Japanese

     I was introduced to the 25th Eisaku Sato Essay Contest by a Professor Katsuma Yasushi of Waseda University while taking his class on human security and globalization. I saw the essay contest as a good way to try and translate some of the theory I had learned and apply it to the real world by focusing on the work of the United Nations in the field. Having previously worked as a United Nations Volunteer for UNDP in Cambodia, I was keenly aware of some of the issues facing youth in the developing world. In my essay I tried to explore how the United Nations might engage with youth issues as part of its overall strategy for poverty reduction in Africa.          

     The crisis of African youth is emblematic of the world’s failure to address the multiple challenges of poverty in Africa. However, images of young Africans engaged in civil conflict, and as jobless on the streets of slum like cities only tell a small part of the story. My essay takes the position that African youth presents one of the biggest sources of hope and one of the most promising opportunities for addressing the challenge of poverty in Africa. I attempted to demonstrate some of the ways that the United Nations and its various agencies, in line with the principles of human development, can contribute to changing attitudes towards African youth, and to building their capacity to create long-term holistic solutions to poverty across the continent. There is extensive evidence of the way young people’s ingenuity, energy and resilience can be harnessed to generate real and positive change. Clearly from past experience, no one size fits all approach will work, but the United Nations is in a unique position to offer powerful ideals, as well as technical and material assistance that will allow African youth to realize their full potential and generate the kind of locally grounded solutions that should be the basis of any comprehensive challenge to poverty. Recent United Nations policy advances related to youth and development represent an important step forward, however more needs to be done to reflect the centrality of youth to effectively challenging poverty in the developing world. 

      My essay relies on two examples of the way United Nations and its agencies can contribute to empowering youth within the framework of human development in Africa. It first examines programs to deepen political participation and involve young people in decision making in post-conflict societies in West Africa, and then looks at strategies for building on youth entrepreneurship and creativity in urban sub-Saharan Africa. Following on from a number of specific recommendations, the conclusion drawn from these cases is that a policy of ‘mainstreaming youth’ across United Nations activities in Africa would represent a powerful recognition of the importance of the role of youth to all poverty related issues, including population, food security, environmental sustainability and resource management. As well as generating real practical outcomes, such an approach would also begin to shift the kind of negative attitudes towards youth that entrench existing problems. It would also help to recast youth as the symbol of Africa’s future peace and prosperity.