The European Union (E.U) delegation to Kenya in conjunction with the Ministry of Public service, Youth and Gender Affairs has entered into a partnership to help promote both women and the youth in the country.
The E.U Ambassador in Kenya, Stefano A. Dejak and Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs, Sicily Kariuki emphasized how important it is to secure the future of the youth and to promote women to take up more senior roles in the society.
They were speaking at a press conference in Ambassador Dejak’s residence last month
This support comes at the perfect time as Kenya currently struggles with a high level of youth unemployment. The dialogue between CS Kariuki and the E.U delegates came up with several programmes that would assist the youth to better their lives. The EU promised to support the youth by training their leaders but also in areas of skill development as well as in promoting self-employment.
The youth has been quite an important topic not only in Kenya but all around the globe. This has led to it being considered as the main theme for the Africa-E.U Summit to take place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in 2017. The topic has also been chosen by the African union as its theme for the next summit under the title, “Harnessing demographic dividend through investments in youth.”
It was also agreed that women are still facing discrimination and they are left out of decision-making processes. Consequently, they also decided to support women to get equal rights including an equal opportunity in leadership positions. The parties stated that they will back up the Kenyan government in its effort to meet the constitutional requirement of the two-thirds gender rule.
“We believe providing women with equal access to education, health-care, decent work and political representation is vital – everywhere in the world – to the full development of inclusive societies as well as of successful and sustainable economies… In Kenya we believe gender equality and tackling gender empowerment should be at the heart of all our development efforts,” said the E.U Ambassador.
The cabinet secretary also said that the EU plans to help fight gender-based violence in the country through training that would help women on how to prevent such cases. Additionally, they also intend to help in the prosecution of such cases.
“In this renewed partnership, we have identified key priority areas which include: supporting the elimination of Gender-based violence; operationalizing the Kenya National Action Plan on women in peace and security,” she added.
They also called on the media to do more to empower the youth and women. In addition to Kenya being chosen as the host country for the second high-level meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation, this will cause tremendous changes to the current situation of women and the youth in the country.
