has been working with various stakeholders including the Ministry of Labour, Youth and Manpower Development. In a press statement released before the National Youth Conference, Principal Secretary, Patrick Kabambe emphasized on the value of the consultations. “Over the last few months, the Government, in collaboration with the National Youth Council of Malawi and the UN system in Malawi had embarked on nation-wide youth consultations on Malawi’s development process. The exercise provided an opportunity to include the voice of the youth of Malawi in the process of determining the development priorities of the country for the next five years (2017-2021). The youth of Malawi have welcomed this opportunity and participated with a lot of enthusiasm. Over 1,000 youth representatives from all walks of life have presented their views”, he said.
Malawi embarked on the process of reviewing the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MDGS) II, to pave the way for the next national development plan. While MDGS I did not clearly demonstrate Malawi Government’s direction on youth development, MGDS II outlines Child Development, Youth Development and Empowerment as one of nine development priorities. MDGS II further identified youth as a key group, energetic, industrious and willing to learn, ready to adopt innovation and contribute to sustainable development. The Youth Policy launched in 2013 has guided action on youth development over the last two years in Malawi.
