Nothing About Us Without Us i.e. 35 is the New 25 and Other Seating Challenges (Part 1)

Disclaimer: For more context on the rumblings shared here, please read my previous article (and possibly article one too). The flat amoeboid jokes still continue in this piece.

Happy New Year Everyone ! We are now (almost) done with day 1/365 of 2023 and I decided to tackle the age old discussion leadership and governance in our beloved Mama Africa for the first article of 2023 (with a special focus on youth engagement and participation)

I am sure we have used this phrase at one point in L&G:

"Nothing about us without us"

Fun fact, the alternative version is "Nihil de nobis, sine nobis" in Latin. The slogan (according to Wikipedia) sprung up in the 1990s in disability activisim then started being used to fit in various contexts, key among them, pushing for meaningful youth engagement / participation, women in health leadership, the list is endless.

Now to recap on some previous insights, I have shared on the topic of this article

1. What is Meaningful Youth Engagement (MYE) vs Meaningful Youth Participation (MYP) and why should we have a mixed model approach: Twitter Thread
2. Africa CDC's efforts on MYE at the #CPHIA2022: LinkedIn Article One
3. New Public Health Order: LinkedIn Article Two

(It is at this point that you finally realized that I made you read all my LinkedIn articles published to date, even after you avoided my disclaimer at the beginning)

If you lazy scrolled past my 3 contexts, I will summarize them within the course of the article (the same way we used to ask for summary key points of that topic you haven't read minutes to entering the exam room )

Investment in Public Health Workforce and Leadership Programs is one of the pillars of the New Public Health Order. In addition as many health leaders and stakeholders based in Africa work towards actualizing the African Union?Agenda 2063?and get us to the #AfricaWeWant and #UnstoppableAfrica, we need to appreciate that this will only be made possible by accountable Leadership and Governance (thereafter referred to as L&G)

What MC Thinks Works for AU Youth Leadership in Health: Currently we have MYE strategies like the African Union Chairperson’s Youth Envoy which was first held by Aya Chebbi and now held by Chido Cleopatra Mpemba and the African Union Youth Division and the soon to be annouced Africa CDC Youth Advisory Council and the various programs like Hustlers, Bingwa and internships;

MC's?watermelon?/ observation: One of the key gaps in the African Union's policy process (collectively) is that the youth cut-off is pegged at 35 years old versus the United Nation cut-off of 25 years. Don't believe me here is the reference. (and if you think this is worrying, we have a proportion of people on the continent who want it to be 35+ years ). This is a whole 10 years difference than our colleagues from other parts of the world.

MC's?watermelon?/ observation: So far, it seems to be a very top-down and youth engagement centric approach with the AU and Africa CDC efforts. What efforts do we have from bottom up, especially with participation (MYP) e.g. what strategies do we have in place to have "apostles" at grassroots level share the importance of the AU Agenda 2063 and why communities should work to fast track this?

Or better yet, what are we doing to have the Agenda 2063 and health related priorities of the AU and Africa CDC incorporated into Public Health Training, especially in undergraduate training the same way some of our programs teach about MDGs (depending when you were in training), SDGs and UHC2030? (or even teach a unified module of all these major commitments and the relevance for young healthcare workers?)

MC's?watermelon?/ observation: One way for Public Health Leadership programs to work is to incorporate youth in the various age cohorts. Whilst programs like the Kofi Annan Fellowship in Public Health Leadership are a good first step, they at best get the African Youth aged 35+ When will there be Public Health Leadership Fellowships for 35 minus?

Isn't is key to inculcate these leadership skills as soon as possible? Especially for those who are not converted and do not already see the 35 years youth cut-off as a problem?

Or even for women with potential in health leadership? I remember when I was active in IFMSA - International Federation of Medical Students Association , at our regional meetings, there were national medical associations that never has a national female lead (something that still spans to date for some of them) (food for thought for another article)

Commercial Break

The most complicated surgery in Africa is to separate a politician from his chair

I can continue rumbling, but let me conclude by sharing some solutions

1. MC's Suggestion of a MYE model worth considering: The best model I have found so far is the WHO's model of Youth Engngement (reference) mainly the WHO Youth Council which incorporates youth of various expertise in addition to GHWN Youth Hub and soon the Global Model WHO 2023 among others.
2. #IntergenerationalSolidarity: The inability to shine a torch for those behind us (mentorship) and complete the mentorship loop by reverse-mentoring those ahead of us is the unofficial sixth non-communicable disease in my book.

Let us face it, the sooner we share our leadership lessons, the easier governance will be on our continent as we will reduce duplicity and wheel re-inventions. However, that can only be made possible if we have intergenerational solidarity within ourselves and have those hard honest questions, the latter which can only be done if we have an accountable nature within us.

(This reminds me, of a cross-generational discussion I moderated at #AHAIC2019 on the Youth Pre-Conference outcomes, as an example of #IntergenerationalSolidarity. You can recap it here)

The beauty of youth (whether global or AU cut-off) is that we are all running to join this "cool kids club" but equally there are many who can kick us out of the club when our time has come. As, Ndemange Mutuku says we will have one billion African babies before the year 2050 (reference). So trust me, the competition is there or as they say, "The presser is getting wessa"

Disclaimer: Rumblings expressed in this article are my own. Feedback is always welcome either via LinkedIn or?email