The Youth Parliament (YP) Project was started by Saboba Youth and was later adopted by Youth Empowerment for Life and implemented in five districts in Northern Region, namely: Saboba, Sagnarigu, Yendi, Nanumba North and South Districts. The project main goal was to ensure that there were increased effective youth and gender inclusiveness in local governing processes in the project districts.
In order to achieve this important goal, the youth parliament and community journalists concept was adopted. The model is such that, YP debate upon issues of concern in the various communities raised by the community journalists (CJ) and engage with the appropriate duty bearers for those issues to see lasting solutions.
This project has over the past one and half years imparted positively on the individual lives of youth parliamentarians as well as community journalists and made a lot of major strides and benchmarks in the development of communities in the various districts ranging from governance, education, health, and sanitation, youth empowerment, agriculture just to mention but a few.
The Nanumba North Youth Parliament won the third-placed position of the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana (SC4Gh) hosted by the Ministry for Sanitation and Water Resources, Ghana. For their award, they received thirty-five thousand (35,000) US dollars in cash prize. This cash prize is to be used in the implementation of activities aimed at tackling the sanitation challenges in their communities.
In the individual lives of both parliamentarians and community journalists, they have expressed a lot of significant change. The training received has increased their capacity in terms of public speaking, engaging with people in high-level positions and those who matter in society and linking them to places and people they never knew. These life-changing experiences have fueled their desire to lead their people. Last year (2019) three youth parliamentarians filed to be elected as Assembly members to represent their respective electoral areas.
In his opening statement, Rauf shared his reason for contesting and stated, “My reason to contest this year is simple, I want to help my people”. He went on to highlight the activities that through his work with the Nanumba Youth Parliament has supported the development of the municipality. His manifesto…
“My name is Abdul Rauf, a youth parliamentarian and an aspirant for Dangbe electoral area. As a youth advocate and aspirant for Dangbe electoral area, I am concerned about the development of my community in Water and Sanitation, Education, Health and so on. I would work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the little way that I can. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Without a clean environment, the community is exposed to unlimited danger. I would collaborate with relevant stakeholders to advocate on the need for households to construct latrines. Some communities within Dangbe electoral area do not have access to electricity. When elected as the Assembly member, I would work collaboratively with the Assembly and Member of Parliament to ensure that there is an extension of electricity in the electoral area. Water they say is life. Clean and Safe Water is important for a healthy living. I would work towards improving the quality of drinking water through Community Water and other agencies by drilling of boreholes and wells."
"Unemployment is a major issue in Dangbe. Most Young men and women are unemployed. When elected as the Assembly member, I would work closely with the District Assembly in providing entrepreneurial skills to young persons in the electoral area as well as developing a small grants/loan system to enable these young person’s establish Start-ups. I would also ensure that Village Savings and Loans (VSLA) groups are formed for these young people with Start-ups to enable them to save and repay the grants. Education is the key to a society’s development. The disparity in Male and Female education is high here in Dangbe. When elected, I would passionately work with Cama to support young females to access quality education. `"If you educate a girl, you educate the whole nation."’
Yakubu Abdul-Rauf was number one (1) on the ballot paper on the day of the election. Unfortunately, at the end of vote count he lost his bid for the assembly position. However, as much as this loss was painful to him, it has not deterred him from supporting in the development of his community but has rather enforced his zeal to work harder through the Youth Parliament.
Group photo of participants at the event
