Helping municipalities endorse local governance through youth empowerment
With the end of apartheid the South African government has created participatory structures that place citizens—including the country’s youth— at the helm of the search for solutions to social and economic challenges. HIV/AIDS, poverty and community violence are urgent problems the City of Cape Town faces. It is one of 24 municipalities where the USAID local government support program is assisting local governments to engage with the citizens. Cape Town’s approach is to invest in the energy and vision of its communities’ youngest citizens.As part of this USAID program, the Speaker of the City of Cape Town, Gavin Paulse, hosted 60 students at a two-day empowerment camp to provide youngsters with a clear, practical understanding of governance at the national, municipal and district levels. Conflict resolution, peer pressure, and leadership were addressed at length through theatre, role playing and debate. A simulation exercise (using colored candies) featured a mock City Council in which issues of HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancy were addressed during the design of integrated development plans and negotiations involving allocation of the city budget Youth gained a new appreciation for the responsibility that government officials face by playing their roles and being forced to solve civic issues. “I could imagine I was the Mayor. I felt the pressure”, said one student. One young girl recollects, “It was great that we did all the talking. There were no lengthy speakers.”
One need spend only ten minutes with the 17 young people that attended the weekend empowerment day camp to know the project works. The lobby of the Cape Town hotel was brimming with energy. Though it was exam time in South Africa, the eleventh graders took the time to talk about what one student deems “The best experience of my life.”
Children from nine schools that otherwise would never have the opportunity to interact forged bonds that have endured. Three months after the camp, they are still enthusiastic and the messages delivered by the Speaker, Gavin Paulse, haven’t been forgotten. Speaker Paulse, who is a councilor in the area, used the example of the camp to assert that acquired knowledge is wasted without action and asked students to, ‘determine to fulfill their purpose’ through participation and as agents of change in their communities.
During the reunion students lean across each other to whisper ideas and one student rose to express to teachers that meetings are required to maintain the momentum of the camp. Said one of the city’s facilitating team, “We want to run these camps in multipliers and train students to multiply sessions with other students.” Two youth empowerment camps have been held, and teachers have requested similar camps for themselves. Speaker Paulse talks about the idea of formalizing participation groups resulting from the camps as satellite Junior City Councils. A newsletter is being considered as a means to communicate civic challenges and participation. A teacher says, “We have to tell other people this is going on in the City of Cape Town.” If it is up to these 17 young leaders, the world will know.
