MEDIA ADVISORY

Launch of the 2nd edition of the Young Africans Writing Contest (YAWC) & The Policy Booklet on the ‘Migration Policy Framework for Africa (MPFA)

INVITATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA

What: The Young Africans Writing Contest (YAWC) 2022 & The Policy Booklet on the 'Migration Policy Framework for Africa (MPFA)

When: Friday, July 15th, 2022. 16:30 UTC/18:30 CAT

Who: The African Union’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GmbH)

Where: Radisson Blu, Lusaka, Zambia

Livestreaming available on Zoom:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QJVk8pePSZyHUd9-tQpw9g

Objectives:

To announce and launch the second edition of The Young Africans Writing Contest (YAWC22) and the Policy Booklet on the 'Migration Policy Framework for Africa (MPFA).’ The writing contest is a great opportunity for the youth to reflect on migration issues on the continent.

Background:

The Young Africans Writing Contest (YAWC) is an ECOSOCC initiative that aims to bridge the gap between African youth and the African Union. ECOSOCC launched the inaugural Young Africans Writing Contest (YAWC) in 2021 to connect young Africans to the African Union. The YAWC empowers youths to reflect on their contributions to the advancement of the continent and provides them with a free space to articulate themselves. YAWC 2021 was hugely successful, drawing over a thousand participants from all over the continent. For 2022, ECOSOCC has partnered with GIZ calling young Africans to pen their ideas around migration and mobility issues on the continent.

It is predicted that the population of young Africans will double from the current 480 million to 840 million by 2050, making Africa the youngest population. Today, millions of children are on the move within and across borders and with or without parents or guardians. As a consequence, children contribute and are part of large-scale population movements that are currently taking place in many parts of the world. In this context, this year’s YAWC themed ‘Children and Migration’, specifically ‘Children on the Move’ aims to encourage the youth to reflect on children and migration issues on the continent.

YAWC 2022 aims to identify the theme’s connection to the AU's Free Movement Protocol (FMP), which was created with the goal of lowering, and eventually eliminating, barriers to Africans crossing regional borders to visit, trade, live, work, and establish businesses in other countries on the continent.

Further in 2021, ECOSOCC and GIZ conducted a number of expert webinar series to popularise the Migration Policy Framework for Africa (MPFA) and Plan of Action (2018-2030) as well as the AU Free Movement Protocol within African Civil Society, while also defining the role of African CSOs in advocating and contributing to the implementation of the free movement. The outcomes of these webinar series served as backbone for the conceptualisation of the Policy Booklet on the MPFA, which will be launched.

The aim is to popularize the migration policies which support free movement and the Migration Policy Framework for Africa (MPFA) that offers AU member states and RECs comprehensive policy guidelines to assist the formulation and implementation of national and regional policies.

The media are invited to cover the launch on 15th July 2022 at 18:30 to 20:00 CAT at Radisson Blu, Lusaka, Zambia and Livestreaming, via Zoom: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QJVk8pePSZyHUd9-tQpw9g

For media inquiries, please contact:

Ms. Carol Jilombo | Senior Communications Officer | AU ECOSOCC Secretariat, Lusaka, Zambia

E-mail: Jilomboc@africa-union.org

About ECOSOCC

The Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) was established in July 2004 as an Advisory Organ composed of different social and professional groups of AU Member States. The mandate of ECOSOCC is to contribute, through advice, to the effective translation of the objectives, principles and policies of the African Union into concrete programmes, as well as the evaluation of these programmes.

Learn more at: https://ecosocc.au.int/;

Facebook: African Union ECOSOCC; Twitter: @AU_ECOSOCC