The Youth Policy requires that all governance structures must include youth. This is to be facilitated through the institutionalisation of youth development, which includes a budget for youth development. The Youth Policy also requires that a research unit and mechanisms should be developed to compile youth statistics. Among other policy outcomes, two important priorities mentioned include factoring in youth development into the municipality’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and the creation of a youth desk in specific area managers’ offices.
The eThekwini Municipality’s youth desk is located within the Community Participation Unit and has been in existence since 2004. However, several municipality respondents felt it has not functioned within its role, especially prior to the 2006 Youth Policy.
The people who were employed as youth coordinators before didn’t have a platform to work from. They didn’t know what to do and ended up not doing anything… seriously nothing (I).
The development of the policy provides a guide for the youth desk and youth development goals for programmatic interventions. When discussing the youth desk with different municipality managers the majority interviewed seemed unaware that the youth desk was actually functioning. Those who were aware of the youth desk were not aware of its functions or any outcomes.
I am still waiting to see if that will function…if they are going to be able to lead us in the youth issues (A).
This was the point of the youth desk: to advocate and lead relevant youth issues throughout the different municipality departments. But for all intents and purposes this has not yet happened.
The local eThekwini Municipality Area Based Management (ABM) programmes, such as iTrump and Rural, play a very important role of coordinating different spheres of government and local departments within specific areas of EMA. They were designed to develop pilot projects and foster sustainable partnerships between government, civil society and businesses. The Rural ABM is the advocate for rural youth, but neither it nor iTrump have a youth desk. They do advocate for youth- related issues and promote programmes for youth in their mandated areas amongst other municipal departments.
With regards to coordinating with national and provincial youth desks, eThekwini’s youth desk, much like the rest of the municipal units, works autonomously from national mandates.
It’s not like we are linked. We are independent but we work in collaboration with the national or provincial youth. We do not take instruction from them, as we are independent with our own budget; we do our own things. If they have programs they want to do here they have to come to us, work together and inform us… But we do not report to the – we report to the head of municipality (I).
For 2008/09 a youth budget was put in place; but according to the youth desk coordinator, the budget and business plan were not carried out. This was because the new coordinator only came into his role in early 2009. Prior to 2009 the youth desk had high staff turnover with no consistent person running the desk. Very little support exists for the current set-up of the coordinator.
I am supposed to deal with 100 wards. Can you imagine 100 wards and maybe each ward has a population of 50,000? And I have to deal with each ward all by myself. Other departments are supposed to be giving me support – but they are doing their own things (I).
There is little capacity and time for the one coordinator to actually implement functioning programmes. However, at the time of the interview the new coordinator had only been in his role for two months. It would certainly seem an overwhelming task to come into a role with such large expectations, and one with previously little support or successful outcomes.
According to the new coordinator, the role of the youth desk is not to provide funding to young people or departments but to make resources available to empower young people. The four main programs that the youth desk is to facilitate include reviving local youth forums in each ward, wellbeing programmes, education and training, and justice and safety. Each EMA ward is to have a local youth forum that relates directly to the youth desk. These forums are to present areas of need and concern by youth for youth to the municipality. However, they were never properly implemented in the different wards and one of the tasks of the new coordinator will be to revive these local youth forums.
The lack of a coordinating person in the youth desk up until 2009, three years after the policy was developed, and the placing of all youth development upon just one person with no administrative support to guide and implement the entire municipality’s efforts is very concerning for youth development within EMA. The research unit and mechanisms for youth statistics has not yet been developed as required by the policy.
The Youth Policy may have shown proactive interest in developing youth focused programmes, but the lag in its implementation actually displays a lack of commitment in placing youth as a priority within the municipality.