Kenyan Youth Post-2015 Synthesis Workshop 30th-31st May 2013, Nairobi

Background information

OAYouth-Kenya and IYC-Kenya have partnered with Africa Monitor, Text for Change and other partners to implement a project to enable Kenyan youth participation in the post-2015 Agenda through the use of the new media, particularly crowd-sourcing, mobile technology and radio campaigning. We have established a mobile based e-platform to mobilize perspectives from a minimum of 15,000 youths in Kenya on the post-2015 agenda and make available regular information feeds about current debates related to the post-2015 global dialogue.  Young people can participate by sending an sms with the word POST2015 to 21222. The project was launched on 13th April 2013 in the University of Nairobi.

Several documents have been released detailing the aspirations of young people in regards to the Post-2015 Agenda. Notable ones include the African Youth Declaration on Post-2015 Agenda by OAYouth-Kenya and the report by VSO Jitolee from their youth consultation. Further the Government through the Ministry of Planning are conducting the national consultations with an aim of releasing a national report in June 2013. The CSOs are also consultation in order to feed their input to the government process.

In consultations with UN Agencies, CSOs, youth serving organizations and the Ministry of Planning and vision 2030, the need has emerged to have a Kenyan specific youth position that would address pertinent and key issues that affect young people and pull all the papers that have been drafted with different youth organizations with an aim to consolidate a one position paper that will feed to the National consultation taking place in June 3013. It is on this basis that the Organization of African Youth-Kenya, in partnership with various organizations, seeks to have Kenyan Youth Post-2015 Synthesis Workshop to engage and consult hence come up with the position paper.

Objectives of the Workshop

·         To assemble youth with experience in sustainable development and technical skills to synthesize the various documents on Post 2015 and based on their experiences.

·         To develop a consensus document that targets specific youth issues that will culminate into Kenyan Youth position on Post-2015 Agenda.

·         To strengthen partnership within Kenyan youth and youth serving organizations in the country to implement MDGs based projects.

Methodology

The Kenyan Youth Post2015 Synthesis Workshop will run for two days in Nairobi, between 30th and 31^st May, 2013.  The workshop will have 70 participants. The breakdown of the participants is a follows:

• Kenyan youths
• Workshop conveners
• Workshop partners

Workshop Matrix

The conveners in consultations with other youth serving organizations have selected various documents that will form the basis of the discussions, including the Kenyan 2011 MDG status report by the Ministry of Planning and Vision 2030. The documents will be sent to the analysts prior to the workshop. The Organization of African Youth-Kenya has also been running sms and social media based platforms that will also offer raw data on youth views on Post 2015Agenda

During the workshop, the particulates will work in panels/groups and securitize the documents to identify a trend of common emerging issues that are relevant to the Kenyan youth.

After the intense synthesis, the identified key issues will be discussed and a draft document availed. The draft document will then be subjected to analysis, debate and adjustments.  The outcome document will then be validated as the Kenyan youth position on Post 2015.

Expected outcome:

• Create more awareness and enable broader youth participation in the Post-2015 Agenda.
• Release a Kenya Youth Position Paper on Post-2015 Agenda to feed into the National Report.

Feeding into other process

Kenyan Youth position on 2015 document will be fed into other formal process so as to enhance its value. These are:

• Kenya National CSOs forum (20 slots already reserved for young people)
• Kenyan National Consultation on Post 2015 to be hosted by the government (10 slots for young people reserved.)

Partnership

The Organization of African Youth-Kenya seeks to have as many partners as possible to ensure that the process is legitimate, valuable and broad based. While we had thought of having the process of consultations across the country, resource constraints have impeded such engagements.

However, we aspire to make the engagement an open process that is inclusive. Partners can therefore take part in the process through various kinds of support.

The worth of partnership is based on the informational and data value that we will obtain. The information can be used for youth advocacy, policy influence and developments, projects developments and resource mobilization. The partner’s engagement in the process would also help to raise the grassroots voices of the youth they serve within their networks.