In the world today, the youth are regarded as the backbone of any nation, and any decision making that excludes the youth is regarded as shun and not all inclusive.
At the UN HABITAT 24th Governing Council, the youth centered at almost every topic of discussion. from how the government funds can be distributed, how jobs can be created and even offered to support youth initiated projects using the 6 billion that was initially intended for election run off, he identified the slum areas as some the places where the government will work to improve lives especially
During the official opening of the UN HABITAT CG24, The president of Kenya, Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta pledged to work with the youth to tackle unemployment and even offered to support youth initiated projects using the 6 billion that was initially intended for election runoff, he identified the slum areas as places where the government will work in making lives better especially for the youths coming from regions mostly regarded as marginalized.
Nairobi governor, dr. Evans Kidero, also in his speech, admited that nairobi faces alot of challenges in terms of security, proper sanitation among others. he too pledged to improve the living conditions in slums.
Being a participant at the 24th Governing Council, I attended a session on safer cities where a report was read by a group that has been working with different organizations both government and non-governmental, to help improve the security of Nairobi as a city and the youths were a point of discussion here, because they were identified as those who participate in hooliganism and unlawlessness. the safer city team highlighted some of it’s achievements which included ensuring that the city is well lit up. which they did by working with different groups to mount street lights especially in slum areas such as Kibera, Mathare and Korogocho slums. They have also been working to create jobs for unemployed youths in these slums by helping initiate youth driven projects and access to youth funds, and also cleaning up the city to get rid of bushy areas which are mostly regarded as hotspots.
On Tuesday 16thApril2013, which was the second of the UNHABITAT Governing Council, I attended a joint discussion on improving the lives of the youth through productive initiatives. and from this discussion, the participants urged the various government representitives from all over the world to always include the youth in major decision making. mr. Doug, particularly identified that the youths needed to come up with constructive strategies that can be able to attract donor funds.
A Nigerian speaker also called on the private sector to be included on the youth empowerment programs.
The main challenge of accessing the youth funds was identified as being so hard to get the loans that are channeled by the government from banks as loans.
