Zim youths: A collective responsibility

15 to 35 years according to the African Youth Charter.
Youth development is an approach that focuses on meeting needs and building competencies, rather than solving problems and providing treatment. It is the process through which young people acquire the cognitive, social, and emotional skills and abilities required to navigate through life.
Young people when well nurtured with support are productive by default and need special attention to prepare them for adulthood. They shift their potential ability to progressive energy, work and perform with the end in mind. When mentored youths are able to dictate circumstances and not be impetuous focusing on the present at the expense of progress. Through constant development efforts, young people can develop their own footprint over time and become key contributors to an economy.
Vulnerable youths are ill defined and limited to what they can do but when empowered young people always seek to explore new horizons. They know when to fight and when to walk away; they don’t become monochrome in the face of adversity.
Youth development has the potential to redefine and stimulate economic growth (cultivating a wild bush into a garden of Eden). This potential energy, life within our youthful society is indisputably and without doubt the future of our economy and country.
At some point today’s captains of Industry, Economists, Bankers, Educators Politicians and Financial Technocrats whatever the titles may be, will have to inevitably hand over the button to the now youthful society. I am convinced of this thought that “how great the bigger man is, can easily be seen by the way he treats his little man”. In our quest to drive and develop our nation going forward, we need to collectively be responsible for the progressive development of our young people.
Youth development is everyone’s responsibility and all players in our socio-economic environment are liable to contribute. In Government structures the responsibility to develop youths cannot be left alone to the Ministry of Youth, Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment and the Zimbabwe Youth Council.
All Government ministries and stakeholders are partners in this endeavour to development and build the competencies needed for youths to become successful adults. Collectively we need to reconsider and act with an understanding that youths are not merely “inadequate” or “undeveloped” adults but have strengths and abilities unique to their developmental stage, when exposed to relevant developmental stages they will deliver.
Collectively we need to develop a conceptual shift from the thought that “youth problems are the principal barrier to youth development to believing that youth development serves as the most effective strategy for the prevention of youth problems”. During adolescence, young people experience profound physical changes, rapid growth and development, sexual maturation, in addition to psychological, economical and social changes.
This often leads to issues with personal identity, sense of self worth and emotional independence. In an attempt to cope with the complex changes and challenges of life, they engage in behaviours considered to be experimental and risky. Because of this, several health and social problems either begin or peak during these years leading to homicide, suicide, substance use and abuse, sexually transmitted infections, and teen unplanned pregnancies in some instances.
Addressing the positive progressive development of young people can decrease these problems. This can be done by facilitating young people’s adoption into healthy behaviours and helping to ensure a healthy transition into adulthood. Thus given this huge responsibility to develop youths it is imperative that the effort be a collective one.
The International Community has already declared 2009 to 2019 a decade of youth development in Africa. The Private Sector, Civil Society, Non-Governmental Organisations and different sectors of our industry need to be inspired to take the same course of action.
Youth development is at the heart of any future growth initiative of a country and investing in this sector now is crucial to securing future expansion. There are many ways to arrive at sustainable youth development but more important constructs include promoting a sense of economic safety and hope; providing appropriate developmental structures; creating supportive relationships; providing access to education, information and mentorship; giving youth responsibilities and meaningful challenges; and providing opportunities for skill building. One of the hallmarks of the youth development movement is that once developed, young people become a valuable asset. Zimbabwe has a global reputation of having its human resource as its most valuable asset.
This has been an attribute of youths and human development initiatives that have been championed by men and women who came before us. We cannot lose this status. We still have the capacity and ability, the institutions, the frame work and we know how this is done.
What we really need to resuscitate is not only the resource that’s needed but the willingness to partner Government in championing the youth development of our time. In addition, youth development programs typically work through existing social organisations rather than focusing on individual counselling.
For example, youth development interventions may focus on youth in mining, tourism, churches, schools and universities, young entrepreneurs or any youth-serving organisation (e.g. Zimbabwe Entrepreneurship Youth Action “ZEYA”, Junior Chamber International “JCI”, Upfumi kuvadiki , Saywhat) or work through formal mentoring or apprenticeship.
Unlike the youth development model’s that focuses on individual performance, sustainable youth development assumes that “the way to improve the lives of young people is to improve the communities in which they live”. Thus, community-level variables, rather than individual-level variables, are targeted for intervention and play a key role in youth development initiatives. Community level Youth development focuses on community-level interventions and influences how youth development initiatives are structured and implemented.
Specifically this youth development programme focuses on the “creation of a supportive community for youths” and mandates that community-wide support and participation be objectified not only within an initiative institutional collaborative structure, but also between community institutions and those citizens who live within it.