National Youth Convention (NYC) III

“Organize, Liberate, transform and Re-create Kenya”


In 1997 and 1998 Youth Agenda coordinated the National Youth Convention that mobilised youth leaders across Kenya to deliberate, discuss and resolve various issues affecting young people and chart a course towards more proactive involvement in national issues.
The aim of the Conventions was to reach out to a wide array of young people of different social, economic, religious and ethnic backgrounds and concretise a shared youth agenda. There were many resolutions passed at these two Conventions, one of which was to ensure the NYC becomes an annual event where youth convene to review and refocus on issues affecting them and their role in national development.
At NYC I 300 youth leaders from around the country were mobilized to deliberate, discuss and make resolutions on key issues affecting youth people and provoking the youth leaders to be more proactive in addressing youth interests. The key outcome was the formation of Youth Agenda, a national NGO mandated to reach out the wider youth constituency to further sensitize and “consciencitise” youth and encourage the implementation of the resolutions arrived at. Youth Agenda continues to implement this mandate to-date.

NYC II, buoyed by the success of NYC I mobilized 500 youth leaders from around the country with the theme “Challenge Of National Rebirth, Our Responsibility Our Place” to assert the role of young people in the nation’s rejuvenation. Fifty (50) resolutions were made in key discussion areas of education, constitutional reforms, trade and entrepreneurship, unemployment, and elections and leadership.
Although some resolutions of NYC ‘97 and NYC ’98 were achieved, many were not. The failure of the achievement of the resolutions passed may be in part attributed to the lack of a monitoring system in place and an annual evaluation of youth peers on the achievements made. It is also attributed to the lack of sustained funding to enable hosting the event. Inevitably, the momentum was lost. Nearly ten years later, and in light of the many issues arising in Kenya since the 2002 General Elections youth once again find themselves uncoordinated and unfocussed. The solidarity built in the years preceding the general lections seem to have been lost. It is time once again to re-launch a coordinated youth front.
In line with the tradition set by NYC ’97 and NYC ’98, NYC III 2007 shall set the millennial agenda for Kenyan youth. The focus shall be on achieving a common strategy that enhances youth visibility and participation in the economic and political processes in the country. The NYC III shall acknowledge the youth and youth organisations have made great strides in the achievement organisational and personal ambitions. Youth have been active in the political, social, economic and environmental spheres aimed at making a “better Kenya”.
However, there is need a common platform on which we base our actions where every young Kenya may put to task their leaders on what steps they are taking to achieve the “better Kenya” that we all strive for and irrespective of our different ideologies, political, religious and ethnic affiliation. NYC 2007 shall put in place a system of monitoring and evaluating implementation of resolutions agreed and impact of youth involvement at community and national levels.
Objectives:
· Review the status of implementation of NYC ’98 resolutions and evaluate the gains made by young people since 1997;
· To share experiences and lessons on how youth have addressed the challenge of leadership; and
· To chart a common course on national economic, political and social priorities to be lobbied for by the youth.
To establish mechanism and processes that will operationalize the thematic areas in order to secure and realize young peoples engagement and impact at all levels.
The key discussion issues shall include:
The key discussions and resolutions of NYC III shall be founded on five key pillars as follows:

1. Ethical and transformative leadership: Leadership is the most important pillar of recreating the republic. Educating all young Kenyans on good governance and empowering youth on the essence of transparency and accountability is imperative for efficacy in national resource management. Currently, Kenya’s institutions of leadership are characterized by mediocrity, lack of vision, impunity and corruption. This leadership is largely accessed through inheritance, violence, corruption and on the basis of tribalism. The leadership (not merely leaders) that Kenya wants today must be ethical, accountable, visionary and transformative leadership at all levels which is founded on sound principles, standards, values and expectations. Kenya requires a new leadership that is visionary, based on knowledge and research and that is faithful to the true interests of our republic.

The NYC will engage in efforts and programs geared towards encouraging leaders of accountability, transparency and inclusivity through its networks. Already, networks are engaged in Movement of Political Accountability MOPA).


· NYC III will call upon all the members of the 9TH Parliament to pass the Sessional Paper on the Kenya National Youth Policy before the end of life of this Session in order to further entrench youth engagement in national planning, governance and development.

· NYC III will promote the use of the “code of conduct for youth participation in politics – the challenge to leadership” to monitor the principles, standards, values and missions of public and other institutions.

· NYC III will explore other mechanisms for young to hold public programs, private and social institutions at all levels accountable


2. Resolving our identity “dilemma”: Culture is a paramount pillar of the project of recreating the republic. We have witnessed a culture in Kenya dating back to the pre-independence period a culture of treachery, betrayal, and exclusion; a culture that rewards the bad elements and those who do not work and punishes those who do well and those who work. It is a culture of injustice. The youth have suffered most through out history on modern Kenya. We want to define a new value and cultural framework that supports the vision of a new republic. This requires that we must engage in resolving our identity dilemma as a republic and define what the acceptable, celebrated and popular Kenyan culture is. We want to define a new “Kenyan-ness”.
Inevitably this must happen within the context of regional integration processes, the role and place of citizens in the East African Community (EAC) as well as our position on (and perhaps in) the Union of African States.

3.Equity: factors, actors and influences (as they influence resource allocation and distribution): Our current political process is to a large extent based on “personalities” rather than “issues”. Political institutions such as political parties have been blocked from evolving and becoming institutions of political participation and good governance. Ours is “politics of exclusion” that excludes young people, women, people with disabilities and minorities and sections of the country that did not vote for the sitting president.

The political leadership largely performs in ways that betray national interest and serve the narrow elite interests of those in power! The youth have suffered under this political order. The youth have become the fodder for this political order not the foremost drivers of the national agenda and governance. No sector is served best under this political order. This political system must be transformed, if not Kenya will diminish, not emerge stronger in this new millennium. The environment will collapse, dependency and inequality will increase, poverty and unemployment will increase and the independence of our country will be jeopardized.

The young people will by resolution during the convention seek a system where resources are distributed equitably among Kenyans as opposed to political patronage. Young people shall seek clear laws which protect and ensure that the poor and marginalized such as youths and women access national resources.

4.Economic management – innovative production and efficient distribution: The economy is so important a pillar to the success of the vision of the new republic the young people of this generation want to create. The Kenyan economy remains small and weak to offer 33 Million Kenyans the opportunity to meet their needs and a decent living standard; it is dependent on foreign forces, underdeveloped and inefficient. It is neither a just nor fair economy with limited training and skills development, limited research, inaccessible capital resources to the majority, dismal wages and an unfair tax system. We want a strong, innovative and efficient economy.

An economy based on innovative and efficient production and efficient distribution shall benefit the young people- the majority and most productive members of our society most. This will mainstream the fundamentals of innovative production that serves the innovation that is a characteristically best identified with young – the innovator of our country but also ensure efficient distribution of the production of our society. This is the secret to innovation, creativity and opportunity and therefore a strong and dynamic economy.

· NYC III will propose strategies and proactive measures towards innovation production and efficient distribution of goods and services that youth enterprises engage.

· NYC III will examine existing relevant local and national policies and propose areas of engagement for policy change for local enterprise growth.

· NYC III will seek to audit regional, bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade agreements that threaten the innovativeness, effective distribution, the existence and growth of local enterprises.

· NYC III shall propose the initiation of engagements, platforms and processes that will provide alternatives and desired changes to potentially harmful or retrogressive trade agreements

5. Responsive social institutions: Kenya needs a reliable health care system which is affordable, accessible and efficient. The Kenyan youth through the NYC platform shall seek to interrogate policies and laws guiding this vital sector to ensure that it is responsive to Kenyans particularly the poor and marginalized where the youth fall.

Sustainable national food security is a must for any society. Many nations today are plagued by famine which otherwise can be avoided with sound planning and management. The youth shall engage and ensure that good management is place through advocacy programs.

Transformational and empowering education system not just for employment but for powering the thinking and informing the creation of new better society. An education system that encourages life skill transfers and is in tandem with the labour market.

The youth shall advocate for accessible justice system which ensures that all especially the youth have access to information and representation. We are experiencing lack of and or inadequate information on ones rights, lack of resources and a bureaucratic legal process. In particular, the youth through the NYC III shall by a convention resolution seek to implement programs geared towards monitoring the implementation of Governance, Justice, Law and Order Sector’s (GJLOs) outputs.

Young people have identified corruption as one single most hindrance to service delivery in key sectors such as health, education, security, Justice and employment. In this, the NYC III will make a resolution on key engagements aimed at curbing corruption such as networks monitoring the devolved funds and also the implementation of the GJLOs outputs.
Participants
The Conference will bring together 1600 young Kenya leaders according to the following criteria:
· Aged 18 – 35 years with demonstrated leadership qualities
· Regional representation
· Gender balance
· Religious representation
· Sector interests (by sector e.g health, education, environment)
· Type of organisation: business-related, political party, professionals, etc
· Special category:
- people of over 35 years and whose distinctive achievements can be utilized for the youth’s good;
- selected youth leaders from around Africa; and
- Government departments in the Region with youth programmes.
Conference organisation
1. Pre- Convention
Pre-convention activities shall be undertaken in order to build information on youth views on Convention’s thematic areas and generate support for the NYC, and will include:
- participation on radio and television talk shows
- (breakfast) meetings with media owners and news editors of leading national and regional newspapers and magazines
- Messages in print and electronic media on youth participation in social, political and economic development
2. During the Convention
NYC 2005 shall have plenary sessions where all participants shall be involved in debates and discussions with a panel of discussants on various issues.
There shall also be thematic group sessions, facilitated by experts in various areas. The thematic groups shall be action-oriented in their discussion. Participants in the respective thematic group discussions shall agree on key actions and assign responsibility and time frame for the implementation of the agreed actions.
Individual participants shall also be expected to develop action plans on how to share and implement the agreed resolutions in their respective communities/organisations. Participants shall be assigned a “counsellor” to support them develop the action plan.
3. Post – Convention
After the Convention, there shall be need to disseminate the resolutions of the Convention to ensure that they are accepted and implemented by a wide array of young people. This may involve revisiting the audience involved in the pre-convention activities.
Conference administration
NYC III shall be coordinated a Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) that shall be constituted by Youth Agenda. The PrepCom shall be responsible for conference organisation and oversee post-conference activities, including the coordination of individual action plans. In addition the PrepCom shall:
· Develop the thematic areas for discussion;
· Identify and secure speakers to the Convention;
· Identify and secure support from key stakeholders; and
· Identify and coordinate pre-convention and post-convention activities.
The PrepCom shall be supported by a Secretariat, based at Youth Agenda premises. The Secretariat shall be headed by a Coordinator supported by four assistants. The Secretariat shall:
· Identify and secure the conference venue;
· Coordinate Conference media coverage and marketing;
· Contact and coordinate participants;
· Prepare conference material; and
· Organise and ensure documentation of conference proceedings.

Key outputs
The key outputs at the end of the Convention shall include:
· Resolutions developed, strategies identified, responsibilities allocated and time frame indicated;
· “Action Network” established for outreach to disseminate resolutions and develop broader consensus on the youth agenda;
· Individual (stakeholder/organization based) action plans developed to implement the resolutions agreed; and
· Conference proceedings published and disseminated to participants and key stakeholders.