CARRYING FORWARD THE MOMENTUM OF THE 2017 AFRICAN UNION YEAR OF YOUTH

The document reviews the African Union's (AU) 2017 Year of Youth, highlighting the gap between the adoption of high-level frameworks like the African Youth Charter and their actual domestication by member states. While it identifies successes in youth-led political activism in Nigeria, The Gambia, and South Africa, and praises Rwanda's technology-driven youth employment models, it criticizes the AU's lack of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and the tokenistic nature of some youth participation. The authors advocate for using existing tools like the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to track progress and prioritize education, employment, and political inclusion to realize the goals of Agenda 2063.

• The African Union's 2017 theme focused on 'Harnessing the Demographic Dividend Through Investments in Youth,' but the authors argue that there are significant gaps in the implementation and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of youth participation.
• The African Youth Charter (AYC), adopted in 2009, is the most comprehensive youth policy framework of the AU, yet its domestication into national legislation by member states has been slow and does not appear to be demand-driven.
• Youth-led movements have demonstrated a capacity to influence governance and demand accountability, such as the 'Fees Must Fall' movement in South Africa (2016), the 'Gambia has Decided' campaign (2016), and the 'Not Too Young To Run' campaign in Nigeria, which successfully lowered the presidential age requirement from 40 to 30.
• Rwanda is cited as a success story in youth policy, specifically through the YouthConnekt initiative which has engaged over 4 million young people (ages 16-34) in job creation and ICT innovation, contributing to a decline in youth unemployment from 2014 to 2018.
• A critical limitation of the AU is that it lacks the power to enforce policies on member states, as proposed policies are not legally binding, allowing countries to cite sovereignty to avoid implementation.
• Despite the AU allocating 1% of its budget to the African Youth Fund, the authors characterize youth participation in the budgetary process as potentially tokenistic because young people are not involved in the budget vote.
• There is a systemic absence of data and M&E to track the progress of the Youth Decade plan of action (2009-2018), with the AU Youth Division failing to publish updated information on African youth since 2011.

APA

MPUNGOSE, L., & MONYAE, L. (2018). CARRYING FORWARD THE MOMENTUM OF THE 2017 AFRICAN UNION YEAR OF YOUTH. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Policy-Insights-60.pdf

Chicago

MPUNGOSE, LUANDA, and LENNON MONYAE. CARRYING FORWARD THE MOMENTUM OF THE 2017 AFRICAN UNION YEAR OF YOUTH. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2018. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Policy-Insights-60.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=MPUNGOSE |first1=LUANDA |last2=MONYAE |first2=LENNON |title=CARRYING FORWARD THE MOMENTUM OF THE 2017 AFRICAN UNION YEAR OF YOUTH |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=June 2018 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Policy-Insights-60.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mpungose2018carrying, author = {MPUNGOSE, LUANDA and MONYAE, LENNON}, title = {{CARRYING FORWARD THE MOMENTUM OF THE 2017 AFRICAN UNION YEAR OF YOUTH}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2018}, month = jun, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Policy-Insights-60.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }