7 Billion Campaign Youth Actions held in Abuja...

Nigeria is populated with about 167million people, with about 75percent of young people... On the 31st of October 2011, the global population reached a mark of 7 billion and in Nigeria, about 167 million. This has huge implications on sustainability, urbanization, access to health care services and youth empowerment considering that a third of Nigeria’s population is made up of young people ages 10 -25 years old.
With a population of 167 million people and in a world of 7 billion, how do the government and young people access their roles and responsibilities in making sure collaborative efforts are geared towards tackling emerging social problems considering the unique demographic dynamics.
Themed “Nigeria Demographics: Opportunities and Challenges,” UNFPA in collaboration with Education as a Vaccine (EVA), Save the Children Nigeria and the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) brought together young leaders from the six geographical zone of Nigeria to brainstorm on different developmental challenges and opportunities that exist.
The core issues that were discussed include- Education, Health, Environment/Climate Change, Unemployment and ICT. Different challenges facing this generation were raised, with outlined responsibilities youth and government can tackle these issues.
EDUCATION
Challenges
 Low access to education particularly for the girl child and marginalized youths such as Young people in prison, rehab centers, young people with disabilities and almajiris
 Low quality of education at all levels
 Low enforcement of policies relating to education



Recommendations to Government/Policy makers
 Government should create more vocational opportunities for alternative education such as training centers
 Government should review and update national education policy framework so that the content of the policies can be relevant to present day social needs of young people
 Government should ensure meaningful youth participation in reviewing National Education Policies
 Government should also increase budgetary allocation by 30% in order to meet the educational needs of the Nigerian youth population
 Government should prioritize female education by giving incentives for girl-child education
Youth Actions
 Young people should encourage volunteering in rural areas to implement community projects in rural areas, create after school programs, and embrace mentorship
 Build an online directory as well as hard copy of existing opportunities of where and how to volunteer locally
 Young people should advocate that youth schooling abroad should come home and share their skills for at least two-years, especially those studying abroad on government scholarship
ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Challenges
• Climate change and environmental degradation causes different health hazard e.g. cancer
• It also contributes to low productivity & food insecurity
• Increase in the rate of migration
• Socio-economic life is affected e.g. leisure, education
Recommendation to Government/Policy makers
• Provide more Education and create awareness to address environmental issues
• Develop policy framework on Sanitation/Habitation
• Support youth-led environmental projects
• Promote alternative and renewable energy
• Mainstreaming youth into policy and decision making processes
• Promote Green economy & Sustainable development
Youth Actions
• Peer mentoring
• Develop community projects on tree planting and nurturing of trees
• Work with Government and other stakeholders to implement policy and projects
• Promote indigenous knowledge and use of local technology that are energy efficient
• Provide incentives and alternative source of livelihood to local communities especially those that are fully dependent on natural resources .e.g. trees
HEALTH
Challenges
 Sexual and reproductive health challenges like prevalence of STIs/HIV/AIDS, contraceptive usage, teenage/unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, early childbearing, negative cultural practices like FGM, early marriage, etc.
 The problem of the current NHIS scheme of the federal government not covering unemployed youths many of whom cannot afford high cost of health services
 Negative cultural/traditional/religious beliefs & values that do not promote the sexual and reproductive health and rights of youths especially female youths such as issues of early marriage, denial of decision-making rights on the number and spacing of their children, lack of access to contraceptive usage, etc.
Recommendation to Government/Policy makers
 Provision of youth friendly health services/centres across the country where young people can have their special needs on sexual and reproductive health issues met
 Ensuring the implementation of the national family life, HIV/AIDS education curriculum in all primary and secondary schools across the country and putting a mechanism in place to monitor implementation in urban and grassroots
 Go beyond the NHIS scheme to have a health care plan that is targeted at youths especially the unemployed
Youth Actions
 Advocacy activities by young people to influence health policies through gathering petitions and at the same time, getting feedback from the people to policy makers
 Voluntary activism in health related services such as HIV counseling and testing, health sensitization and promotion activities, etc.
 Organise sensitization programmes in our various organisations targeted especially to the grassroots to debunk negative cultural and religious beliefs that hinder young people from accessing adequate health care services especially with regards to their sexual and reproductive health.
ICT
Challenges
 Low funding
 Poor Infrastructure – electricity, optic fibre cables, personnel
 Lack of access to ICT tools (Schools/out – of schools)
 There is no adequate access to ICT training opportunities in local regions
 There is a high rate of gender imbalance in access to ICT training opportunities

Recommendation to Government/Policy makers
 Policy strengthening/Passing the ICT cyber crime bill
 Providing infrastructure/ maintenance
 Establishment of ICT incubation centres (e.g Silicon Valley)
 Mainstreaming ICTs in Youth development Centres- Nationally
 Need driven effective training to capture people at the grass root and the disabled (need assessment before implementing projects)
Youth Actions
 Develop interest in ICT education
 Use social networks positively
 Develop electronic applications to solve challenges ( health, education, elections/governance, crime)
 Capacity building for our peers
 Need driven effective training to capture people at the grass root and the disabled
EMPLOYMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
CHALLENGES
 Poor dissemination of information on Government’s employment creation strategies and policies
 Inadequate commitment by the Government towards the enforcement of local content laws that are meant to support local initiatives and boost domestic production.
 Failure of the education system to produce relevant resources for market needs.
 Agriculture potentially remains the highest youth employment sector of the economy but has long been abandoned due to many factors ranging from government effort to oil diversity to lack of resources for agricultural development.

Recommendation to Government/Policy makers
 Establishment of information dissemination agencies in hinterlands and rural areas.
 Revive and establish “one-stop youth incubation and development centers” with research and development mandate in every state and to promote entrepreneurship/business plan competitions as an on-going exercise.
 A specific strategy on political will to ensure the enforcement of every effort impacting on employment and entrepreneurship.
 Agriculture should be run with creative incentives and more attractive credit (and other resources e.g. Access to land) facilities.

Youth Actions
 Involvement of Youth organizations/groups in the following areas:
(i) More advocacy for government support towards creating enabling environment for employment and entrepreneurship efforts
(ii) More monitoring, assessment and evaluation activities on government efforts
(iii) More efforts towards peer capacity building/training efforts for employability skills and enterprise development (in collaboration with government, Development Partners and
private sector organizations). Thanks to:
UNDPA,SAVE THE CHILDREN NIGERIA, EDUCATION AS A VACCINE, National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) and to all the participants... www.truelydynamic.blogspot.com