The 2015 Global Peace Leadership Conference (Youth Forum) convened in Zanzibar brought together youth leaders from the East Africa region including 10 representatives from Kilifi and Mombasa Counties in Kenya. As a post-conference engagement, the youth leaders from Kenya convened a consultative meeting on 29th July, 2015 hosted by the Mombasa County Government to map out strategic areas of intervention for youth development.
The meeting was graced by Hon. Mohammed Abbas, the County Executive Member in charge of the Department of Youth, Gender & Sports-Mombasa County, Mr. Arthur Wasonga, the Global Peace Youth Director and 10 Youth Leaders from Mombasa and Kilifi Counties. The aim of the meeting was to bring together young leaders from Mombasa and Kilifi Counties to brainstorm on the resolutions made during the Global Peace Leadership Conference in Zanzibar and domesticate local recommendations. The main focus was to encourage young leaders to own the program by customizing and domesticating the project proposal as designed by the Global Peace Foundation Kenya.
One of the resolutions made at the GPLC youth forum was to scale up the campaign against violent extremism and youth radicalization through the UGEN (United Generation) platform. During the meeting, the young leaders made various recommendations to initiate the “Amani Pwani” initiative geared towards empowering youth to participate in the development of their communities with life skills, peace education and entrepreneurship. The youth also recommended exchange programs to promote unity in diversity as well as exchange of best practices across the region. It was agreed that the two county governments would inject 60% of the resources required to implement the project.
The follow up planning meeting was held on 3 rd August 2015 hosted by Hon. Salma Muhiddin Ahmed, who is the County Executive in charge of Education, Youth Affairs Culture &Social service in Kilifi County. Both Kilifi and Mombasa County Government will later host an MOU ceremony between Global Peace Foundation – Kenya and the two Ministries of Youth.