WINDHOEK– Eight Namibian young parliamentarians took part in the first ever global gathering aimed at mobilising the youth’s participation in politics and to overcome a democracy deficit in political engagement.
Sandre Botma and Shaandre Finnies from the Children Parliament are among the more than 150 young MPs from across the globe who attended the Inter-Parliamentary Union General Assembly (IPU) underway in Geneva in Switzerland. The IPU Global Conference is a young parliamentarians’ conference that aims to bridge the gap between the growing weight of young people in societies around the world, and their low presence and participation in conventional politics. It also examines long held perceptions of youth apathy and disillusionment with formal politics.
Themed Taking democracy to task, Finnies said the Conference would be informed by a new benchmark IPU analysis on youth representation in parliament. “It shows that despite some encouraging trends, low youth representation in parliament remains a global challenge to democracy. Although half of the world’s population is less than 28 years old according to United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) , IPU’s analysis reveals that MPs under the age of 30 years account for 1.75 per cent of parliamentarians in nearly 80 countries,” said Finnies.
The Conference was intended to explore concrete ways to stimulate youth participation in political decision making as well as defining a clear global youth agenda in politics. The adoption of youth quotas, similar to gender quotas for parliament, could be one way forward to increasing the number of young MPs, Finnies miantained.
He added that the analysis provides the first ranking of countries in relation to the percentage of young people in legislative bodies. With 10.1 per cent of MPs in its lower house of parliament under the age of 30 years, Norway is the only country to break the double digit barrier. In all, 38 parliamentary chambers had no MPs at all under 30.
Finnies said the survey results found that MPs aged between 51-60 years account for the largest group of parliamentarians, more than 37 per cent in nearly 100 parliamentary chambers that took part in the survey.
Bringing young MPs together with youth leaders and international experts, the conference not only tackled low youth representation in parliament, but also identified the barriers to political participation. “These include a highly prevalent discrepancy between minimum age for voting and for being elected, young people not being taken seriously politically and insufficient youth empowerment initiatives,” said Finnies.
A set of recommended actions defined in an outcome document at the Conference’s conclusion was followed up by IPU’s Forum of Young Parliamentarians which met at the 131st IPU Assembly on October 12-16. The Forum, established in 2013, is a permanent IPU body dedicated to cementing the quantitative and qualitative legislative participation of youth.