Youth Contributions To Good Governance And The Fight Against Corruption In A Digital World.

On the 7th of December 2021, The Youth Café, in partnership with the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), US Embassy, was honored to hold a Civic Leadership Speakers Forum with youth leaders in civil society organizations such as Greenpeace Africa, Me and You For Her, National Youth Council, Scion Creative, Bold Impact Africa, Techwomen Kenya, Champion for SDGs among others at the American Corner Nairobi- Moi University. It was a 3-hour session with other youth leaders joining in virtually.

The event was to build the power of young men and women to impact change, fight against corruption, and the closing civic space in the digital world. Dr. Brian MacHarg, Director of Academic Civic Engagement at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, led the session sharing his insights on leadership and civic engagement and ways to identify problems and get solutions to fix them.

The event focused on Youth Contributions to Good Governance and the Fight against Corruption in a Digital World. Young people across the world are increasingly connected, using the internet and digital tools to build their communities, interact with other similar-minded people as well as advocate, express resistance, organize events, and raise funds for causes they care about, claiming space and agency in their societies and adopting new forms of participation to make their voices heard and accounted for in relevant policies. At the same time, young women and young men find themselves inadequately represented within formal political structures, and demonstrate low rates of political involvement, and political party participation, electoral activity, or engagement in traditional civil society organizations.

Across the globe, younger generations often feel disenfranchised and disillusioned with governing structures incapable of providing them with the opportunities and support they need. One of the most important shifts of the 21st century has been moving from what used to be predominantly in-person activism to increasing action online and different forms of digital activism particularly with the onset of COVID-19, as curfews and physical distancing were enforced making people more dependant on digital tools to connect and communicate on both personal and societal levels. While online activism has proved to be a powerful means of political mobilization, young people from indigenous communities, low-income families, and persons with disabilities have limited access to media and secure platforms to channel their voices to policy-making institutions.

Therefore, it is important to have youth come together and find ways in which they can increase their civic participation hence contributing to good governance in this digital age and working towards fighting against corruption, a menace that has eroded the trust youth have in the systems and leaders, weakened democracy, hampered economic development and further exacerbated inequality, poverty, social division, and the environmental crisis.

Government control over internet service, censoring of information flow, surveillance, the spread of false information or disinformation has complicated civic activities and undermined trust and coordination within activist networks. What is clear, however, is that key emerging negative trends in the state of democracy and civic space, as well as the changing social and political contexts worldwide, are calling for a greater emphasis on young people’s civic engagement into shaping peaceful, just, and inclusive societies. Public participation and civic space among the youth are at the heart of the work of The Youth Café, making it a priority area to not only partner and engage with organizations with similar goals but to also champion for the protection of young civil society actors and overall promotion of civic space for youth.

For this to happen, we should better comprehend what platforms and causes young people veer towards, how their digital activism intersects with traditional civic engagement, and what opportunities and obstacles actors encounter in the digital sphere. In this event, we hope to come up with key points on how you can contribute to good governance in a digital world and find ways to fight against corruption.

Final remarks from Dr. Brian MacHarg were about problem-solving in a pyramid structure, noting that a problem is easier solved at the individual level, when people make it their civic obligation to better the world around them.

The Youth Café works with young men and women around Africa as a trailblazer in advancing youth-led approaches toward achieving sustainable development, social equity, innovative solutions, community resilience and transformative change.