Article
UNESCO supports development of national youth policy for Zambia
Youth account for more than 1/3 of Zambia’s 17.8 million population. While they represent a key part of Zambia’s society, they face many socioeconomic challenges, such as access to education, lack of skills to access decent job opportunities, and unemployment. These challenges call for urgent action, so that young people can realize their full potential and actively participate in the country’s development and growth.
Against this backdrop, UN agencies in Zambia, including UNESCO, have been supporting the country in the design of a new national youth policy, to be adopted in the first quarter of 2023. The policy addresses issues such as access to education, health and well-being, and technology, all factors that are key for youth development in Zambia. The aim of the policy is to provide a broad and solid framework to support the capacities of young people and ensure that they become responsible and contributing citizens.
This new policy will allow the government to make targeted investment in youth welfare, and consequently yield dividends that would be beneficial for national development.
As part of that support, UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences Sector and the Ministry of Youth, Sport, and Arts organized a three-day training workshop in Lusaka, from 7 to 9 December 2022. It gathered about 50 young participants from government, the National Youth Council, youth organizations, small and medium enterprises, and UN agencies. Together, they discussed possible concepts and application of youth engagement and development for the design of targeted policy solutions.
The training was insightful. It provided youth-related actors in Zambia with an opportunity to exchange ideas, learn from each other and mutually determine how to promote holistic youth development in the design and substance of the new policy.
Zambia’s activities are part of UNESCO’s Youth Programme, which is built around four priorities. These include support for knowledge production by youth; development of inclusive national youth policies; strengthening stakeholders’ capacities; and accompanying youth in the implementation and upscaling of innovative solutions and actions, to address key issues in societies. The support to Zambia contributes to youth as a priority group for UNESCO, as it does to Africa, which is one of the two global priorities for the Organization, the other being gender equality.
Supporting countries develop inclusive policies on youth is key to UNESCO’s effort in addressing socioeconomic and environmental challenges facing young people in a very complex and rapidly changing world.