THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

Concept on African Youth

Forum (AYF), Kampala,
July 17th to 19th 2010
As a Pre- event to the 15th Ordinary
session of the Assembly of Heads of
State and Government of the African
Union.

1
 10/4/2010

2|Page
 1. BACKGROUND:

AU Summits are part of the mechanisms used by African leaders under the auspices of the African
Union to deliberate and take action on commitments, upcoming issues and policy framing on social,
economic and political aspects that affect African countries.

AU summits are organized under various themes that highlight areas of concern as agreed upon by
Heads of States and Assemblies to consider key concerns of the continent. The forthcoming AU
Summit in Kampala will be held under the theme; “Maternal, Infant and Child Health and
Development in Africa”, to specifically take stock of global and continental goals on reducing
maternal and infant mortality and improving safe motherhood and child health; as well as redressing
strategies to accelerate progress in improving both maternal and child health.

The AU summit in Kampala will have three major meetings that include the Ordinary session of the
Permanent Representatives committee which will run from July 19 th – 20th, the ordinary session of
the Executive Council (African foreign Affairs Ministers) from July 22 nd – 23rd and lastly the ordinary
session of the Assembly of African Heads of State and Governments which will be held from July 25 th
– 27th.

Recognizing failure to achieve targets for the Millennium Development Goals especially without
prioritization of sexual reproductive health of people in Africa; African Ministers of Health meeting in
Gaborone October 2005 adopted the Continental Policy framework on Sexual Reproductive Health
and Rights (SRHR) which addresses SRHR challenges, increased resource allocation to health and
ensuring SRH commodity security among others. In 2006, the Maputo Plan of Action was developed
for the operationalisation of the Policy Framework and it seeks to take the continent forward
towards the goal of universal access to comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health services that
include maternal health in Africa by 2015. In addition, the African Accelerated Child Survival Strategy
of 2007 stipulates goals that have to be met by African states on promoting child survival through
reduction of infant/child mortality and promotion of child health care programmes.

In 2009, UNICEF Uganda fronted the idea of Uganda hosting an African Youth Forum alongside the
July 2010 AU Summit. The idea was welcomed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but as a
requirement, the host country has full discretion on the preparations and organization of any side
event to an AU Summit outside the AU secretariat programme for that particular summit. In that
respect, the Head of state of the host country had to approve the event before its endorsement by
the AUC early this year. This means that the AYF will now be an integral meeting of the summit of
July 2010.

In the meantime, African Youth Forum (AYF) preparation meetings were started and are hosted by a
sub-committee designated by the National task force organizing the AU summit. The sub-
committee was created to develop among others this concept note for planning and execution of
the African Youth Forum, as well as engage AU commission on the agenda of this event and it’s
linkage with the main Heads of States Summit The African Youth Forum meeting is planned for three
days starting on July 17th to 19th and its expected that its resolutions/ recommendations will either
be presented to the Executive council for review before presentation to the Assembly of Heads of

3|Page
State and Government or directly presented to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government. The
most appropriate mechanism will be decided after consultation and negotiation with the African
Union Commission.

2. JUSTIFICATION FOR THE AFRICAN YOUTH FORUM;

While recognizing 2010 as the year of the African Youth declared by the African Union and also being
the International Year of the Youth (August 2010) declared by the UN General Assembly, the African
Union and its organs need to fully acknowledge the principles of these declarations in order to fully
benefit from contributions of youth in addressing the continent’s social and developmental
constraints. Specifically, the planned AYF is intended to raise views and concerns of youth in Africa
on progress and challenges faced by Maternal and child health programmes and in particular
targeting youth. Their deliberations are expected to form key recommendations for the
consideration of the African Heads of State and Government during the main AU Summit. This is in
respect to the various commitments that African leaders have made to improve delivery of health
services and reduction in maternal and child health in Africa. Some of these commitments have
resulted in declarations and frameworks like Abuja declarations of 2001 and 2005, Maputo Plan of
Action for operationalising the Continental Policy framework on SRHR among others. Voices of the
youth are usually not heard while building consensus upon which African leaders have made these
commitments and it is imperative that a platform be created for youth to equally share their views
and opinions because they form the largest proportion of population age groups across the
continent.

3. OUTPUT OBJECTIVES OF THE FORUM;

The main objective is to provide a platform for discussion and recommendations from youth
delegates concerning maternal, child health and development for contribution towards the AU
Heads of States Summit in July 2010. However, the Forum will also discuss some other Youth
pertinent issues i.e Employment, Poverty, Environment and make recommendations.

Specifically, the forum intends to;

 Position African youth as critical players in the continent’s development and to influence the highest
level of decision makers.
 Learn and understand what the young in Africa think about “Achieving Maternal and Child Health
Goals”
 Understand better the most effective ways to transmit their thinking to leaders whose decisions will
strongly affect the young people in Africa.

4|Page
Most importantly, this being the first Youth Forum of its kind, the objective is to explore strategies
that make the African Youth Forum an integral and regular component of future African Heads of
State and Government Summits.

Theme

The proposed theme for the African Youth Forum is: “Achieving Maternal and Child Health Goals”-
African Youth call for action –

4. CONTENT OF THE FORUM DISCUSSIONS:

In addition to findings from the pre-forum consultative process, the following 1topics have been
recommended to form the main content of discussion during the AYF, these include:

i) Meaningful youth participation in the development agenda.

ii) Mobilizing Demand for Maternal, Infant and Child Health services.
iii) Financing Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development programmes.

In addition, there are a number of cross cutting issues that are pertinent and might not be
comprehensively covered within the selected topics. For purposes of this forum, it is proposed that
HIV/AIDS, gender considerations, rights of youth and vulnerable youth be included as cross cutting
issues within each of the topics.

5. METHODOLOGY;

At least two (2) country delegates between the ages 16 – 29 years are expected from 52 AU member
states plus 20 delegates from Uganda bringing the total of expected youth delegates to 124.

Government ministries, with UNICEF and UNFPA support, should coordinate to ensure parity (age,
gender and urban/rural) in the selection process.

The Country Office, in consultations with the Government and partners can design a local process to
identify the young participants to the Forum, keeping in mind:

a) There should be a gender balance amongst the two selected delegates from each
member state with one in the age bracket of 16- 20 years and the other 21-29 years.

b) Candidates must be bona-fide citizens of AU member state from which they are
applying.

c) Must be fluent in any of the AU official languages, thus French, English, Portuguese or
Arabic.

d) Should be versed with issues of maternal, infant and child health.

e) Must have a criminal free record.

f) All delegates selected must be in position to attend the entire program and activities of
the Forum.
1
These topics may be expanded with input from young people through the SPEAK Africa website and other fora and also
considering the expected guidance of the AUC.

5|Page
 g) All delegates must be in possession of a valid travel document.

h) All delegates must come from a country which does not have AU sanctions.

i) A maximum of two pages should be written by the delegates on the following;

i. Their understanding of the AYF theme and how it affects their country.
ii. Their expectations from the AYF
iii. Their perceived role during the AYF, how they intend to use this information and
experience upon their return home.
iv. And lastly, their recommendations to improve Maternal and Child health in their
countries and their individual roles.

j) The successful candidates must also collect and bring along informational materials like
videos, reports, case studies, posters in regard to the theme for the Open space. In
addition to their two page write up and materials for the open space, they should
submit country case scenarios on any of the topics described in this concept three weeks
before the forum starts.

Three or four very experienced technical adult facilitators and three or four youth facilitators will be
contracted to present the topics and facilitate the subsequent discussions. Alongside them would be
Youth co-facilitators with proven experience in the topics.

Instead of turning the AYF into an elaborate process of country/regional and continental meetings, it
is proposed that the Forum be based on new and expanding IT opportunities like internet, cell-
phones and media connecting young people either as individuals or groups (formal or informal),
using blogs, chat rooms, SMS exchanges, youth polls, connecting classrooms and other applicable
and proven approaches.

The views and proposals from young people would be put on the SPEAKAFRICA website and other
online platforms, which will be upgraded and subjected to continued debate and comments by
participating young people. Their views will be collected by the two country delegates, analyzed and
using the same avenue, discussions and resolutions from the AYF will be summarized and shared
with young people and medi. If done well, this would set precedence on how to bring key issues
debated by Heads of State at the AU from and to the young people of Africa.

It is proposed that the African Youth Forum be conducted in the form of a structured main meeting
and open space running alongside the meeting to provide a platform for youth delegates to share
their experiences and best practices so that their discussions within the main meeting are well
informed.

6. PROPOSED ACTIVITIES;

a. Main meeting:

The main meeting will have technical papers, case studies and or success stories presented on the
topics in order to orient or update delegates and provoke discussions that will ensure achievement
of specific topic objectives. Topic workshops that are interactive in nature will be conducted after

6|Page
each technical paper presentation to brainstorm and discuss the underlying issues and eventually
come up with the expected outputs of each topic session.

Four workshop groups are proposed and they include; Southern Africa, East and Central Africa,
North Africa and West Africa. It is worth noting that each topic will be conducted individually and
not simultaneously with others, so that all participants in their selected groups get a chance to
discuss all the three topics.

Workshop groups will be provided with guidelines for ensuring that they achieve the topic objective
and also devise modalities for moderating themselves; if necessary, disaggregated by gender, age
and country of origin.

After each topic workshop, participants will reconvene in plenary to share outputs and identify a few
key strategic recommendations with other participants for purposes of developing a “Call for Action
Document for the Youth Forum”

The Call for Action will hence be developed from day one of the forum by a team selected from topic
workshop groups that would be comprised of regional AU states’ delegates as already mentioned i.e.
Southern Africa, East and Central Africa, North Africa and West Africa clusters.

On the final day of the forum, the Call for Action will be completed and two delegates (male and
female) will be selected to present it to the AU Heads of State and Government at the AU Summit
and have at least four (4) young people engage the AU Heads of State and Government in a round
table discussion on issues around youth and the theme of the summit. Immediately after the round
table discussion with the AU heads of State and Government, a press conference is proposed to
share the outputs from the round table discussion. Another 4 young people will be selected from the
AYF to engage in panel discussions with First Ladies of Africa in their meeting.

b. Open Space:

This will be an open area at the venue of the forum designated for interaction, sharing and learning
for the Youth delegates. It is expected that the open space will provide an opportunity for the
delegates to showcase human and programme stories related to the theme and its topics for the
learning benefit of others. Development partners and local organizations working on youth Maternal
and Child Health programmes as well as the private sector will be invited to exhibit their work since
Uganda is highly regarded as a source of best practices.

c. Media campaign:

A media booth (studio) will be set up to link the outside world with proceedings of the Youth Forum
so that it gains the necessary attention that the AU Heads of State need to take action on the African
Youth Forum’s Declaration and proceedings. The studio will serve as an information hub for both
participants and the attending media personnel.

d. Documentaries;

7|Page
It is expected that young people will be able to view a variety of documentaries to learn about
Africa’s programmes on maternal and child health built around shared best practices and in line with
the AU Summit theme. In Uganda, the United Nations Communication Group and Ministry of Health
have expressed interest in developing and showcasing AU summit theme related documentaries.

e. Forum Magazine;

A souvenir magazine (Forum handbook) will be produced with the aim of sharing information about
the forum including topics to be discussed. Articles will be included in the magazine by renowned
health and development specialists and key messages for the youth by the political leadership in
Africa will also be included. It is anticipated that about 5000 copies will be produced and shared
during the AU Summit in Kampala.

f. technology for development;

As part of the overall inputs and outputs of the Young Africa Forum 2010, UNICEF is looking for
opportunities to explore a series of activities harnessing “Technology for Development” to promote
greater youth participation and interactivity around the forum, as well as disseminate the
proceedings more widely. Initial ideas are as outlined below; these can be changed and expanded
upon as need dictates.

Speak Africa
As in 2009, changes will be made to the Speak Africa public and community sites to promote
increased engagement in the Africa Youth Forum. Such changes and inputs will include (and are not
limited to): 

 Crabgrass upgrades, including Speak Africa site maintenance, mobile integration with
crabgrass, and custom community content.
 Speak Africa upgrades, including specialized content and sections promoting the Young
Africa Forum.
 A more interactive Speak Africa site home including moderated commenting and forum
updates. 
 Support for the UNICEF Ethiopia Country Office on pre-summit content preparation,
moderation, and post-summit follow-up activities.

African Youth Forum Competition

Using the Speak Africa platform, contests can be conducted in association with the African Youth
Forum, either as a method for choosing participants, or to further engage young people unable to
attend. Using a designated coordinator, related activities could include:

 Designing and conducting essay, multi-media, or audio contests engaging young people
around programmatic aspects related to the Young Africa forum.
 Serving as a liaison between ADAP, Uganda Country Office, other UNICEF country offices,
and other relevant entities to facilitate the safe arrival, stay, and departure of contest
winners to/from the forum.
 Planning and starting implementation of a follow-up strategy for forum participants focusing
on post-conference engagement and participation.

8|Page
Mobile Engagement
Working with Uganda Country Office, UNICEF New York Headquarters will work to design an
appropriate strategy for engaging youth in the Young Africa Forum. Depending on desired outcomes
and budget/time constraints, such engagement could include the following:

 Crabgrass-based polls designed and conducted by young people

 Online Speak Africa polls conducted in coordination with the Praekelt Foundation around
issues of maternal health
 Infolines conducted in coordination with ADAP and possibly private-sector partners

Connecting Classrooms 
As in 2009, UNICEF is looking to promote youth involvement in the African Youth Forum through the
Connecting Classrooms initiative. Because Connecting Classrooms takes place over several months,
the focus is shifted from the event itself to the issues raised by the event, thus promoting continuous
engagement that lasts long after the forum has passed. A Connecting Classrooms initiative designed
and run in coordination with the Africa Youth Forum would include:

 A collaboratively designed curriculum focused on health and maternal health.

 A low-bandwidth, web and mobile-based platform enabling classrooms to collaborate
around topics of mutual interest.
 Classrooms connected in the five AU regions, allowing young people to interact around
issues in relation to the forum.
 Translation of key points to ensure cross-dialogue across languages.
 An updated and accessible platform.
 

g. Learning journey (field trip):

Delegates will be given a chance to explore the country by visiting the source of the Nile River in Jinja
for them to learn about this world attraction.

7. REPORTING:

A national organizing committee for the Africa Youth Forum will put in place ways for ensuring that
there is a good and an effective reporting system both narrative and summative to the key
stakeholders. At the end of the forum the “call for action” document will be compiled and shared. A
final report will be produced and circulated at national and regional levels.

8. LIST OF PARTNERS ORGANIZING THE AFRICAN YOUTH FORUM:

a) AU Commission
b) Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development –Uganda
c) Ministry of Foreign affairs-Uganda (Host)
d) Office of the President-Republic of Uganda
e) Office of the First Lady Republic of Uganda
f) UNICEF
g) UNFPA
h) National Youth Council-Uganda

9|Page
 i) Ministry of Health-Uganda
j) WHO
k) Commonwealth Association-Uganda (CPAUG)
l) Other Civil Societies that will be co-opted in the working group

10 | P a g e