Youth Decide Campaign Team Leader who is also the Executive Director of Youth and Society (YAS), Charles Kajoloweka, says bad governance has really affected the lives of young people in Malawi and is also a threat to the Malawi 2063 development blueprint.
Kajoloweka said this yesterday at the start of a two day conference on the state of Governance and Youth Development.
According to Kajoloweka, strengthening of Governance systems is one of the core enablers if Malawi is to achieve the long term vision of Malawi 2063.
“We came here to cast that vote of confidence in better governance that if we fix the current governance challenges, including corruption for example the chances are very high that we are going to progress in achieving the development targets that we have put in place. If you look at the resources that we are losing to corruption for example, they are quite huge and those are the resources that should have been put into the strategic social services for the benefit of young people, those are the resources that should have gone to education health and social protection but we are losing out because of the leaking bucket and all that point to the poor governance system that we have in place.
“Also just to highlight that when we look at governance most of the times people look at politicians, we are looking at all systems in place there are a number of actors involved. Therefore we must continue to demand accountability from the duty bearers to ensure that they play by the rules,” said Kajoloweka.
Kajoloweka also noted that the Tonse Alliance Administration has to be accountable to the youth because 54 percent of 2020 fresh Presidential polls voters were young people.
He then reminded the Tonse Alliance Administration to fulfill the promises endorsed in the National Youth Manifesto.
According to Kajoloweka, at the conference they are having very constructive and objective engagement and are hopeful that recommendations made at the conference will be implemented by government.
In his remarks, Minister of Youth Richard Chimwendo Banda who was also the Guest of Honor at the conference said issues of governance and loss of trust in government institutions are critical issues.
“Government has come up to account to what has been happening in the last two years we have been in Government, what foundation have we led, what promises are we fulfilling. Yes, we know the promises may have challenges but at least we are fulfilling the promises. We accounted for a number of issues including the empowerment of young people.We know that quite a number of young people are just staying and they need to be boosted in terms of capital to start businesses and entrepreneurship activities.
“We talked about NEEF but we appreciate that there are some challenges among them and as Government we are working really hard to deal with such challenges,” said Chimwendo.
He also alluded that despite some challenges, there are some developments which the Government has done so far in as far as the lives of youths are concerned.
Minister of Youth and Sports Richard Chimwendo Banda, Minister of Finance Sosten Gwengwe and Minister of Labour were among the top Government officials who attended the conference.
The conference has brought together all concerned parties to discuss and map the way forward on how to deal with the problems the youth are facing in the country.
The main agenda towards the National Youth Conference is to make sure they create a platform where Government and young people can interrogate on the state of governance but also youth development in the country.
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