MEDIA RELEASE

Commonwealth Youth Encouraged to be Advocates and Decision Makers

Youth delegates attending the second day of the Commonwealth Youth Forum 7 (CYF7) on the Caribbean island of Tobago on Sunday were again encouraged to make their voices heard by getting involved in advocacy, demanding transparency and participating in the democratic process.  

During the introductory plenary session, Huey Cadette, Assistant Secretary, Health and Social Services of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) called on delegates to question whether youths are taken seriously. Cadette stressed that the youth vote is powerful. He said government programmes too often “paint young people with the same brush”. Those programmes cater to youth at a certain strata of society and leave out young people at the “grassroots”. Cadette emphasised that the needs of different groups of youth are different. Strategies would need to be tailored by policy makers to reach across the youth community, he said.

Cadette stressed that advocacy is not just about making noise but about getting one’s message across to those who can act.

Layne Robinson, Programme Officer with the Commonwealth Youth Programme, told the delegates that young people today do not have to fight as much as their counterparts in the 1960s and 70s to get their ‘foot in the door’. What was discussed at the plenary would affect many young people across the world, he said.

Nukutau Pokura, Regional Youth Caucus Chairperson for the Pacific Region of the Commonwealth, lamented the level of underrepresented youth in the Pacific region. She said many of the youth councils are established by persons outside the youth age bracket. Pokura spoke of the Pacific Youth Council which was newly revived after ‘sleeping’ for the past 15 years. She hopes to ensure this organization lasts for future generations. Pokura also spoke of the lack of male participation in the decision making process in the Pacific saying they do their ‘decision making’ through physical activities and socializing and urged governments to reach out to young men in that environment.

The final speaker was Rajiv Joshi, Board Member of the World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS). Joshi said governments today say that young people are the leaders of tomorrow but many young people are forced to be leaders today due to the loss of their parents to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
 
On another note, he said climate change is not affecting the future but is a reality now and that the world’s powers have the resources to stop world hunger but lack the political will. Joshi called for intergenerational collaboration and reiterated the call for youth to become more involved in decision making and advocacy.
Speaking about the forum Sammy Kuvuma from Uganda, the Africa Commonwealth Youth Caucus Chairperson, said ‘It is the young people of the Commonwealth who will take forward the values of the Commonwealth. To do that, they need to build their capacities and they must be involved in decision-making processes’.

‘Young people in the Commonwealth are always seen as the future. But we are the present. We are the change’ Kamal Powell, of Jamaica, the Caribbean Commonwealth Youth Caucus Chairperson said.

Sarika Katoch of India, the Asia Commonwealth Youth Caucus Chairperson added
‘For Indians, this is the platform where we can relate ourselves deeply as we all hold the shared history, values and culture. I can see a brilliant future for the youth while we are collaborating with the other members of the Commonwealth’.