ON the International Youth Day, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Zimbabwe and partners have called for greater support to ensure young people reach their full potential by making critical investments in their health, education and well-being.
The theme for this year’s International Youth Day is Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages.
In Zimbabwe, adolescents and youth are experiencing adverse life outcomes, including unintended early or teenage pregnancy, child marriage, and school dropouts.
Early and teenage pregnancy have major health consequences for adolescent mothers and their babies and contribute around 30% of maternal deaths.
Young people face difficulties in accessing social services such as health and education due to stigma, negative cultural norms, lack of knowledge, low-risk perception, a health system that is not youth-centred, and economic disempowerment or poverty.
This leads to them engaging in negative coping strategies such as early sexual debut and unprotected sex, resulting in high HIV infections and teenage pregnancy.
Drug and substance abuse are worryingly on the increase among young people and also contribute to the negative life outcomes.
In addition, the problem of GBV is affecting many young people. At least one in three women and girls have experienced gender-based violence (GBV) at least once in their lifetime.
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The Zimbabwe multi-hazard context, including the adverse effects of climate change, disease outbreaks and economic uncertainty, exacerbates the risk of exposure to GBV with potentially life-threatening consequences.
“Investment in young people’s health, education, economic opportunities and wellbeing is critical in supporting them to reach their full potential so that they contribute to national development. The COVID-19 outbreak and the recurrent waves have been a huge drawback for young people’s development,” said Blessing Nyagumbo, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) programme specialist — adolescents and youth at a panel discussion to mark International Youth Day.
Zimbabwe, like many other developing countries, is experiencing a demographic transition (youth bulge), which can be turned into a “demographic dividend”.
Several countries in South East Asia have benefited from the demographic transition and the question for Zimbabwe is how the country can best realise the full benefits of the demographic transition.
“The Government of Zimbabwe greatly appreciates the great collaboration with UNFPA towards ensuring young people reach their full potential over the years but there is still more we can do together with them and other partners to invest more in young people,” said Memory Kanyati from the Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation ministry and Zimbabwe Youth Council manager.
UNFPA is working with key partners — government, development partners and civil society — to support efforts that ensure young people reach their full potential.
This includes contributions to the development of inclusive policies, legislation and accountability frameworks that promote and protect adolescents’ and youth’ sexual reproductive health and Rights (SRHR).
It also includes supporting age-appropriate Comprehensive Sexuality Education in schools, tertiary institutions and out of school settings through community based programmes such as the Sista2sista girls’ mentorship clubs and Parent to Child Communication groups.
In community settings, the programmes integrate SRHR/GBV information and service referrals with youth economic empowerment and community engagement.
The health sector is being supported with a view to improving access to and availability of comprehensive and integrated services that respond to the needs of adolescents and youth.
“When there is a meeting of minds, it’s not difficult for partners to come together to address the challenges that affect young people and work towards providing opportunities for young people to be able to flourish and thrive,” said Lawrence Lewis Musa, senior regional programmes officer at the embassy of Switzerland, at a panel discussion to commemorate International Youth Day.
“We have been working with UNFPA over the years under the Safeguard Young People Programme towards young people’s development in an effort to ensure that young people make meaningful contributions to the development of the country.”
Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Thematic Lead from Plan International Hellen Machimbirike said young people need support to access SRHR services.
“Many young people face challenges accessing SRHR services for one reason or another.We must ensure our health workers and other service providers create supportive environments for young people to access services,” said Machimbirike.
UNFPA work in Zimbabwe is supported by the governments of Britain, China, Japan, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland as well as the European Union, World Bank and the United States Agency for International Aid.
“We extend gratitude to all our funding partners who support our work towards advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and young people in particular,” said UNFPA country representative Esther Muia.
“We continue to count on your support to ensure young people reach their full potential and that Zimbabwe can reap the demographic dividend.”
UNFPA
Kwekwe Magistrates Court building now a relict
IN 1966, I was 21 years old and had left school the previous year. I was subpoenaed to testify at the then Que Que Magistrates Court.
The courtroom was housed in an old residential house in town, adjacent to the police station. It was not much of a courtroom even then.
That police station has since moved to new premises. The court house has remained there as it was in 1966.
As way back as 1970, Banket and Darwendale got new courtrooms and even later Gokwe and Plumtree got bigger and better buildings to the exclusion of Kwekwe.
The population of the town has grown 10 times since 1966 and so has the number of criminal and civil cases, not to mention other functions.
The building is not even fit to house a computer. It is anachronistic!
Surely something can be done to modernise the working conditions of the staff there.
Albert Mnkandla
Communicating agriculture a global challenge
WHEN we talk about agriculture, we are talking about a world that embraces a multitude of activities, themes, and aspects: from seeds to livestock, from energy to biodiversity, through food security up to climate change.
A complex world full of key players: governments, category associations, public opinion, entire supply chains and the international community.
Communicating everything that agriculture represents is not easy, and it is becoming increasingly important to clarify all the aspects involved in this essential world for the future of the planet and its sustenance, to generate continuous information, exchange, sharing and inclusion, for everyone’s benefit.
What perception do people have of agriculture today? How do they relate to it? What do they think about the problems related to climate change and the agricultural sector? Do they have a clear understanding of what is happening in this sector? And the farmers themselves, what role do they have in all this?
First of all, marketing and communication are not just simply two disciplines devoted to the promotion of products, but concern the need to be credible, trustworthy and competent.
Their purpose is also to share information and knowledge, involve and help their audience make decisions, through clarity, simplicity and sincerity.
However, communicating agriculture is a challenging activity given the numerous themes, aspects and protagonists.
The public image of agriculture is still very stereotyped, unchanging for at least 50, 70 or maybe 100 years. I believe most people think of agriculture as a very conservative sector, slow to change, disconnected from the needs of modern consumers.
In reality, this industry involves incredible skills, competencies and technologies.
Modern food producers need to know much more than just agriculture: think of economics, science, law, mechanics, geology, analysis, chemistry, biology, not to mention ecology and conservation, all combined with years of wisdom and knowledge passed down. It is necessary to highlight and communicate all this talent to the general public, also in order to attract fresh talent.
It’s a difficult world to communicate because there is not a single message.
There is the industry as a whole of course, but inside it there are the individual components — food, livestock, energy, materials, fishing, biodiversity, etc.
But we need to take matters into our own hands and address all the key issues by explaining their realities to the different audiences involved: what can be done, what we need, etc.
And above all, agriculture must stop reacting to questions and being defensive, it must proactively generate dialogue.
Feed the World
