As a part of the Youth Engagement programme (YEP) masterclasses, programme managers Freddy Sahinguvu and Qazal Jamali just came back from Juba in South Sudan where they delivered a four days training on youth public leadership. It was a combination of a refresher course of the first masterclass and the second one. A very good news given that the training activities were on hold since the recent political unrest in South Sudan. The training was organised in cooperation with SPARK a Dutch organisation and SUTCO the local partner in Juba.
The training was a high success. The group consisted of forty youth participants from civil society organisations and different political parties. “The discussions were very interactive and very enriching”, says one of the participants . The training was opened by the minister of youth in west equatorial state, he gave a very inspirational speech on youth leadership and political participation. At the end of his speech, he mentioned :”Silence leads to distrust, but, discussion and dialogue leads to cooperation”. Here, he was referring to the necessity of discussing in groups in order to have a good and an effective interaction during the training given that the youth were from different organisations and political parties.The first two days were devoted to a refresher course of the first masterclass , “youth essentials”. The last two days focused on “ youth leadership, politics and power”, the subject of the second masterclass.
The main component of this training were the action plans, they allowed the young people to put in practice the skills acquired in the trainings and also to work towards creating an enabling socio-economic environment for youth. The following are the questions guiding their action plans:
1. In what ways might we organise youth to get involved and participate actively in the constitutional review process in South Sudan?
2. In what ways might we contribute to youth graduate self-employment?
3. In what ways can the youth initiate and reach a unified and effective system of education in South Sudan?
4. In what ways might can the youth skills and excellence of youth leaders be strengthened?
5. In what ways might the youth contribute to reviewing and put in practice an effective youth policy in South Sudan?
Most of these topics are part of SUTCO main activities and projects, thus, they will be working together with the youth towards advocacy campaign.
If you would like to know more about this Youth Engagement Programme click here.
