Cape Town - A South African youth delegation leaves this weekend for the Y20 Summit, an annual youth policy-making event in Indonesia where they will bring the voices of South African youth to the forefront of policy-making decisions.
The four representatives will engage with young leaders from other G20 member countries to propose policy solutions to the most pressing issues and handover those policies to the G20 Presidency.
This year’s summit, from 17 to 24 July is themed “From Recovery to Resilience: Rebuilding the Youth Agenda Beyond Covid-19".
Head delegate Kgaugelo Mkumbeni is representing the Sustainable and Liveable Planet track at the summit. She completed her honours studies in political and international relations at Rhodes University.
In preparation for the summit and to ensure all voices of SA youth was represented, Mkumbeni said they a hosted a mock Y20 event in May and created a survey to engage with other South African youth and allow them to share their policy recommendations.
Mkumbeni believe that it is imperative to have youth at the forefront of policy adoption and implementation as even though youth-focussed summits were acknowledged by those in power, the actual implementation often fell short.
Heading the diversity and inclusion track at the summit, Pan African University alumnus Tlholohelo Mojakisane would be advocating for policies concerned with education, technology, and entrepreneurship.
“The G20 Youth Summit gives young people an opportunity to tell decision makers what their concerns are and what outcomes they would like to see in solving those problems. We are optimistic that our polices will bring forth change both at the national and international levels,” Mojakisane said.
Stellenbosch University alumnus Akhona Xotyeni, represented the Youth Employment track and said she hoped that their policy recommendations could have an impact on the many young people struggling to find employment.
Representing the digital transformation track, UCT political communication alumnus Niel Swanepoel added, “Given the uneven recovery from Covid-19 around the world and the spectre of climate change looming over our future, we as the Y20 need to be ambitious in our objectives and the ways to realise long term, inclusive solutions to our biggest problems.”
Swanepoel hoped they would provide new ideas around digital development, especially regarding the role of youth to drive the uptake of digital skills and services.
