Address of Thabo Mbeki, former President of the Republic of South Africa, at the UN HABITAT and UNDP Youth 21 meeting Nairobi, Kenya, March 15–18, 2012

Abstract

Children, Youth and Environments 22(1), 2012 Address of Thabo Mbeki, former President of the Republic of South Africa, at the UN HABITAT and UNDP Youth 21 meeting Nairobi, Kenya, March 15-18, 2012 Introduction The following speech by Thabo Mbeki, former President of the Republic of South Africa, was given at the Youth 21 meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya, from March 1518 , 2012. Youth 21 is an initiative focused on improving youth engagement in the UN system and global governance. Youth 21, hosted by UN-Habitat and UNDP, convened youth leaders, UN agencies, governments and civil society representatives to discuss how world leaders can respond to the youth-driven change in governance. This global change is being propelled by an unprecedented youth demographic, sometimes called the “youth bulge,” with more people under the age of 25 today than ever before, totalling nearly three billion or almost half of the total world population. The UN, multi-lateral agencies, and governments are struggling with how to engage this demographic positively, seeking to build on their hope, not their despair. Historically, youth have not been seen as a population important enough to engage with—even in the world’s most youthful regions such as Africa. These youth often grow up in poverty and are often excluded from the economic, political, and social life of their countries, which can breed disillusionment, hopelessness, violence, and upheaval. Yet, violence is not always the outcome, with vibrant and peaceful youthled revolutions taking place, most recently in the Middle East and North Africa. The speech by Thabo Mbeki reflects this growing realization that youth are the turnkey to development globally. His message is directed primarily at young Africans, emphasizing the hope of leaders for youths’ contribution to development and global governance. It also is clearly grounded in realism, recognizing the challenges youth face, and the fear that they will repeat the mistakes of those before them. Mbeki’s speech gave meeting participants both the idealism and the realism needed to move forward and draft the Nairobi Declaration, a forwardlooking document celebrating the announcement of Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, that he will appoint the first-ever Special Advisor on Youth. The participants also recognized in the Declaration that there was still further to go to assure that youths’ interests were heard and needs met. Therefore, they also called for the creation of a Permanent Forum for Youth, modelled after the successful Permanent Forum for Indigenous Peoples’ Issues. Mbeki’s speech was one of many given at the meeting by global leaders, both youth and adult. His speech marked a small step in recognition of the need for meaningful engagement Address of Thabo Mbeki, Former President of the Republic of South Africa… 2 with youth; importantly, he ends his speech calling on youth to organize and take a leadership role, and urging he older generations to support them, implying that for youth to be successful, one cannot exist without the other. —Doug Ragan, Project Officer Partners and Youth Branch Monitoring and Research United Nations Human Settlements Programme Your Excellency, Mr. Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya, Ms. Rebeca Grynspan, UN Under-Secretary General and other officials of the UNDP, Mr. Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN HABITAT, Distinguished participants at this important Global Youth Leadership Forum: I would like to pay tribute to UN-Habitat and the UNDP for convening this important forum which has brought together young people from many parts of the world, and thank them for giving me the opportunity to make some comments which I hope you will find of some use. In this context I would imagine that the Forum will give precedence to the views of the youth participants, rather than those among us who graduated out of the youth echelon many decades ago. This is particularly important given the historic responsibility of the youth to determine its future. Before I proceed any further, I would like to apologize that my comments will relate only to Africa, the area of the world with which I am most familiar. However I hope that at least some of these comments will be of general application. In October...