The Ambassador of Kazakhstan took part in the open meeting of the African Union

Addis Ababa, November 4, 2022 – Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Ethiopia, Permanent Representative to the African Union Barlybay Sadykov took part in a meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union dedicated to the participation of youth in ensuring peace and security in Africa.

The event, held in a videoconference format, was attended by representatives of the Secretariat of the AU Peace and Security Council, the AU Commission, permanent representatives of AU member- and observer-states, as well as african NGOs and analytical institutes.

During the event, representatives of the african public and non-governmental sectors shared their reports on the work done and further prospects for involving young people in ensuring peace and security on a continent gripped by conflicts.

According to the procedures of the AU Commission, Ambassador of Kazakhstan B.Sadykov sent his address to the participants, in which he informed on Kazakhstan's experience of involving young people in the development of modern Kazakhstan.

In particular, a wide range of African governmental and non-governmental organizations were informed about the importance of the international educational scholarship «Bolashak» for the development of professional human resources of the state, civil, and commercial sectors of our country, on introduced a mandatory 30% quota for women and youth under 29 years of age in the electoral party lists of Kazakhstani political parties, about the active development of the volunteer movement in Kazakhstan in recent years. The Kazakh diplomat highlighted Kazakhstan's concrete steps to involve the youth resource in strengthening confidence and security measures on the Asian continent, including the proposal of the President of Kazakhstan K.Tokayev to hold a congress of leaders of volunteer movements of the CICA countries in Astana in 2024, as well as the allocation of educational quotas in universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the training of Afghan specialists in various sectors of the economy.

The participants drew attention to the need to increase the role of young women in conflict resolution, prevent the use of children, as well as expand access to quality education for sustainable development.

A number of experts agreed with the statement of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia A.Ahmed, who called African youth the main architects of Africa with huge potential, made on October 29-31, 2022 in Addis Ababa during the First Pan-African Youth Summit on the theme: «Integrated Africa — the bridge of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed».

In general, all participants of the meeting noted the special role of youth in building a secure future for the African continent, where about 60% of the total population is under 25 years old, reflected in various continental normative documents, including the Founding Act of the African Union of 2000, the Protocol on the Establishment of the AU Peace and Security Council of 2002, and the African Youth Charter from 2006.