Senior Party Leaders and Youth Leaders Come Together in South Africa for Political Party Dialogue

Youth and Senior Party Leaders at PPSI

The final installment of NDI’s five-year PPSI program was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November. Party leaders, youth party leaders and activists from the SADC region convened for three days to not only focus on new emerging issues but also reflect on learnings and speak on their experiences initiating policies and reforms, building inclusive political parties, and promoting citizen engagement throughout the years of their participation in PPSI.

On the second day, youth leaders and senior political party leaders participated in a joint session led by Bodunrin Adebo, Program Director, NDI

To ensure this year’s PPSI responded to the needs of both groups, NDI developed two separate tracks: one for youth leaders and the other for senior party leaders. Sessions with senior party leaders included individualized consultations and presentations on incentivizing youth inclusion in political parties, and understanding new politics, mentoring, citizen engagement, disinformation and strategic communications. Youth party and civil society leaders also participated in similar sessions but additional sessions focused on personal branding and building support from and within parties to respond to the specific challenges they face. Commenting on the role of youth leaders, participant Anna Mata from Zambia said, “As young people we need to be tactful and be able to understand and know strategies that we can use to be able to reach out to as we advocate and how we want to be included in these (political) spaces. We need to know how to use our negotiating skills and that there are certain compromises we need to make but at the end of the day, we need to ensure that we achieve what we want to achieve.” 

Although each group had separate customized tracks, this year’s PPSI also provided opportunities for collaboration and dialogue between both groups. Youth political party leaders and civil society members participated in joint sessions with senior political party leaders to discuss ways they can work together better within parties, learn from each other, and strengthen the structures of their political party institutions to achieve the common goals of their respective parties. In this session, both groups candidly shared their experiences and challenges and charted realistic means to closing the gap between both groups. “In this era where everything is happening so rapidly, youth should step outside of their comfort zone and actually take action into things that matter,” said Nadine Lavrado, youth leader from Angola. 

Edith Zewelani Nawakwi, senior party leader from Zambia, shared her experience as a female party leader in her country

For Luyolo Mpithi, Youth Leader and Member of Parliament in South Africa, his biggest takeaway was the session on the Digital Revolution. “It is something we need to really start getting more engaged on. South Africa is at a point right now where we are introducing data analytics in schools and we are looking at the economy and how we can move it forward into the digital world,” said Mpithi. 

As NDI’s PPSI program comes to an end, participants leave with many lessons learned, new ideas to spur inclusive citizen participation, and new relationships formed for peer-to-peer learning between political party leaders and youth activists across Southern Africa.