YETT To Host A Hundred Delegates From 14 Countries At Participate 2015

YETT Director Lucy Mazingi

YOUTH Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT) will from October 5 to 9 host a global advocacy conference – Participate 2015 in Harare.
Participate 2015 is a gathering of 100 young people coming from 14 different countries such as Belarus, Sweden, Denmark, Kenya, Turkey, Uganda, Rwanda, Cambodia, Philipines, Mymmar, Egypt,Lebanon, Palestine and Zimbabwe. Participate 2015 is being hosted in partnership with Danish Youth Council and National Council of Swedish Youth Organizations.

Running under the theme Creating Space for Youth, Participate 2015 will provide a platform for experience and knowledge exchange within a structure that comprises of panel discussions, presentations and capacity-building sessions on themes related to advocacy and youth participation.

The conference  officially opened on Monday  October 5 by the newly appointed Minister of Youth Indigenization and Economic Empowerment, Honourable Patrick Zhuwao, while the keynote address will be delivered by Swedish Head of Development Cooperation – Maria Selin.

Participate 2015 began with a discussion on Creating Space for Youth that will have a panel of speakers from Sweden, Egypt, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

YETT Director Lucy Mazingi said young people who are the future, a future which started yesterday need autonomousspaces to shape that future drawing inspiration from each other across different geographical regions and generations. Young people should desist from “waiting to be given space” but rather create their own spaces where they galvanize their voices and develop strategies to engage so that they become key drivers in decision making processes.

“Youth participation discourse is not a new phenomenon, academics and researchers have even developed various tools and models of participation hence young people have to realize that increased youth participation in different spheres of life opens avenues for a new social and economic world order which is increasingly becoming urgent by each passing day” , she said.

Mazingi added that Participate 2015will also focus on opportunities, challenges and strategies that exist for young people to participate in global networks for advocacy. “YETT’s strategy for international partnerships is premised on sharing knowledge and experiences as a means for capacity building therefore young people uniting for global action creates a pool for best practice knowledge and a unified action”, she said.

Participate 2015 will be a stepping stone towards creating a global youth advocacy network where participants are expected to develop joint advocacy initiatives that will be implemented at national, regional and international level.

YETT has for the past two years successfully hosted two regional conferences under the theme Participate 2013 and Participate 2014.
The two conferences focused on promoting youth led multi-party dialogue on how youth leaders can strengthen youth participation in democratic processes within their various countries. Participants for both conferences were drawn from Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Botswana and Uganda.
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Youth Empowerment and Transformation Trust (YETT) is a youth networking organization committed to the full participation of young people in sustainable development through advocacy and capacity building of youth organizations. YETT values sharing experiences between youth actors in different countries as a strategy for building its organizational capacity and extending its influence in the quest of attaining its vision.