02/10/2025
Youth Devolution Festival: Day 2 - Deep Dives into WASH and Employability 🇰🇪
The second day of the Youth Devolution Festival plunged participants into crucial discussions, with two highly anticipated panels taking center stage: the WASH Panel and the Employability Panel. Young people actively engaged with experts, challenging assumptions and exploring tangible solutions for development at the county level.
The WASH Panel: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene at the Forefront 💧
The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Panel ignited a critical conversation about the state of these services across devolved units. Representatives from the WASH Parliaments of Kakamega, Kajiado, Kwale, and Kisumu counties shared their grassroots experiences and the varying challenges in their respective regions.
Discussions highlighted the stark contrast in WASH access and infrastructure between different counties.
Key Focus Areas:
Sustainable Water Provision: Strategies for local-level water harvesting, conservation, and investment in borehole and piping infrastructure.
Sanitation Infrastructure: The need for affordable and appropriate toilets, especially in schools and informal settlements, and decentralized wastewater management.
Hygiene Promotion: The critical role of youth in driving behavioral change campaigns on handwashing and menstrual hygiene management.
Young participants keenly debated the effectiveness of county budgets in prioritizing WASH, advocating for greater transparency and youth involvement in monitoring these essential services, which fall squarely under the devolution mandate.
The Employability Panel: Skills, Opportunities, and Economic Futures 💼
The Employability Panel shifted the focus to the urgent crisis of youth unemployment, offering a comprehensive look at the ecosystem of skills development and job creation. The panel featured key institutions driving the national agenda: the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) Director, a representative from the National Youth Service (NYS), a voice from the Budget of Youth, and a representative for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVETs).
The conversation revolved around the disconnect between the skills offered by the education system and the demands of the modern job market.
Bridging the Skills Gap: The TVETs and NITA representatives stressed the importance of demand-driven training, urging young people to embrace technical and vocational skills that are immediately applicable in sectors like construction, ICT, and renewable energy.
Structured Youth Engagement: The NYS representative highlighted the role of the service in instilling discipline, patriotism, and providing practical skills that often lead to employment or entrepreneurship opportunities.
Budgeting for the Future: The Budget of Youth representative challenged the delegates to hold county governments accountable for allocating sufficient and specific funds toward youth enterprise development, internships, and procurement reservations for youth-owned businesses.
A significant takeaway was the call for youth to not just seek employment but to become creators of employment through entrepreneurship, leveraging the resources and devolved responsibilities within their own counties.
The panel concluded with an inspiring charge to the youth to actively seek out and utilize the resources provided by institutions like NITA for skill certification and the support systems within TVETs to build viable careers.
Siasa Place
Imara Fellowship
Likuyani Community Empowerment Organization
Kajiado Star
County Government of Kajiado
Kajiado TV
KAJIADO COUNTY ASSEMBLY
Young Kajiado Starz
Nareto Latia Indigenous Peoples' Program
Il'laramatak Community Concerns
National Youth Council Kenya Luminous Safe Space Organisation
Youth connect cbo
PARAN FM Caleb Ole Marinie Youth Voice Foundation Uraia Kenyans In Scotland
