Christina and the mayor after the meeting
Graça Machel Trust Youth Advocate, Christina Chilimba was part of the team of youth leaders who met with Mayor of Blantyre, His Worship Councillor Wild Ndipo, to present and come up with solutions to some of the challenges the youth are facing in their youth development initiatives. The meeting took place in Blantyre, Malawi on 13th February, 2019.
Christina, who is a Reproductive, Maternal , Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH + Nutrition) expert commended the Mayor for engaging the youth in the community. Youth are the driving force to achieve skills development, youth participation in development, youth development initiatives happening at a district and community level, youth entrepreneurship skills as well as youth access to formal agriculture markets.
âThis meeting is a promise to better things to come because this was a first ever meeting where the Mayor engaged young people and youth leaders in his community. This has never happened before in the history of Blantyreâ â Christina Chilimba.
One key outcome from the meeting was that the Mayor agreed to hold more interface meetings between young people and Councillors in their respective communities, creating close effective relationships. âHe promised to strengthen the relationship between young people and the Mayorâs Office as well as the District Youth Officers for successful youth interventions and programming,â said Christina.
According to Christina, some of the challenges faced by youth in her community are the politicization of involvement and participation of the youth in programs, bottle stores and pubs are built close to schools, and cheap alcohol sold in sachets encourage young people to drink. There is also a low budget allocated to support youth empowerment programmes and initiatives.
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The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting childrenâs rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Childrenâs Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescentsâ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trustâs goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a motherâs health and social economic conditions, the early years of a childâs life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.