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Christopher Farai Charamba Correspondent
This week SADC leaders are gathered in Botswana for the 35th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government where President Robert Gabriel Mugabe will be handing over the chairmanship to Botswana’s President Ian Khama. Under the tenure of President Mugabe, Harare hosted a successful SADC Summit in April where the leaders approved and put in place the Regional Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap.

Industrialisation is a key part of the SADC agenda, particularly where regional growth is concerned. As Zimbabwe Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi stated: “The question of industrialisation is absolutely critical because without industrialisation development becomes absolutely meaningless.”

During the Summit, President Mugabe stressed the importance of the industrialisation process in order to add value to the “rich and diverse endowments of our region”.

The Industrial Revolution in Britain in the late 18th century to the 19th century transformed not only the country but also the European continent as a whole. Integral to that revolution were resources – human and natural – plundered from the African continent.

While dwelling on the past will do little to bring about influential change in African lives today, what is key to realise is the vast capacity that the continent has to influence its own Industrial Revolution.

As SADC moves towards industrialisation with the overall aim of regional integration in mind, the regional body should not only focus on natural resources and value addition but fully utilising the human capital, particularly the youth.

With a population of close to 300 million, 60 percent of whom are under the age of 35, the youth in SADC are key to the achieving the region’s overall objectives.

By facilitating the development of young people in the region, SADC is creating opportunities not only for a key demographic but will in turn be laying the foundation for future generations.

In 2009 the African Union developed the African Youth Decade 2009-2018 Plan of Action (DPoA): A Roadmap Towards the Implementation of the African Youth Charter which was aimed at “Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development”.

Critical to this DPoA, regional economic communities such as SADC were “called upon to mainstream the DPoA in their youth-related strategies and programmes, advocate for the accelerated implementation of the DPoA and contribute to resource mobilisation efforts”.

The aims of the DPoA are to serve as a roadmap for the accelerated implementation of African Youth Charter (AYC); to mainstream and operationalise the implementation of the AYC with a youth perspective in financing and monitoring African development goals and indicators; and to establish a benchmark of standards, indicative criteria and accountability in design, implementing and monitoring of youth development policies, programmes and activities in Africa.

With three years to the deadline of the decade-long Plan of Action not much focus has been placed on the youth in the SADC region. With a large percentage of the region consisting of young people SADC leaders should focus more of their attention on this demographic.

While the region has achieved successes in the past year particularly in maintaining peace in the region under the stewardship of President Mugabe, in moving forward the SADC agenda requires a component that specifically and attentively focuses on the youth.

According to Kirsten Devlin of the Population Reference Bureau, youth unemployment remains a barrier to the region’s development. Some of the highest rates on the African continent are in Southern Africa, where 51 percent of young women and 43 percent of young men are unemployed.

Such high figures mean that as the population of the region continues to grow, projected to double to near 600 million by 2050, more people are at risk of being trapped in poverty.

Youth empowerment is therefore critical in the coming years. By providing the youth with the necessary skills, opportunities to make an honest living as well as ensuring a sustainable environment for growth, business and creativity then the region can guarantee its development.

Young people in the region must also be proactive and come up with projects, ideas and strategies that they can take to their governments to better their circumstances. A culture of waiting for the government to provide is detrimental to personal and collective development and should be discouraged at every opportunity.

By forming pressure groups with clearly outlined objectives and plans, young people can illustrate to those in government that they are not only a well-equipped and capable group of people, but also that they care about their future and are willing to work for it.

In so doing the pressure shifts to the governments to find ways to support the young people who also form a key voting demographic. Young people on the continent need to seize every opportunity to engage their governments in order to create the future that they desire.

In 2014 the formation of the SADC Youth Union was deferred as member states failed to make a quorum in Victoria Falls with ministers from Botswana, Tanzania, Madagascar, Lesotho and Mozambique absent from the meeting.

Such inattention is detrimental to youth as well as regional development. In the coming year Botswana, who will be in the SADC chair, the incumbent should work towards completing the establishment of the SADC Youth Union.

Such a platform provides an instrument through which young people are able not only to engage with SADC leaders but also develop strategies and plans that are best suited to their individual needs.

The development of the region will require the collective efforts of all people in the region. By focusing on human capital and enterprise SADC and the rest of the African continent stand to opening more opportunities than relying solely on our natural resources.

The African youth is a key demographic part of that human capital that should not only be cherished but engaged actively as a way of partaking fully in the development of their countries, region and continent.

As SADC moves towards implementing the Regional Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap, a clear role for the youth should be identified and their participation prioritised to ensure a better future for all.