Herald Correspondent
ZIMBABWEAN youths in the diaspora have urged their counterparts to leverage Harare’s international positions in COMESA and the United Nations Security Council to expand global youth participation and economic advancement.
The country’s National Youth Representative in the Non-Aligned Movement Youth Organisation (NAMYO), Mr Abiel Eldon Mawere, told representatives from the 121-Member State body that Zimbabwe has a robust youth development framework to offer.
He urged them to capitalise on Harare’s current chairmanship of COMESA and its non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, which it assumes in January 2027 for a two-year tenure.
Mr Mawere addressed the assembly in Baku, Azerbaijan, to mark Africa Youth Day, where the organisation was formally conferred diplomatic status by the host nation.
He was accompanied by Mr Predict Mutepfe, a Zimbabwean resident in Azerbaijan and the founding leader of the Africa-Caucasus Forum.
“Zimbabwe’s strategic positioning within regional and international institutions, particularly its chairmanship of COMESA and its role as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is an opportunity for youth participation in national development, beyond the country’s borders,” Mr Mawere stated, adding that these opportunities should strengthen youth diplomacy and global partnerships under the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
Mr Mutepfe pledged structural support for youth-led entrepreneurial projects and underscored the importance of sustained cooperation between Zimbabwe and Azerbaijan.
NAMYO patron and Azerbaijan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Yalchin Rafiyev, reaffirmed Baku’s commitment to the organisation by announcing that national chapter representatives would now enjoy official diplomatic status under Vienna Convention statutes.
“We have put forward measures to ensure that all NAM Youth National Chapter representatives are accorded Diplomatic status here in Azerbaijan as a host country in accordance with the Vienna Convention,” Mr Rafiyev said. “Through the support of President Ilham Aliyev, we see the need to expand the role of NAM Youth Organisation to engage and discharge its duties and mandates at a diplomatic level.”
He confirmed that national chapter representatives will no longer require standard residence and work permits, but will instead be directly accredited to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
