The role of the Youth in society

Zambia is a country whose population is significantly youthful; the youth population (aged between 15 to 34 years) stands at 4,582,433, representing 35% of the total populace of 13,092,666. Youths face a lot of challenges; from high levels of unemployment and underemployment to lack of influence in major decision making critical for national development.

The large numbers of young people are an opportunity; an investment. Youth participation in development strengthens young people’s abilities to meet their own subsistence needs; prevents and reduces vulnerabilities to economic, political and socially unstable environments; promotes ownership and sustainability of interventions; and helps gain entry into larger communities and builds up trust and social capital.
Effective youth participation is about creating opportunities for young people to be involved in influencing, shaping, designing and contributing to policy and the development of services and programmes.
These opportunities are created through developing a range of formal and informal mechanisms for youth participation from youth advisory groups to focus groups, from on-going consultation work to supporting youth-led projects.

This represents both a challenge and an opportunity for development. Jobs for the youth are not being created at a rate close to the rate at which youth population is increasing.

The emergence of the internet and social media have given the youth a platform to express their thoughts and frustrations with the system of governance that marginalises a large group of stakeholders.
Young people feel alienated from traditional political processes, something which contrasts deeply with their strong feelings about key social issues such as inclusion, education and employment. Compared to the 1990s youth is now empowered by new forms of expressions thanks to the internet, social media and blogs which allow them to gather and organize protests or support movements to make their voice heard in a way that was not possible before.
However, the power of the internet and the emergence of new forms of expression are not necessarily correlated with increased political participation. Often, new ways of communication and expression are disconnected from democratic institutions and processes. Nor can they replace active political participation. The challenge is therefore to ensure that the plethora of new forms of communication and mobilization reinforce, rather than threaten, democracy.
Young people have limited influence in national political institutions. The challenge of youth political participation and engagement persists, and no democratic political system can claim to be legitimate if youth is excluded and disengaged from democratic processes. This disengagement from traditional politics translates into the under-representation of youth as a segment of society within the institutions of democracy and national parliaments. This, in turn, leads to poor representation of the overall interests of youth and to their exclusion from democratic political processes and institutions.
What appears clear is the needs to re-engage the youth in traditional politics, win their trust in the political system and allow them to participate fully in the institutions of democracy. This can be addressed innovatively through calls and actions for participation, consultation and representation of youth both within the political parties and within civil society organizations that foster civic engagement.