This Youth Manifesto reflects the collective voice of the young people of Zambia. It is the voice that requires to be listened to. The Youth Manifesto presents and outlines pressing needs and priorities that the youth aspire to be addressed by those that are seeking political leadership. The Youth Manifesto is therefore a clarion call for political actors to respond to what really matters to young people. But this manifesto is also a call to all other actors that have the mandate, the power, the will and the interest to make a difference in the lives of the young people of Zambia. It is also a manifesto that goes beyond elections because after August 2021, the Youth Manifesto will serve as a basis upon which the commitments and promises that political actors have made towards young people can be checked and assessed. In this way, this manifesto is a tool for accountability.
As a clear testimony of this being a collective voice, the process of developing the Youth Manifesto was not only consultative but also holistic. In terms of consultations, Democracy Works Foundation (DWF) and the Centre for Young Leaders in Africa (CYLA), two lead organisations in this initiative, facilitated consultative meetings of a wide range of youth groups and organisations across all ten provinces of Zambia that were organised both at provincial and national levels to solicit their inputs into the manifesto. These youth groups and organisations reflected the diverse sectors in which youth are involved including political parties, civil society, public institutions, private sector as well as those from tertiary education. Efforts were also made to ensure that youth with disabilities have their voice integrated.
The Youth Manifesto was developed at a time when political parties were in the process of developing their own respective election manifestoes. Recognising that political parties particularly in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic may have limitations to reach out to wider society including the youth, a cautious decision was made to present the preliminary findings arising from the Youth Manifesto consultative process to a selected number of political parties well before this Youth Manifesto was completed. These political parties included Democratic Party (DP), Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD), Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), New Hope
Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), Patriotic Front (PF), Socialist Party (SP) and United Party for National Development (UPND). Four of these parties (FDD, New Hope MMD, PF and UPND) work with DWF within the framework of the Southern Africa Political Parties and Dialogue (SAPP&D) programme. The other three (DP, MDC and SP) work with the Young Women in Action (YMA), another partner organisation in this initiative. During these engagements, the parties committed to take recourse to the preliminary findings from these consultative processes as they (political parties) advanced in their manifesto development process. It is our expectation that these parties have indeed honored their commitments by taking cognizance of the aspirations of the young people contained in this manifesto.
By drafting this manifesto, the young people of Zambia have set the tone for how they want to be engaged, involved and addressed. The realisation of the aspirations presented herein must be a concerted effort of everyone who cares about the future of Zambia, which is the future that belongs to these young people. We hope and we wish that everyone becomes part of this manifesto by championing for what the young people seek to realize, by advocating for ways in which these wishes can be realized and by always being alive to the fact Zambia is a youthful nation.
