Sanyi Emmanuel Sanyi, youth representative for Cameroon

It was a great moment of communion for us, meeting as friends and colleagues on the Commonwealth Youth Caucus and staff of CYP Africa, at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on our way to the Regional Youth Caucus and Regional Advisory Board meeting of the Commonwealth Youth Programme for the Africa Region.

Discussions around what has been happening in our respective countries were high as we shared about successes and failures while waiting for the KQ flight to Mahe-Seychelles. As planned, we boarded the flight to Mahe still sharing stories and projecting into the RYC /RAB meeting.

We safely arrived Mahe-Seychelles and the RYC meeting took place on the 28^th and 29^th September 2007.

Serving within the RYC from 2005 to 2007 gave a number of us who had been nominated to continue representing the young people of our countries the opportunity to better appreciate the functioning of the CYP and the importance the Commonwealth attaches to young people.

Thus coming to the RYC meeting we had an idea of what was expected of us, knowing that for new RYCs the meeting shall provide opportunities for them to be drilled on their roles and responsibilities as representatives of youth of their respective countries at an important platform within the Commonwealth known as the “Youth Caucus”.

The CYP, always innovative in its approach had co-opted a few of us to serve at different points during the meeting. This approach facilitated understanding and enabled us to build consensus easily on all important issues which comparatively speaking were harder to build consensus on, at the RAB 2005 meeting in Maseru-Lesotho.

Enhancing the capacities of our peers on issues such as; Ethics and Accountability in Leadership, Youth Participation, National Representation and Reporting, only came to confirm that over the years young people acquire skills which when given the opportunity, use these skills to promote development within their respective communities, countries and the entire Commonwealth.

In a forward looking manner, we kept asking ourselves this question as we concluded on the RYC meeting to join Government Delegates at the RAB meeting: How could we RYCs be more effective in promoting the youth in our respective countries and executing our mandates?

Different from Maseru, where we adopted a Regional Action Plan, we decided to work on individual country Action Plans, thus enabling us to mainstream our actions into national actions on youth development, thereby working in consonance with respective governments and national youth councils. Thus permitting our actions and interventions as RYCs, within our respective constituencies to become more visible.

Then at the RAB meeting we learnt about youth mainstreaming, Respect and Understanding in the Commonwealth, the Youth Development Index. Important to note that Seychelles prepared itself as a country to facilitate good learning for all delegates to these meetings, as the RAB meeting was opened by the President of the Republic of Seychelles Mr James A. Michel. A true champion in every respect to the cause of youth empowerment and leadership.

At the end of the RYC meeting, we formulated recommendations which were adopted for action by the RAB. We joined the RAB in voting the Strategic programme areas of the CYP to be continued over the next cycle.

By the time the meetings were ending, it was unanimously noted that the RYC/RAB meeting 2007 was a great success. In my journal, I tried to identify the elements that contributed to the meeting’s success and noted that; proper planning, good management, and committing everybody to be part of the team made us achieved success at the meetings.

My watch word as I returned home was commitment! I kept asking myself how I can commit myself to be able to make the best for the young people I represent, for my country and for the young people of the Commonwealth in this prestigious position I occupy as RYC. One little action each day!

Secretariat Links:

• Sanyi Emmanuel Sanyi