There was a meeting here at the AU during the week on Youth, Education and culture, in preparation for the Heads of State Summit in Khortum. The meeting also considered the draft Pan African Youth Charter and the draft concept Paper on the Pan African Youth Federation. It was very interesting to meet with many people, friends and adult allies.

On the youth charter, many of the meeting participants felt confortable about the idea and felt that it was long overdue to have one for Africa. The charter takes into consideration all the pressing needs of young people in Africa and is based on a research work on the state of the African Youth, which clearly states what challenges the African Youth is facing in diverse areas. The charter will provide a framework through which governments will relate with youth in their countries, and will also serve as the base for national youth development planning and youth advocacy. The charter took abit from the UN World Programme of Action for youth, to which five additional areas were adopted recently at the UN general assembly.

What seemed most interesting in the discussions were: defining youth in the African context, and establishment of a Pan African Youth Federation.On the issue of who is a youth, many of the participants, who were apparently above 30 argued for 18-35. The reasons for these basically bothered on socio-economic factors. I will agree that some issues contribute to the age at which an African can can be called an adult, and so we cannot be compared to the Europeans or Americans, in some sense as defined by the UN 15-24, yet it is outrageous to say someone is a youth at 35! Life expectancy in many African countries as a result of HIV/AIDS is 43-56, many young people finish University education at an average age of 23-28, and the age of initiation to adulthood based on many cultures in Africa is around 15-25. So why do we say you are still a youth at 35?

On the issue of the formation of a Pan African Youth Federation, many nerves ran again. People had varying interests, some of which made sense. The Pan African Youth Union has been in existence since 1962 and has been recognised by the AU itself. However, they were not consulted in the process of developing this new platform. I personally feel their work should be evaluated, and their objective should be compared to that of the concept paper, in order to evolve the best Pan African Youth organisation. However this goes, the principal concern is, can we ever really have a single organisation servicing youth in Africa? It is not easy to make this happen even in Europe, I am wondering if it can happen in Africa. Already, the structural considerations for the emerging organisation create a strong barrier in itself. If you do not belong to your national youth council, you cannot be involved with the Pan African network. So what are we talking about. However, it is interesting to see that the meeting ended in peace and people have resolved to consult as widely as possible and come back here in March to recommend the best ideas on the way forward.