CONCEPT SUMMARY ELEVEN (11):
The Right to Information Youth and Children Forum (RIYCF) Project

PROJECT SUMMARY AND EXPECTED OUTCOMES

Overall Goal

Increasing Youth/Children Participation in national development through the Right to Information Youth and Children Forum (RIYCF)

Specific Objectives and Expected Results

• To mobilise the youth./children to participate in the advocacy efforts for the enactment of the Access to Information Bill
• To enhance the role of youth/children in strengthening democracy and social development through participatory rights
• To provide the youth/children with a platform to air their views on issues that affect them and society at large.
• To enable CRIDOC staff/volunteers to document political, social and development issues from the youth/children’s perspective.

Project Description

The proposed project will focus on the crucial role the youth can play in strengthening democracy and social development through the exercise of their Right to Information on issues of social importance.

This is on the realisation that in the past, the right to information has often been an academic exercise couched in esoteric terms detached from the realities of grassroots organizations and movements. However, experience elsewhere has proven that the right to information, if guaranteed and implemented in the right spirit, can empower different sectors of communities – including the children and youth – to take charge of their lives by participating in decision-making processes at all levels.

This empowerment is particularly significant in developing countries, such as Malawi, which is a nation afflicted with low literacy rates, high birth and infant mortality rates, social and economic tensions and political conflicts, gender discrimination and a relatively poor record of civil rights. The role the Right to Information can play in addressing these social ills cannot be overemphasised in this regard.

The main goal of the Right to Information Youth and Children Forum (RIYCF), therefore, is to enhance participation of the youth and children in addressing most of the issues highlighted above, and to create a general understanding among them on their role in addressing these concerns.

The establishment of RIYCF, which will be hosted at the CRIDOC Secretariat, will be structured in such a way that various sub-committees – which will be coordinated by specific youth NGOs specialised in specific fields – will be set up to deal with the chosen thematic areas.

Some of the proposed thematic areas will include the following:

- Access to Information law (advocacy)
- Democracy
- Gender
- Agriculture
- Environment
- Budget analysis
- Human rights
- Youth employment
- Basic and tertiary Education
- Etcetera.

NOTE:
CRIDOC will respond within 48 hours upon receiving your request/query only after fully including the following information in your request/querry:

(a) Your Name

(b) Your Organisation

(c) Your Contact Details (address, phone, e-mail, etc)

(d) Explain why you require more information

(e) What will you use information for?

(f) Explain why you require full proposal?

(g) What will you use the proposal for?

(h) Any more comments?

NB: CRIDOC reserves the right to provide more information/full proposal based largely on the answers to the questions stated above. Whether such information/proposal has been granted or not, either way we pledge to respond to your request/querry within 48 after accessing the e-mail.