A five-day high-level ministerial conference on the role of regional economic communities in promoting the youth, peace and security agenda in the East and the Horn of Africa will take place in Nairobi, Kenya 1- 5 November 2021.
The objective of the conference is to promote the youth peace and security agenda through advocacy for more inclusive policies and meaningful engagement of young people in peacebuilding and conflict prevention mechanisms. The conference is jointly organized by the African Union working with COMESA, the Government of Kenya, and civil society organisations namely Save the Children, Life and Peace Institute and the Horn of Africa Youth Network.
The participants will review the implementation of international and regional legal and policy frameworks for youth in peace and security for different countries in the Horn of Africa. The event will also be an opportunity to popularize the frameworks to promote the role of youth in peace and security.
In addition, varied initiatives and programmes developed or endorsed by governments, regional economic communities (RECs) and Regional Mechanisms (RM) to capacitate young people in the Horn of Africa will be showcased. They include the early warning systems of COMESA (COMWARN), the COMESA Youth engagement strategy, the AU Youth Peace and Security Framework among others.
The conference will expose the region’s youth on the current youth peace and security initiatives across the Horn of Africa region by regional governments, RECs and RMs including limitations and successes. There will be emphasis on partnerships and the significance of governments, AU, RECS/RMs, development partners and the young people working together in advancing the youth, peace and security agenda within the Horn of Africa region.
A communique will be issued at the end of the conference to inform policy changes following review of the international and regional legal and policy frameworks in the region.
The conference will be attended by Ministers and Deputy Ministers from the Ministries of Youth Affairs and Foreign Affairs within the Horn of Africa namely Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, South Sudan, and Somalia. Other participants will be youth leaders from the National Youth Councils as well as the AU’s African Youth Ambassador for Peace (AYAP) representative, Community Youth Leaders and Development Partners.
The first two days will be targeted at technical officers from Ministries responsible for youth affairs and foreign Affairs as well as youth representatives while the Ministerial engagement will commence on 3rd November 2021.
The conference is organized by the Directorates and Units for Peace and Security from the AU, COMESA Secretariat, Save the Children, Life and Peace and the Horn of Africa Youth Network.
Programme – Ministerial Conference on youth
Press Release – Joint High Level Ministerial Meeting on Youth Peace and Security_Final
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