At first sight, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) might mean nothing to the majority of Senegalese youth. 2/3 of the youth I have questioned, answered that they have no idea about it, or they have a vague knowledge of the MDGs - and none of them know about the Millennium Campaign. Myself, I have to confess that I did not know about the Millennium Campaign until recently - though I already knew about the MDGs.
This may seem as if the MDGs are a foreign concept, which has no relevance in the daily life of youth here. It is only in April 2004, meaning four years after the Declaration was signed and two years after the Millennium Campaign was set up that the youth in Senegal started to be sensitized about the MDGs. It was on the occasion of the Pan-African Youth Leadership Conference organized here in Senegal by UNDP and the Global Peace Initiative of Women. That meeting, presided by President Wade, was the first attempt to get Senegalese youth involved in the implementation of the MDGs. The National MDG Campaign headquartered at the Directorate of Youth Life under the supervision of the Youth Ministry, is a direct outgrowth of the Pan-African Youth Leadership Conference. Therefore, seen from that point of view, it appears that youth in Senegal have just started learning about the MDGs.
But this doesn’t mean that they haven’t been contributing to the MDGs. On the contrary, youth in Senegal have been at the forefront of development and poverty reduction struggle for years.
Senegalese Youth and the MDGs as a Development Challenge
If we consider the MDGs as a set of development challenges and not as a thematic or an umbrella of development concepts, we realize that Senegalese youth are already contributing to their achievement. From an empirical perspective, I can say that Senegalese youth associations are already tackling some of the key issues raised by the Millennium Declaration. I will just take the examples of goals 1, 6 and 8 to illustrate this point.
Youth and Goal 1
In the rural areas, young people are the main work force that is mobilized to produce food and to perform all the fieldwork that is necessary to maintain decent living for the community. Therefore, if youth are strengthened and supported, they can play a major role in the achievement of food security and the eradication of hunger.
Youth and Goal 6
If we take the case of Goal 6, which relates to HIV/AIDS and other diseases, youth associations had been addressing it well before the Millennium Declaration was signed. And today if Senegal has one of the lowest prevalence rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, one can say that young people have contributed to it. Youth have been involved in HIV/AIDS education, HIV testing and blood donation campaigns, and they actively supported HIV/AIDS patients. Medical student associations in particular have been playing a key role. Besides, during what we call rainy season here, when people both in rural and urban areas are badly hit by malaria and other tropical diseases, student and youth associations sacrifice their school vacation and engage into social activities that provide valuable assistance to the population.
Youth and Goal 8
Various youth networks are already active in the field of youth empowerment and youth employment. A great deal of efforts is being made by youth themselves to ensure that their peers have the leadership skills and necessary competences to enter the job market. These networks, however, should be empowered as they often operate under difficult conditions without any administrative support from both government and society. There is also a need to coordinate the efforts of the various youth groups.
I believe that if youth establish a partnership with Government, Civil Society and the Private Sector, they can be strong enough to reach full employment and therefore contribute to the realization of Goal 8 of the Millennium Declaration.
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