All the eight Goals, seek to address issues of poverty, attainment of basic education, gender equality, health and the combat of major diseases, environmental sustainability and developing global partnerships for development - all vital cogs in a jigsaw puzzle of human development that all stakeholders have to contribute towards for its realisation.
While it is still appropriate to hold governments accountable to their promises on human development, as well as more advocacy and lobbying for other partners like the private sector and funding agencies to aid attainment of the MDGs, it is the issue of participation by the ordinary person on the street, particularly the young person, that might prove to be the Achilles’ heel in the attainment of the Goals. Governments and other development partners have conceded numerous times to the fact that for development to be sustainable, there is need for participation, inclusiveness and people-centeredness both in policy and practice.
However, it is as mind-boggling as it is discouraging to see the general culture of silence around youth participation in various development issues in the region. Most certainly finding origin in socio-cultural backgrounds and attitudes in which the youth have always been expected to ‘take it as it comes’ from the elders, non-involvement of the youth, moreso now in the MDGs, might actually be a time bomb waiting to explode and the repercussions might be too ghastly to contemplate. It does go without saying that young people, as the custodians of the future, surely ought to embrace values and practices of development and as with the MDGs, their participation might actually render a panacea to the myriad of developmental ills in the region that have left many an intellectual’s head screaming for painkillers.
It is just a wonder when you transect across the Southern African Region- no matter where you are, whether it’s Cape Town in South Africa, Lilongwe in Malawi, Harare in Zimbabwe, Mbabane in Swaziland, Maputo in Mozambique or even in smaller towns in the region and see how young people would be busy in internet cafes and computer centres accessing various web platforms, generating and sharing intelligent computer programmes, knowledge and skills. The manner of zest and passion for ICTs the youths in this region possess would certainly leave Bill Gates uncontrollably turning green with envy, and one just wonders if such intelligentsia and innovativeness could not be harnessed for developmental purposes.
In this information era that we are living in, ICTs indeed have a pivotal role to play in boosting economic growth in developing countries and India is one country among many that lives to tell the tale. With the right policy environment youth potential in ICTs can be harnessed to boost industrial and economic development, hence leading to creation of more employment, more revenue to governments and inevitably contributing to poverty alleviation (MDG 1). ICTs would also find use in aiding research and capacity-building of various socio-economic institutions pivotal for attaining human development. Young people could also be relevant in terms of innovatively creating and disseminating relevant localized content of information, education and communication on various issues like health (MDGs 4, 5, 6), education (MDG 2), gender equity (MDG 3) and environmental sustainability (MDG 7), all of them critical on the development agenda.
It’s also important to note that with such Goals as attainment of gender parity (MDG 3), environmental sustainability (MDG 7) and combating HIV and AIDS (MDG 6) are not in themselves events, but these are processes that require time to achieve because of their deep-rootedness in socio-cultural connotations. It therefore means for realisation of the respective goals, there has to be massive shifts in traditional paradigms and these would be a lot easier to start from children and the youth for obvious reasons. As the timeless adage would testify, “It’s easier to teach a young dog new tricks.”
It certainly leaves youth as a major hope for an equitable, sustainable and AIDS-free future in the region. Young people, now enjoying more access to global issues through ICTs and higher quality education, could also play a pivotal role concerning global integration issues and how they apply to their respective countries (MDG 8). In this sense they could influence integration policies if given the platform as well.
Now as shown above, the important role of young people in attainment of the MDGs in the region cannot be over-emphasized. The youth are important stakeholders in development and governments with their fellow development partners have accountability to give to them. Why then can’t young people be given the right platform to chart their own destiny, participate in important decision-making that affects them directly or indirectly? After all, the future belongs to young people. While other global development trajectories could have come, side-stepped the youth and gone by, the story has to be different now with MDGs. Young people cannot afford to be side-tracked again, the answer is no, no and never! Only two options are available for the youth with regards to the MDGs process: either stand up to be counted or stand up to be counted!
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