AS UNDP ENCOURAGES YOUTH POLITICAL PARTICIPATION, WHY IS NIGERIANS ATTENTION DIFFERENT?

  There are example of initiatives supporting youth participation Youth empowerment and democratic governance In 2011, the UNDP Democratic Governance Thematic Trust Fund (DGTTF) issued a call for proposals from UNDP Country Offices in support of innovative and catalytic projects on youth to inform public policy-making, training youth as effective leaders, extending access to justice, opening space for youth empowerment and democratic governance. 37 proposals were accepted, out of which 9 are in Africa, 8 in the Arab States, 5 in Asia and the Pacific, 8 in Central and Eastern Europe/Commonwealth of Independent States, and 7 in Latin America and the Caribbean. In a number of project countries, youth exclusion was strongly evident, often crossing with other forms of marginalization linked to gender, location, culture and/or community. Across the projects, activities include strengthening youth advocacy groups, providing quality research to interact with public authorities, and fostering the creation of national youth councils and plans. Several projects place a strong emphasis on social media and information technology. Innovative strategies range from social partnerships for service delivery to provincial youth parliaments to a digital game on youth and local governance. This group of projects which is unique in themselves, has also helped to inform UNDP organizational lesson learning in terms of the design and implementation of youth- centred initiatives, taking into particular consideration the development of appropriate and realistic youth indicators; institutional and contextual analyses (political analyses) during the programme design phase; and partnership building. Country examples: Nigeria: Participation in Constitution-review process UNDP supported youth based CSO coalition to actively participate in the Constitution review process, including submission of memorandum to the constitution review committees of the National Assembly.
A Nigerian Youth Agenda on Political Participation was developed ahead of the 2015 election together with a Nigerian Youth Inter party Forum. The forum will primarily be used by youth members across party lines to come together and deliberate on issues of common interest and challenges among other things one being expanding the frontiers for youth political participation.         Bangladesh: National Youth Parliament UNDP supported the establishment of a National Youth Parliament to empower active citizens at both local and national level and provide an opportunity for youth to contribute to the framing of national policy through direct dialogue with parliamentarians. Jordan: Trainings to increase youth political participation UNDP has trained a core group of 15 young trainers and piloted two debate training programmes as part of its youth programme with the Ministry of Political Development (MoPD) to increase youth political participation.
UNDP has supported MoPD to amplifying its engagement with youth through Facebook and twitter, with a view to facilitating online discourse. UNDP also supported MoPD to develop a database of youth online groups in order to more systematically solicit input from youth groups on how to spur youth participation in the country’s political life.
                      
Ego Kristi Media Reporting After their Research And Analysis From Awka.