The Youths Connect Maiduguri is a maiden edition of an event that brought together enthusiastic young leaders in the north-eastern part of Nigeria to share experiences related to youths, leadership, peace, and development.
The event is the first of its kind that happened in Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State. The youth connect had achieved its solid aim in inspiring and motivating passionate young leaders through providing a space and voice for youths to set and drive development agenda and promote youths’ inclusion in decision and policy making.
The Youths Connect Maiduguri uses a Multi-stakeholder approach of the youth-driven initiative at building capacities and strengthening the engagement of youths in the current policy and decision-making processes at state, national and regional levels. This is in accordance with the current opportunity that is bestowed upon the youths in politics (i.e. the Not Too Young to run) and nation-building. The North-eastern part of Nigeria has suffered a decade of Insurgency which has affected the socioeconomic development of the region, displacing millions of people out of their homes and dropping many youths and children out of school. The condition of youths in the northeast today is a growing concern, as many youths are out of school, either for security or economic reasons. Despite this grim condition, on the other hand, a lot of young leaders are achieving greatness amidst the insurgency, humanitarian crisis, and economic crisis.
Co-hosted by Co-Development Hub and the White Arena in partnership with Centre For Advocacy, Transparency, and Accountability Initiative (CATAI) on 31st August 2019 in Maiduguri.
The maiden edition brought together young leaders from the academia, humanitarian and development sector, media, as well as government actors to sparking a conversation that facilitate collaboration between these multi-stakeholders in order to create and strengthen platforms for youths participation in decision-making at local, national, regional, and continental levels of governance, and ensuring young people’s active engagement and leadership in promoting social progress, reducing political tension and maximizing economic performance.
