Youth for Sustainable Development (Nairobi Chapter)

Photo | Courtesy Africa’s population is expected to reach around 2.3 billion by 2050. About 41% of the people in the continent are below 15 years old while another 19% are youth between 15 and 24 years old.  The Africa’s youth population is growing rapidly and is expected to reach over 830 million by 2050. It is also important to note that, youth comprise over one billion people, 600 million of whom live in violence- and conflict-affected areas.  They also represent one-third of those displaced by conflict. Estimates of direct conflict deaths in 2015 show that more than 90 percent of all casualties occur among young adult males (UNFPA, 2015). It is quite evident that, young people are vulnerable and account for the greatest population affected by conflict. The history of insecurity in Africa associates high youth unemployment with the numerous situations of instability on the continent such as political strife, violent extremism and terrorist activities such as Al-Shabaab in...

Youth represent the most copious asset Kenya has or will have over the near future. Surveys and reports continue to show that there are persistent risks and challenges facing Kenyan youth.  The youth are and will remain to be a significant share of the Kenya’s population, this means that, failure to provide appropriate opportunities for this large section of the population will lead to continued enormous economic, political, cultural and social consequences. Worse still, Kenya may not be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that it intends to achieve by 2030.  Developing and implementing appropriate strategies to mitigate the risks and challenges youth face needs to be more of a priority for the government and other relevant stakeholders than it currently is. We are in taxing times, with the COVID-19 pandemic pulling down the world population and resulting to effects such as; increases in gender-based violence (GBV) in lock-down, unintended pregnancies, t...