Capacity Building for Youth in Governance
This project aims to capture the talent and resolve of youth leaders
and to increase their capacity to become proactive across the region
as the promoters of good and inclusive governance.
It will seek to create networks for experience-sharing with other international
organizations involved in leadership development. It will engage 50
young men and women, aged 18-27, in a year-long exercise in training,
mentoring and networking, building a pool of young leaders with enhanced
skills to participate and impact on governance. The project will:
- Stimulate dialogue on governance issues;
- Encourage youth to demand accountability and action from their governments;
- Motivate participants to initiate change in their communities;
- Encourage youth participation in national and regional development
issues which are key to reducing poverty and;
- Establish a regional governance network for youth to share experiences
and build capacities, thereby enhancing participation and impact.
Results
The outputs are training modules dealing with: understanding Caribbean
governance challenges; transformative leadership; advocacy and participation
in policy development; gender and governance; political campaigning;
strategies for youth advocacy and participation on regional/national
issues; and creation of a regional governance network connecting regional
youth and easing the implementation of the strategy they will develop.
The project will involve young people from youth parliaments, regional
universities, youth arms of political parties and civil society. It
will connect these 50 individuals, who are physically separated because
they live on different islands and allow them to share experiences on
an ongoing basis. This will not be a one-off training but an ongoing
engagement for one year to promote lasting relationships among these
future leaders. The project will leverage ICT (Information and Communication
Technology) for this connectivity throughout the project. On-line networking
will facilitate continuous engagement and communication among the participants,
who will of course meet face-to-face.
Building youth capacity at the national level
Developing national capacities is the main objective of the project.
It provides young people with skills and tools, allowing them to participante
actively in regional and national development agendas, using strategies
such as leadership development, knowledge exchange and learning, and
stakeholder engagement. Building youth capacity encourages young people
to own their future as well as their countries’ development process.
A key aspect of the initiative will be gender-related discussions, including:
gender sensitization and how governance issues affect men and women
differently; gender sensitive policy-making; women in decision-making;
and women’s empowerment and alliance-building. This ensures that
gender equality is an integral part of the governance agenda.
For more information on the initiative, please write to Nadine Bushnell,
nbushnell@surf.undp.org.tt.
