Youths:Cornerstones in the Achievement of MDGs

 “No challenge to the global community has higher importance than the fight against poverty. And nothing is more central  to that fight than working together in new and dynamic  partnerships”,once  wrote James D Wolfensohn.These words from former world bank president  draws the attention of the whole world  to the urgency of partnering together to fight our common enemy-Poverty.Yes!, I said our common enemy because in one way or the other we are all affected by poverty.

Malnutrition,illiteracy,poor sanitation,high child mortality rates,inadequate access to information  and communication technologies,gender imbalance are some of the most common indicators of poverty which  is the lot of more than half of  Cameroon’s 20 000 000 inhabitants;64.2 percent of which are less than 25 years old.

Youths, who are the most affected by  poverty either directly or indirectly; are the most important and should be the most cherished gifts of any nation.But this  is a fact  that is often ignored by most  decision makers of our world. The lack of interest for youth involvement and participation in policy formulation and implementation  is one of the most visible traits of decision makers in Cameroon which has no minister  younger than forty and  whose minister of youth affairs is a man in his late forties.

The exclusion and  marginalisation of  youths has made their participation in the running of the country so marginal and resulted in  development being considered as  either as the “government’s” or “politician’s” thing.
The conclusions of the 65th General Assembly of the United Nations  Organisation(UNO) of September 2010 that nations? especially developing ones like Cameroon, still had  a long way to go if  MDGs are ever to be achieved, is unavoidably linked to the unilateral conception of development  and “confiscation” of  all development efforts from the people, especially the young ones, by politicians in these countries.

 

But can extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS and other diseases be eradicated or reduced  without youths being associated to efforts aimed at doing so? Can infant mortality,illiteracy, gender based violence  and environmental degradation be achieved  without  involving youths and most especially those in the rural areas who are most  affected by these ills?

The answer to the above questions  is of course a  big “NO”. Youths have consistently  proven wherever and whenever they  have been given an opportunity that their numerical strength (close to  half of the world’s population  and 86 percent of the population of the global south  fall in the 15-24 years bracket),their  energy and unending  search for new  and ever innovative  solutions  to today’s global challenges are atools to be reckoned  with if poverty and suffering of all sorths is  to be overcomed and the MDGs  achieved.
I am convinced  and so intimately that  the time for youths has come. It is time that the long ignored potentials  of  youths become the cornerstones that they are for the achievement of our MDGs.

As the UN International Year of Youths under theme: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding  gradually draws an end, it is high time we continue reflecting on the role of youths in building a better and just world.