1 YES KENYA 2006 SUMMIT African Ministers Declaration 1) We ...

YES KENYA 2006 SUMMIT
African Ministers Declaration
1) We acknowledge that Africa is most affected by youth unemployment. Thereby we declare
to redouble our efforts in addressing youth unemployment.
2) We declare to form Africa YES Campaign Network which will be coordinated by the
Ministry of Youth Affairs Kenya for the whole of Africa. The African YES Summit will meet
during the interval years of the global YES Summits for example 2007, 2009 and so on.
3) We also declare to form regional YES campaign secretariats that will coordinate the YES
Campaign in the African Region as follows;
i. Central Africa-Cameroon
ii. Eastern Africa-Nairobi
iii. Western Africa-Nigeria
iv. Southern Africa-S. Africa
v. North Africa- Algeria
4) We declare that the 1 st African YES Summit will be held in 2007 and it is hoped that all
African States will have developed National Action Plans to address Youth Unemployment by
2007. The regional meetings will held quarterly and coordinating States will fix dates and
venues.
5) We affirm to all the other declarations of the Global YES Campaign.
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YES KENYA 2006 SUMMIT
Nairobi Draft Declaration
1) We the delegates of the Third Global Youth Employment Summit -YES Kenya 2006, meeting
at the Kenyatta International Conference Center, Nairobi, Kenya, from 13 – 16 September 2006,
hereby reaffirm our profound commitment to the decade long YES Campaign launched in 2002
in Alexandria, Egypt.
2) We as delegates declare to continuously endeavor to generate employment opportunities for
youth through creating markets for goods and services and unleashing widespread
entrepreneurship opportunities for the realization of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
3) We as delegates pledge to promote and support advocacy programs and initiatives to influence
the change of policies and legislations that would create favorable conditions conducive to the
actualization of YES Campaign objectives
4) We pledge to put aside that which separates us, and learn to work together to spare no effort to
generate sustainable livelihoods for youth all over the world. We will strive to ensure that the
proportion of youth living in poverty is considerably reduced by the end of the YES campaign in
2012.
5) We declare to enhance enterprise development for employment creation as we acknowledge
with concern the rising number of youth requiring employment opportunities
6) We resolve to promote the creation of markets by harnessing enterprise opportunities that lie
in the bottom of the pyramid model where 4 billion low income earners require goods and
services. We partners from the government, private sector and civil society commit to work with
youth to not only identify enterprise opportunities in the Bottoms of the Pyramid but also to
exploit them through capacity building of youth entrepreneurs and creating a conducive
environment to enterprise development.
7) We pledge to support youth who wish to trade in the global trade industry by optimizing in
country and regional trade capacities of governments, private sector and youth using Information
and Communications Technologies and fostering a fair and favorable business environment
striving towards removing unfair trade practices internationally. We pledge to work towards
attracting foreign direct investment and domestic investments to increase trade opportunities for
all youth.
8) We pledge to facilitate the creation of large scale employment opportunities to absorb the ever
increasing youth flooding the job market. To achieve this we affirm: to build the capacity of
youth with employable skills and relevant quality education that adequately prepare them for the
labour market and by optimizing employment in programmes that require large scale
employment.
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9) We pledge to promote an entrepreneurial culture in youth through business development
services and mentoring. We also pledge to assist them in becoming market leaders through micro
investment and micro enterprise development
10) We also realize the unique situation faced by young women who wish to become
entrepreneurs and we commit to remove any form of inequality that prevent them from
successfully engaging in entrepreneurship. In addition, we undertake to address the special
needs of vulnerable youth in the world.
11) We resolve to address all the challenges of HIV/AIDs and related health issues that threaten
the actualization of the YES Campaign objectives.
12) We are committed to the objectives of this Summit, which is to create markets and unleash
entrepreneurship, and the policy frameworks to make these objectives a reality for the remaining
six years of the campaign.
13) We believe in this commitment and we know we will succeed since it can be done, it must be
done, it will be done. We must act now since the result of inaction is too dreadful to
contemplate. To this we affirm.
Declaration made by all delegates in Nairobi at YES Kenya 2006 on this 16 th day of September
2006.
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