A dual capacity-building program was officially launched this week, marking the first major step toward establishing the country’s National Action Plan (NAP) on Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS).
The initiative, spearheaded by the Youth Peace and Security Network (NYPSN) in collaboration with the National Youth Council (NYC) and the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture, aims to institutionalize youth participation in governance, conflict prevention, and national security decision-making.
The event held in Windhoek brought together the African Union (AU) Commission, government officials, and civil society to establish a binding framework for youth inclusion in high-level decision-making.
The Minister of Education, Arts, Culture, Innovation, Youth, and Sport, Dr Sanet Steenkamp, in a keynote address, called for greater investment in Namibia’s youth through mentorship, education, and meaningful inclusion in governance and peace-building initiatives.
“Approximately 37% of Namibia’s population is under the age of 15, which is a central fact around which everything we do, in governance, in education, in economic planning, and yes, in peace and security must be organized,” she said.
Steenkamp said the NAP on YPS is not an addition to the country’s national development priorities, but a structural intervention.
She said youth should be placed at the center of the country’s peace and security agenda, adding that youth must be seen “not as a problem to be managed, but as a generation essential to Namibia’s future.”
According to Steenkamp, eight AU Member States have now developed their NAP on YPS, including Nigeria, Liberia, Malawi, The Gambia, Burundi, the DRC, South Sudan, and Cameroon.
Namibia’s Executive Chairlady of the National Youth Council, Patience Masua, said that the initiative aims to shift young people from being passive subjects of security policies to active architects of national strategy.
She said that the outputs of this programme are the first building blocks of a national plan that must eventually be financed, implemented, and defended.
