African Youth Initiative

African Youth Initiative and the World Summit on the Information Society

African Youth Initiative
www.ayinitiative.net | info@ayinitiative.net

PREAMBLE

The world’s youth rose to the challenge of building a truly democratic and all-involving Information Society with the establishment of a Youth Caucus, formed at the first preparatory committee meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva between July 1 and 5, 2002. The youth of Africa are actively involved in this task of building a sustainable tomorrow, coming together as an African Youth Caucus, which is the regional extension of the global Youth Caucus. This caucus has been strengthened by members of the African Youth Initiative (AYI), who coordinate the process for Africa’s young people through the mailing lists and AYI’s website. This document seeks to introduce the AYI, its activities and needed support.

INTRODUCTION

African Youth Initiative (AYI) is an African youth-led Information and Communication Technologies for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) initiative to help bridge the digital divide in Africa, and to provide a sustainable livelihood for the people of the continent.

Aimed at fulfilling the desire to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to address the continent’s problems, while building on the abounding energy of young people, AYI has representation in ten (10) African countries and keeps expanding with the aim to have national coordinators in all Anglophone and Francophone African countries by July 2004. Among other involvements, AYI has already started pilot ICT4AD clubs in Ghana to demonstrate its commitment.

AYI was created to address the problem of duplicated and uncoordinated youth-led efforts in Africa by serving as a hub for youth-led initiatives - using ICTs as a veritable platform. AYI was founded by oneVillage Foundation - Ghana (OVF), Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN), and Go-Online Africa (GOLA). AYI emerged as a response to the declaration coming out of the ITU Telecom Africa 2001 Youth Forum and the need to initiate, sustain and promote the involvement of young Africans in the World Summit on the Information Society processes.

VISION

AYI’s vision is “to initiate, sustain and promote sustainable development in Africa through the use of ICTs, by harnessing the potentials of Africa’s youth regardless of their present geographical location”.

Noting that Information and Communication Technologies are not African’s biggest chance, but the last, we believe that using ICTs efficiently and effectively, Africa will become a major partner in the global Information Society, and will improve her economy.

MISSION

Our mission is “to ensure that young people spread the gospel of sustainable development through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to every corner of the African continent.”

We will involve ourselves as a network of youths (both residents youths and those in Diaspora) who are committed to cooperation and action, align our work to the efforts of other people from Africa and the whole world, and volunteer/share our knowledge to change the lives of Africans.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

To enable us achieve our dream of seeing Africa developed through ICT, we intend to:

? Facilitate the involvement of African youth in the WSIS process, and the emerging Information Society
? Create a network to inspire and support young Africans in their struggle for continental development, respect, human rights, equity and peace
? Serve as the mouthpiece, exchange and share knowledge among us in Africa and to rest of the world while creating a humane future for the people of the continent
? Disseminate the knowledge about applications of Information and Communication Technologies and solicit for ICT accessories for poor and needy communities throughout Africa
? Develop quality youth leadership and promote role models and youth issues
? Network with other similar organizations at community based, national, sub–regional, Africa and global platforms
? Create a forum where young leaders, thinkers and activists can meet, establish links and share ideas for development
? Raise funds to defend, support and facilitate projects in less deprived areas in Africa with major focus on the youth

EXECUTED AND ONGOING PROJECTS

The AYI has been involved in the following projects since inception to date:

? WSIS Process: African youths have been able to lend their voice to the entire process through the active participation of members of the network at the Bamako 2002 conference (Bamako, May 2002); PrepCom 1 (Geneva, July 2002); UNECA/APC Civil Society Forum on WSIS (Addis Ababa, November 2002); PrepCom 2 (Geneva, February 2003); CODI III (Addis Ababa, May 2003) and other country-level involvements (IT/ICT policy formulation, WSIS consultations, etc)
? Database-driven website: AYI has commenced the design of a website that will integrate and showcase projects, provide information and a platform for expression, and enable collaboration among youth-led efforts aimed at bridging Africa’s digital divide. The beta version is already hosted at www.ayinitiative.net
? CatchITYoung: This is an eSchool project that seeks to establish ICT clubs in secondary schools in African countries. The pilot project was launched in Ghana in March 2003, involving twelve (12) schools in the Central Region. The projects encourages young ICT experts to give back to their communities by volunteering to lead the clubs and provide mentorship for upcoming young Africans
? National Youth Campaigns: In collaboration with the global Youth Caucus of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), members of the AYI network (in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya) have commenced National Youth Campaigns on the WSIS in their respective countries, in order to create awareness for other young people and discuss their input within the emerging global Information Society. As soon as they secure funding, the projects will be executed.

REQUIRED SUPPORT

We wish to appreciate the contributions of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) – along with other supporters - towards the participation of AYI network members at various events, and will also highlight areas of support that we believe the UNECA can help with.

The areas in which AYI need of support are:

(a) Secretariat setup,
(b) Organizational support and project(s) execution,
(c) WSIS participation for young Africans (PrepCom 3, WSIS Phase 1, ICT4D Platform and WSIS Phase 2), and
(d) National Youth Campaigns.

CONCLUSION

As young people and true citizens of Africa, we commit to the emergence of the Africa of our dreams - one that we can be proud to call home. Based on our discussions and active collaboration (at various fora and employing numerous opportunities) over the past 18 months, we choose to quit from the table of declarations that lack political will. We have embarked on projects and dynamic efforts within our resources, and trust that we will get support from UNECA as we proceed.