Namibian youth are urged to collaborate with fellow African youth leaders, share common challenges, and collectively find solutions.
This is the view of Paulus Filippus, the deputy country director in Namibia for the African University Students Platform (AUSP).
Filippus and other Namibian youth participated in the second Africa University Students Platform Pan-African Youth Conference held in Kigali, Rwanda recently.
The conference focused on topics such as youth involvement in leadership and governance, the “Africa We Want” Agenda 2063 and 2030, and the impact of climate change on the achievement of these agendas. He emphasised the need for Namibian youth to unite and address continental issues through collaboration, learning from fellow leaders, and adopting best-practices.
Filippus highlighted the importance of young people occupying decision-making positions for meaningful transformation to occur. He stressed the role of young leaders in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the 2063 Agenda.
“Young people need to actively work on leading from the front to ensure sustainable change. I understand how important it is for our countries to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the 2063 Agenda, and that can only be achieved by having young people in key positions,” he added.
Judith Mpande de Oliveira, a participant in the conference, underlined the importance of Namibians taking part in such events to extract knowledge, establish collaborations and create opportunities. She urged the youth to challenge the status quo, promote new ideas, and work together to bring positive change to their communities.
“We need to challenge the status quo of our countries, and find ways to promote new ideas which will bring change to our community. Again, we need to stick together and broaden our minds to serve our nation competently, and not limit ourselves due to our ages,” she said.
Kinisha Allia Evenson, a final-year local government student at the University of Namibia, underscored the necessity for Namibian youth to connect with their peers across the continent, collaborate and contribute to Africa’s development.
“Such conferences provide a platform for fruitful conversations. It is an opportunity to showcase and possibly represent our country. My main takeaway from the conference is the unavoidable role of the African youth in the development of the continent; the power of dialogue and collaboration,” Evenson said.
She went on to say that as a Namibian youth, they are more privileged, compared to those in other African countries in terms of students unions as they have no one fighting for them, but are on their own.
“We have a lot of students unions and organisations which fight for the Namibian youth, and access to quality education. I would like us to collaborate with some of the African leaders from other countries to assist them with starting up students unions to fight for the rights of students in their countries,” he continued.
Rivaldo Kavanga, the AUSP Namibia Chapter Brand ambassador, echoed the importance of youth engagement in governance and decision-making processes.
“The delegates passionately advocated for the active engagement of young individuals in governance and decision-making processes. This collective call is grounded in the belief that such involvement safeguards the continuity of national strategies, eliminating the need to commence when assuming pivotal positions and leading from the forefront,” he said.
-psiririka@nepc.com.na