2013 TunzAfrika: 4th African Youth Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development

The United Nations Environment Programme Regional Office for Africa(UNEP-ROA) is organizing its 4th African Youth Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development,TunzaAfrika 2013 in Lome, Togo from 17 to 20 September, 2013.The conference, organized in collaboration with Jeunes Volontaires pour l?Environnement (JVE)/the Young Volunteers for the Environment (YVE) –Togo, as part of the UNEP-BAYER Partnership on the Environment, will bring together youth leaders across Africa to finalize the design of TUNZAFRIKA as a platform for action learning and deliberations on youth contributions to global and regional processes on environment and sustainable development.The theme is: ?Charting a sustainable and eco-responsibThe event was due to UNEP?s commitments in engaging young people on environmental issues and the Governing Council extension of the Tunza program for the next 5 years and the outcome of a meeting that was hosted by the UNEP ROA during the UNEP TUNZA International Youth Conference were the Director advice youth leaders who paid him the curtsey visit to better coordinate themselves and bring forward a unifying strategy for better engagement with UNEP. This inspired the formation of TUNZAFRIKA in Nairobi which all African youth leaders endorsed.In the context of the Tunza International Conference on the theme ?Health and Environment? held in Nairobi from 11-14 February 2013, African youth decided to transform the AYEN into TunzAfrika, which can finally federate all existing networks and serve as an interface between the youth and all development partners as well as regional and sub-regional political institutions on issues related to environment and sustainable development.The African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) Declaration in 2010 acknowledged the youth as a key partner in the implementation of its recommendations and this recognition was reiterated in Arusha in 2012.The Director of UNEP ROA, Mounkaila Goumandakoye stressed that the main objective of the conference is to provide participants a platform for action learning and exchange around the challenges of the transition to a sustainable Africa. ?Youth contributions into this process and for discussions on the operationalization of Tunzafrika as a main platform for UNEP engagement with the youth in Africa?, said Mounkaila.Sena Alouko, Executive Director, JVE stated that ?In order to unleash the immeasurable energy and innovation potential within the African youth, it is crucial to create a platform for them to finalize the design of TUNZAFRIKA, build long-term relationships/interactions and, deliberate on a participation strategy with UNEP, AMCEN and other relevant decision-making bodies on the continent?.The conference is expected to provide innovative mechanisms, bring a difference in the way regional youth conferences have been conducted so far. Special attention will be paid to ownership (speakers/trainers will be essentially young experts), durability (delegates will be drawn from active organizations), and also relevance (funding will be sought for youth projects) said Hamzat Lawal, Communications Officer, African Youth Initiative on Climate Change and would be handling Communications during Tunza Africa Conference..