I’m 33, and I’m very passionate about technology for social transformation.

I work for Citizens Watch It, “CEW­IT”, a consortium of 6 local NGOs in Uganda implementing projects to strengthen our democracy and encourage citizen participation.

One of these projects is Youth Manifesto.

...and there you can see our neighbourhood’s assembly working.

This methodology could actually be used to empower people within Netherlands as well.

Wow... in the Netherlands?

It all started 5 years ago, when Carin from Emotive visited us to exchange knowledge and ideas for our Neighbourhood Assemblies project. CEW­IT was then one of the first organisations to join Emotive, and the exchange with dutch organisations began.

Then we came up with a new idea. In Uganda,

more than 70% of the population is below 30 years old of age and has no jobs.

So we said, we need to think about the youth, we need to come up with a project where the youth can be able to influence the political agenda. But how? Let’s invite them to come together and write a document about the issues and demands that affect them, as well as the solutions they imagine. A sort of manifesto.... a “youth manifesto”.

The first test in Uganda was deployed in 2 places: a city area within Kampala (the capital), and another area in a rural environment, with around 70 young people participating in each.

First they responded a questionnaire in groups and we sort of aggregated their demands and helped them identify their most pertinent issues. And then we organized dialog meetings, first among the youth, and then between the youth and local leaders from the political and technical parts of the government.

The resulting Youth Employment Manifesto was a very successful tool to influence the political agenda regarding youth unemployment. One of the key achievements was the creation of the Kampala City Council Authority Employment Service Bureau, dedicated to create a database of all the unemployed youth in Kampala and send them available job opportunities.

The first test in Uganda was deployed in 2 places: a city area within Kampala (the capital), and another area in a rural environment, with around 70 young people participating in each.

First they responded a questionnaire in groups and we sort of aggregated their demands and helped them identify their most pertinent issues. And then we organized dialog meetings, first among the youth, and then between the youth and local leaders from the political and technical parts of the government.

The resulting Youth Employment Manifesto was a very successful tool to influence the political agenda regarding youth unemployment. One of the key achievements was the creation of the Kampala City Council Authority Employment Service Bureau, dedicated to create a database of all the unemployed youth in Kampala and send them available job opportunities.

Identify and deploy the project within two areas of interest: an urban center and a rural area.

Start with what we can call a stakeholder meeting among the youth (for each area), contacting them through local youth organisations if available. Invite the youth to work in groups on an initial questionnaire, and then aggregate the answers to identify the key demands. Create a database to keep contact with participants.

Try to identify channels to create awareness among the different groups of youth, including places of entertainment or public spaces. Use those channels to mobilize and share information about the discussion in the meetings.

Collectively create a Youth Manifesto expressing the most common and important problems and possible solutions.

Invite political leaders to debate with the youth as they hear them express their manifesto demands. Establish a back and forth dialog to continue finding solutions after the meeting, working on what can be done.

If possible use a web platform to follow up the discussion and progress of the projects, incorporating youth participation by sms, email or social networks.

We had to adapt the Usahidi software from Uganda to make it more... well.. dutch. The result was our own version,

jongestemmen.nl

Netherlands has a different way of life than Uganda, but many challenges for the youth are similar, like unemployment. Therefore the methodologies to organize and empower the youth can be similar, but new ways to localize them were necessary. This was the challenge for Movisie and Netwerk Democratie as they started youth groups in Utrecht and Amsterdam. Both youth areas have already presented their Youth Manifestos to local authorities.

The Youth Manifesto methodology was also implemented in Brazil by INESC, creating groups in 5 different neighbourhoods of cities in the Federal District.

The interaction of the 5 socially vulnerable youth groups was surprising.

Brazil has advanced legislation and policies for the youth, and a lot of youth movements. The problem here is how to garantee these rights also to the socially vulnerable groups, mainly black youth.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS:

FINANCIAL SUPPORTERS:

Youth influencing the agenda in Uganda, Netherlands and Brazil.