International Youth Council mouau

MultiChoice has announced the return of the DStv Star Awards for 2012. The awards take the form of a competition open to 14-19 year old students in 42 countries.

Malawi’s regional marketing manager for the Centre and the North, Titania Katenga Kaunda said that students are invited to write an essay or design a poster depicting how innovative use of satellite technology in the fields of communication, earth observation or navigation can propel Africa into the future.

“Winners at national levels win prizes such as computers or tablet computers and go forward to compete in the overall awards as winner or runner up [in the] essay and poster entries respectively,” said Kaunda.

She added that the winning essay recipient will win a trip with a parent or guardian to Eutelsat in Paris to witness a live rocket launch and the best poster winner will also win a visit to Eutelsat in France to visit a satellite manufacturing facility.

Kaunda also said that the overall runners up win a trip for two to visit MultiChoice facilities and the South African Space Agency near Johannesburg in South Africa.

Kaunda added that “to improve the profile of the awards and enhance them, we have entered into a partnership with the ministry responsible for science in technology in the country, and the Department of Inspectorate and Advisory Services who champions competition at that level.”

According to Kuanda the partnership will focus on opportunities in Malawi that can be leverage to increase awareness, promoting entries in secondary and high schools and enhancing the profile of the awards.

The theme and topic this year will be ‘Satellites – Expanding Africa’s Horizon’. Through the amazing power and capabilities of satellites, the ability of scientists to make sense of our world and shape the future of human kind has increased in leaps and bounds.

Satellites have changed our perception of the Earth, helping us to realize that it is small, fragile and possibly unique in the immensity of space, and as such it must be preserved.

Satellites help us to learn more about our planet and to improve the ways in which we use its limited resources; they also revolutionize the way we travel and communicate.

Commenting on MultiChoice Africa’s involvement in the awards, MultiChoice company president, Nico Meyer, stated that technology based companies operating in Africa face growing concern that Africa is not producing sufficient graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“These fields are a prerequisite for sustained economic growth and [are] thus of strategic importance to the continent. For MultiChoice, as an African business, the situation is particularly pertinent as we need to draw on employees with knowledge and skills in these fields. The awards therefore represent our commitment as a company to contribute towards the growth of science and technology in Africa,” said Meyer.

Chief executive officer of Eutelsat communications, Michel de Rosen, said that the first edition of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards was a resounding success, attracting over 800 entries from across Africa.

He stated that Eutelsat was delighted to again partner the 2012 awards with the shared objective of harnessing the allure of space to get young Africans excited about science and technology.

“The 2011 winners, Mary Musimire and Micheal Yeboah,who both visited us in Paris impressed us with the quality of their work and we look forward to again showcasing emerging new talent in the 2012 awards,” he said.

Malawi students have vowed to put in all their effort to make sure that this year the country produces winners at the awards.

There is a common saying that goes “one who fails to plan, is planning to fail”. This, I believe, is very important when considering the youth and their role in our future: if the youth are ignored, we are neglecting or impairing our future. It is as simple as that.

There is a strong perception that most of the current social problems that are endemic in my country, Gambia, are the direct result of the neglect of education and youth development for the past decades. Unemployment, teenage pregnancies, increasing numbers of drug-users and dealers, crime, indiscipline, corruption, greed and selfishness are all borne out of neglect.

National planning should start with programs for our youth, for they are the future and if we do not integrate their aspirations and expectations in our national planning efforts, we are essentially ignoring the future of the nation. A viable and efficient educational system is vital for any country. However, our youth, like the youth of every forward-looking nation, need more than a good educational system; they need recreational programs and social institutions that teach national and cultural values and attitudes; institutions of the sort which make them good, productive, and patriotic citizens of their country.

The creation of vibrant youth empowerment and skills development centers that would provide avenues for youth to involve themselves in nation building activities is vital. Institutions like the National Youth Service Scheme, the President’s International Awards scheme, and the National Youth Council all aim to provide youths with leadership, training skills, team-spirit and develop healthy habits and attitudes which will foster characteristics like kindness, honesty, diligence, fraternity, fellow-feeling, fair-play, and patriotism.

Inoculating the youth with traditional and national values has been the concern of every progressive society, everywhere. Our forefathers had a way of maintaining theirs effectively through various rites and groups. The colonial government encouraged associations like the scout and guild movements, volunteer work camp associations and the Red Cross, which served as outlets to the energies, idealism and sense of being a brother or sister’s keeper for the youth. These are vital values in nation building.

In 2003, as a 20-year-old youth, preparing to go to high school, I had a unique opportunity to join about 40 other young pioneers from various towns and villages in the West Coast Region, taking part in a week long volunteer community outreach to meet young people and discuss with them matters affecting their lives.

We spent those days helping to build a stronger and more confident youth hub in that region. We also helped to clean the streets and conduct some community health education. This was over 9 years ago, and until today, I can say without any doubt that it was that experience at Tujereng which sensitized me forever to the importance of community service, literacy, sanitation and the use of local resources for economic empowerment. Interestingly, any American that I have met, who served in the Peace Corps, readily confirms that working in village communities in Africa and Asia sensitized them to those basic human needs.

There is something to be said for promoting youth volunteerism. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, did not only see the importance of harnessing the youth for nation-building, but he made it a priority. Gambia’s own President Jammeh has similar belief in giving all the necessary support to the young people.

There are obviously some disturbing precedents in trying to bring about youth development, but the basic idea of having a national youth organization to help produce national and cultural values into our youth and inundate them with patriotism is a good idea. We should all see ourselves as one people with a common destiny.

Kindness and team-work will serve us better than greed and selfishness. We must stress that our nation desires productive and enterprising citizens and not drug-peddlers and loathers; that honest service and helping people in need is nobler than riches from robbery and corruption; that volunteerism helps the nation more than people instigating violence and destruction of public property; that humility is preferable to arrogance; that national service matters to the welfare of our people; that crime hurts and whatever is good for the nation is good for all of us as individuals.

The youth by nature have a lot of energy and expectations, and unless we guide them and channel it into productive and enterprising activities, it could easily be manipulated by others into destructive and unproductive ventures. A lot of youth are into drugs and crime not because they are intrinsically bad, but because they are bored and want something to do. The devil, they say, finds work for the idle hands.

This is where an imaginative leader comes up with ideas like the National Youth Service Scheme to help clean the cities or help with rural development or mass health education. America’s former president, John F. Kennedy came up with the Peace Corps in 1961 and captured the idealism of young Americans willing to spend time in different countries, in village communities, to help others. On reflection, the individual Americans and their country also benefited from the experience.

Let me appeal to parents and authorities not to see young people as hindrances to national progress, but instead partners in all the development processes of a country. Only when they are empowered and well counseled will they contribute to national development.

The population of the world currently stands at seven billion. The number is fast growing and access to employment is becoming an increasingly difficult struggle for many. Of the 200 million people unemployed worldwide, youth form over a third, with 75 million without work, often despite being educated.

The rapid increase in population has left youth who have gone through formal education and qualified themselves for work, still languishing in their villages or homes. In Kenya, a national census conducted in 2009 indicated that 64% of unemployed Kenyans were youth, this among 40% of the entire population who were unemployed.

Governments have made efforts to curb youth unemployment, although the effects of recent policies in Kenya have been questioned. Three years ago, Kenya President Mwai Kibaki launched a program known as Kazi Kwa Vijana (Work to the Youth), intending to empower the youth in rural and urban areas by providing labor intensive jobs. The Youth Development Fund, introduced in 2007, also provides advice and loans to entrepreneurial youths and is now set to receive one billion Shillings (roughly US$12 million) from the treasury each year.

Though effective to an extent, these initiatives have not been successful in matching youth expectations as they have only been able to benefit a minority of the youth population. Pledges of youth employment are now often seen by many as cheap talk that doesn’t materialize in reality.

Other countries are perhaps better at making sure that both the employed and unemployed are catered for: a good example is Brazil. The Latin American country has outlined policies on employment that date back to the early 1970s and the introduction of the National Employment System, or Sistema Nacional de Emprego (SINE). Aimed at providing services such as job placements and vocational guidance to the youth, SINE saw a tremendous recruitment of unemployed to various organizations.

To date, Brazil continues to come up with various systems and policies in order to meet the challenges of an ever-expanding population. In 2003, the government introduced Primeiro Emprego policy which was aimed at creating 260,000 jobs for those aged 16 to 24. It has proved of great benefit to their youth and the policy has been largely successful despite the challenge of high population.

In countries like Kenya, disillusioned youths have gone an extra mile to be self-reliant in what they do, rather than waiting for the state to create employment for them.

Many of those who have gone through tertiary or university education, but still lack jobs, have found that the way to survive the stormy weather of unemployment lies in working in groups to achieve a given goal. Individualism is no longer a common phrase as many have come to realize that unity is strength, especially when it comes to ending unemployment.

Mr. Kasimet Koske, 24, is the founder and chairperson of Hatua-Moja, a group in Eldoret, Kenya which hosts more than 100 youth from diverse ethnic backgrounds and is involved in sensitization of the community through music, empowerment and education on current issues affecting the youth. Peaceful co-existence and politics, dominate the agenda, especially as the country prepares to hold general elections early next year.

Kasimet believes that youths need to work together as one in whatever they do. “The current unemployment in the country has seen many youth despair while others have resorted to unlawful activities as a way of trying to earn a living…[this is] something that needs to be addressed as soon as possible”, he says.

He is also a musician and has been able to bring more than 100 youth together to empower them to act positively with others. He greatly believes that despite the fact that the government is to blame for unemployment, there other ways of fighting the problem: “Now that our leaders have proved that they will never care to fulfil their promises for jobs, it is imperative [that we] team up, register groups and apply for funding from various non-governmental organizations, so that we can participate in community sensitization in any field”, he explains.

As the world population continues to increase each day, governments need to look to countries such as Brazil and work on supporting the future generation both socially and economically. Mixed results across the board and a seeming unwillingness to invest mean there are challenges ahead for the young though: they must be prepared to rally and work together for survival.

The Bamboo Forest and some great Twitter Lists to follow

UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon touted the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) as “one of the most important global meetings on sustainable development in our time,” but it will now be remembered as a tragedy and failure. This conference, also called Rio+20, took place on June 20-22 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil twenty years after the historic 1992 UN Earth Summit, also held in Rio. The conference set out to establish a new model of development that would be ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable – in this respect, however, it failed.

Rio+20 took place amidst a “crisis of crises” as described by Marina Silva, Brazil’s Minister of Environment. At present, we are facing an unprecedented environmental crisis and a crippling financial crisis amidst growing inequality both within the United States and between the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ worlds. From the negotiating rooms in the UN to halls of RioCentro, where the conference took place, the consensus of government delegates was that business as usual could not persist.

Civil society participated in the Rio+20 process as nine Major Groups who asserted the need for alternative economic models that respect planetary boundaries and are people centered. Most of civil society, gathered in Rio from around the world, called for a human rights-based approach to sustainable development, rather than a Green Economy, which was one of the two themes of the conference and intended to be the means of reaching sustainable development.

The Green Economy, though, was rejected by several Major Groups at Rio+20, as well as by countries such as Bolivia and Ecuador that are genuinely seeking alternatives to business as usual and neoliberal policies. Governments from the economic North, or the ‘developed world,’ know they need alternatives to business as usual, but the policy and decision makers seem incapable of moving away from the entrenched model that is built on privatization and investment. The Green Economy will continue and perpetuate business as usual by opening new “green” markets, developing new “green” industries and technologies, and creating “green” jobs. In this vein, the Green Economy framework continues to commodify nature, slapping price tags on something whose use value exceeds any price the market might set.

The Green Economy framework was born out of Europe in partnership with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). This begs the question: who will benefit from the “green” economy, from the “green” industries, from the “green” technologies? And who will have the “green” jobs? Slapping a green label on the corporate capitalist economy might create jobs for youth in Europe and North America. It will also open new markets from which corporations will profit on the backs of the social majority of the world. The economic South – those with the majority of the planet’s natural wealth; those with the least space for participation; those with the fewest voices represented – will not be the people to benefit from the Green Economy.

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) is a network of feminists from the Global South, or developing world, tackling the analysis of the structural roots of poverty, inequality, oppression, ecological damage, and climate change. Their critical approach recognizes the links between gender, economic, and ecological justice. DAWN develops their analyses from the perspectives of those most impacted by economic and development policies—poor women of the developing world— and was one of the few organizations conducting critical analysis and offering alternative development strategies at Rio+20.

Gita Sen, a founder of DAWN in the 1980s, raised a few crucial questions after a panel at Rio+20 that related directly to the above questions posed about the Green Economy. She expresses that the “fundamental question in the context of Rio+20 and sustainable development” is the “right to what development and whose right to development?”

These questions are illustrated in the stories of two activists on the DAWN team in Rio, Maureen Penjueli and Sophea Chrek. Penjueli is an activist with the Pacific Network on Globalization (PANG). PANG is a partnership of activists from the Pacific which critiques the social and environmental impacts of international and regional trade agreements, in pursuit of a new development model. Their most recent focus has centered on extractive industries, with particular attention paid to experimental seabed mining. Papua New Guinea is the first country to give a license for seabed mining and this experimental initiative is set to begin by 2013. In an interview with Elizabeth Cooper, from DAWN’s media team, Panjeuli explained that this license reflects the valuation of oceans as an economic resource, one that disregards the cultural significance of oceans to people of what Panjeuli calls the “liquid continent.”



Experimental seabed mining is a new initiative under the neoliberal model of development responsible for environmental damage and climate change. The Pacific region is on the frontline of climate change impacts, threatened with statelessness as sea levels rise. Penjueli asserts that it is necessary “to see political recognition by leaders that are [in Rio] over the next two years and that the crisis has a root…that [the root] is the economic neoliberal model.” Once we recognize the root problem, she says “we can start talking about sustainable development and what that means.”

Similarly to Penjueli, Sophea Chrek raises questions about the neoliberal development model and policies through a story of land grabbing in Cambodia. In June, she was engaged in the “Free the 15” campaign calling for the immediate release of 15 activists jailed for peacefully demonstrating on sand dunes that now cover what was their village on the shores of Boeung Kak lake.

Boeung Kak lake development is “just one of many cases [in which] we can see development impacting people’s livelihoods,” Chrek says. Communities historically inhabiting and earning their livelihoods from the lake were evicted as the municipal government moved forward with development plans. Calling the lake useless, the government leased the lake and land, covering nine villages around it, to private joint venture company, Shukaku Erdos Hongjun Property Development Co. Ltd. The company began filling the lake with sand in August 2008. This caused flooding in the nearby villages, which forced many families to migrate from their home.

Chrek explains that the municipal government claimed that this development would create jobs and other opportunities for many people, despite the violation of the Land Law, which stipulates that state public property has inherent value, and cannot be sold or leased for extended time periods. Some families agreed to compensation for leaving their livelihood, home, and land, but others felt the development project and compensation was unjust and they were consequently evicted.

On May 22, 2012, women from communities previously living along the lake held a peaceful demonstration before Cambodian police moved in to arrest 13 of the protesters. During their trial, two community representatives willing to testify on the women’s behalf were also arrested. These 15 individuals, 14 of whom are women, were sentenced to two and half years in prison, while a 72 year old woman arrested was given a one-year sentence.

Chrek says, “If [we] really question what is happening and why it has become like this… [we] see how it is related to Rio+20.” She draws attention to development policies harmfully impacting women’s livelihoods and their struggles against these neoliberal development policies. Critical of the GDP growth paradigm of development, Chrek says that policy makers need to put human rights, women’s rights, and sustainability at the center of development policies, which should respond to the people’s needs. She says the government “can’t put villagers aside because [they] want to use [the lake] for development”, adding that “many people have become scared of development because of this kind of [situation]”. To develop these new policies, Chrek calls for a participatory process that prioritizes the participation of civil society, indigenous peoples, and women—those impacted most by development policies.

This sort of participatory process was the vision for Major Group participation at Rio+20. While Major Groups participated from the beginning of negotiations two years ago, their proposals to the draft outcome document The Future We Want – and demands made during the negotiation process – were not incorporated into the final outcome document of the conference. Civil society was frustrated in its demands for the inclusion of reproductive rights, reformed sustainable consumption and production patterns, technology transfer, overhaul of the trade and financial systems, a UN High Commissioner for Future Generations, an end to fossil fuel subsidies, and mining moratoriums.

On the second day of the conference, about 150 participants of civil society marched out of the UN space to make clear their frustrations at the lack of consensus made during negotiations. The next day, the UN press touted The Future We Want outcome document as a great success in its incorporation of civil society’s participation. There is clearly little connection between governments and those they are meant to govern.

Rio+20 disappointed and, most importantly, it failed to culminate in a new paradigm of sustainable development. Additionally, the outcome document regressed on several key issues, including the sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda, which should be a cornerstone of any model for sustainable development. Activists on the DAWN team have referred to the process as a theatrical production during which governments have gambled with the future of the planet, the youth, and generations to come.

They have sold women out. They have sold indigenous peoples out. They have sold the youth out—and for what? They have sold us out for a Green Economy, which many have nicknamed the Greed Economy. They have acted for national self-interests backed by corporations, an addiction to oil, and unsustainable patterns of consumption and production.

As we sink deeper and deeper into crisis and our governments fail to respond to the needs and demands of the people they serve, civil society is growing louder and picking up where governments are failing. People around the world are working to realize food sovereignty, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, accessible renewable energies, local currencies and alternative approaches to economy, cultural resilience, protection of biodiversity, forests, rivers, oceans, mountains, and much more that will lead to just and sustainable communities.

While Rio+20 didn’t deliver what people around the world needed and demanded from their governments, communities and networks will continue working together to create solutions to their own needs. Rather than government officials and appointed negotiators, individuals, communities, networks, and movements on the ground, at the grassroots level, are those genuinely and passionately fighting for the future we need, and genuinely do want. A more just and sustainable world will be made possible by the hearts, minds, and arduous work of these individuals.

(Photo by Trey Ratcliff via Compfight)

The advent of democracy across the African panorama heralds a show of ill-preparedness for the structures of democracy which now results in complex humanitarian emergencies and crises.

The crumble of colonialism in Africa caused decomposed ethnic lines and city-state allegiances to bear cracks of insecurity and ill-preparedness for the glory and worship of urbanization, independence and civilization. This resulted in weaknesses in the state-centric concept of security, regarding development, human rights, peace and good governance. Thus, whether it concerned civil wars with their dramatic consequences; natural disasters and accidents; or health crises and major pandemics, populations have faced life threatening dangers.

Even though the security of state sovereignty is paramount in these circumstances, the protection and later, empowerment of people at individual and community levels – human security – has been labeled as essential to national and international security.

Inter-ethnic conflicts, regional instability, poverty, disease and bad governance shape the meaning and content of security today. The preamble of the United Nations Charter opens with the words “we the peoples of the United Nations, [are] determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, to indicate that the issues of peace and security, as well as economic and social progress and human rights, were – and to a large extent still are – seen as matters within the purview of individual states, their territories and their institutions.

Today though, the definition of what constitutes and what influences human security is changing. Freedom from want and freedom from fear are increasingly yearned for. Additionally, ethnic conflicts, regional instability and terrorist attacks have forcefully demonstrated that the state is not the sole actor in providing, or detracting from security. National borders are permeable, and national sovereignty is no longer sufficient justification to avoid international scrutiny and action.

In essence, human security now means safety for people from both violent and non-violent threats. It is a state of being, characterized by freedom from pervasive threats to people’s rights, their safety and their lives. It is an alternative way of seeing the world, taking people as its point of reference, rather than focusing exclusively on the security or territory of governments. Like other security concepts, such as national security, economic security, food security, and job security, it is about protection. Human security entails taking preventive measures to reduce vulnerability and minimize risk, and taking remedial action when prevention fails.

The promotion of durable and sustained peace, socio-economic development and good governance have emerged as the most pressing and recalcitrant challenges facing Africa, particularly vivid in the final decade of the last millennium.

Armed conflicts littered the continent, with 31 countries witnessing intense violence triggered by political or socio-economic disaffection in some sections of these countries’ polities and societies. A pervasive and non-violent threat to the existence of individuals is posed by HIV/AIDS, as the virus significantly shortens life expectancy, undermines quality of life and limits participation in income generating activities. The political, social and economic consequences are similarly detrimental to the community, in turn undermining security.

Changing weather conditions are reducing the ability to produce and distribute food. The most direct implications will be felt in agricultural losses and rising food prices which will undermine access to food for those who depend on markets for their consumption needs. This could result in about 200 million Africans being threatened by malnutrition and abject hunger.

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