1^st African University for Youth and Development

Tarrafal, Cabo-Verde, 12-19 June 2009

Declaration

We, the participants welcome the creation of the 1^st African University for Youth and Development. We see this as an important follow-up to the declaration from the Africa-Europe Youth Summit in 2007 as well as being key to the preparations for the 2010 Heads of States Summit. We therefore ask the African Union, the European Union and the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe to ensure that this important space for enhancing the cooperation between youth organisations in Africa and their partners remains an opportunity in years to come.

The time for African youth to rise has come, with only one more country to ratify the African Youth Charter for the charter to come into force. In Europe a process is launched to ensure that also young Europeans can have their rights recognised in a convention. African and European Governments must commit to these processes now. During the week at the University we have identified a number of other processes that we are also strongly committed to contribute to and for which we have the following demands:

Youth Participation: Youth from both continents, in unison, request that governments recognize and promote non-formal education and specifically the need to further develop volunteering in Africa and Europe. Real youth participation is a key to strengthening democracy and enable youth to become responsible members of their society, and we strongly encourage governments of all countries to continuously include youth representatives in decision-making processes in different institutions at all levels.

Youth Policy: Investing in young people means investing in our countries. To ensure the recognition of young people as a target group and as key actors of change, we demand implementation of cross-sectoral national youth policies within all countries. To ensure full and active participation of independent youth-led organizations and young people governments should ensure independency and sustainability of youth councils at all levels.

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Achieving the MDGs will contribute to a fair and more sustainable development of the world. Therefore we call upon our governments and stakeholders in this time of uncertainty to reaffirm their commitment to working towards the MDGs by 2015. The current problems that plague the world must be taken into account but not delay the work to achieve the MDGs. We are convinced that implementing the declaration from the Africa-Europe Youth Summit in 2007 will have a positive impact in different countries.

Peace-building and good governance: As youth organizations we commit ourselves in all our capacities to maintain and preserve the principles of good governance, peace-building and conflict-resolution in line with the African Youth Charter and our continuous work for a better society. We demand that our governments ensure respect for the rule of law, justice, democracy and equality.

Climate change: Climate change is the greatest challenge of the 21st century – and we are running out of time. Melting ice caps, disappearing coast lines, extreme weather events, decreased agricultural output, more frequent outbreaks of diseases and climate refugees are just a few of the adverse effects of climate change, some of them irreversible. While some governments put a lot of effort into reducing their emissions and reversing the effects of climate change we still need to put much more urgency in our mitigation and adaptation measures.

Youth Mobility, Intercultural Dialogue and Employment: By breaking barriers and opening borders, we want to create intercultural dialogue and encourage sustainable development. Governments should facilitate and support our work to create a global youth village where young people are empowered and our actions are visible. We aim to open minds, however to achieve this, states must open borders and issue visas without discrimination.

We strongly demand the member states of the UN to support and promote the resolution on youth presented by Portugal, Senegal and Moldova in the next UN General Assembly, representing a step forward on the global youth aspirations.We also encourage the institutionalization of this Unversity in Cape Verde to continue the suport and empowerment of youth in Africa.

This declaration results from the First African University on Youth and Development and it was build using the amplifying power of Non-Formal Education.