Youth encouraged to become stakeholders in determining their future

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Officials from BRICS member states are appealing to youth in their countries to fight for their seat at the policy making table. Youth from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa attended the opening ceremony of the 9th BRICS Youth Summit in Umhlanga north of Durban.

The summit comes ahead of South Africa’s hosting of the BRICS summit later this year.

The BRICS Youth Summit will largely focus on discussions to encourage young leaders from these nations to be among the solution finders to concerns facing these countries.

Topics related to economic, social, and developmental are top of the agenda. Addressing the opening ceremony was Deputy Director for Asia and the Middle East in the South African department of International Relations and Co-operation- Anil Sooklal.

He has urged youth representatives to demand their space, to be heard in all global programmes.

“We must outdoor our way and force our way to that table. I am saying to our youth you have to make sure that you are included in all global programmes. It has to be cross cutting. That will only happen when you get into these forums and say you want that space and  have that space there. The sluggish kind of progress we have made on the youth over the past 15 years we cannot go ahead in that vain over the next 15 years.”

Finding solutions

Acting premier in KwaZulu-Natal Nomagugu Simelane has called on South Africa’s young people to engage with government to finding solutions to build the economy.

“We know that there is no country in the world if its youth is not developed. This county relies on yourselves as young people. This country relies on its youth in the province for it to be decent. As a province we were faced with three pandemics. The only way for us to be able to recover from those pandemics is for young people to be involved, to run don’t complain  and make sure you use the space you have here today to recreate this economy.”

Delivering a keynote address, Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma  touched a number of issues facing Africa.

She says it is a shame that the continent still importing the amount of food it is, yet it has 60% of available land.

“We should be also growing our own food, we should be also assisting to feed the world and ourselves. I think it is very important. But off course the manufacturing, in BRICS we probably have the biggest manufacturers and we can she that experience and all of us should manufacture.”

Youth leaders are expected to present the outcomes of the deliberations to their respective ministers this week.

The 9th BRICS Youth Summit held in Durban: