Country Support Mission: Zambia

The last destination on the country support missions was Zambia. This visit was, as well as the others, a learning experience also for us as visitors. The first thing that struck us, was how well TPT Zambia have been working on their branding. They have produced leaflets and banners that speaks a clear message on who they are and what they want.

We had some bad luck with some of the appointments that were cancelled by the stakeholders in the last minute. On the other hand we had an excellent meeting with Sida. The meeting was done in a form of a seminar and we had fruitful discussions with several Sida officers and country director for more than 2 hours. It was clear that Sida have more work to do on involving youth and applying a youth perspective and more so - it was concluded that TPT can be a resource in strengthening their youth component. We hope and think that this can be the first step for TPT Zambia to not only get support, but also to contribute to a more clear cut youth perspective in Sida's work in Zambia.

Keep up the great spirit team Zambia!

Lena, Chris

Country Support Mission: Liberia

The country support mission to Liberia was the first regional TPT activity. Being one of the latest established country teams, team Liberia have made great strides in a short time. The choice of simplifying the PRS appeared as a strategic decision made by the team as the PRS is widely unknown to young people in Liberia. Next steps are being planned as the Vision 2030 is developed.

The interest shown by the stakeholders met, especially the ministries there seems to be many opportunities to build on, for example, a representative at the Ministry of State committed herself to communicate with the Ministry of Planning to try and involve TPT in the process of developing the new Vision 2030. The Ag. Minister of Youth showed genuine commitment to youth participation though the challenge has been to convince other ministries on the importance of youth participation.

It's commendable work! All the best with continued efforts!!

Chris, Lena

Country Support Mission: Ghana

The seventh country support mission took us to Ghana. We had discussions with several stakeholders in Ghana, Meeting with UNFPA, Swedish Embassy, WHO, UNICEF and Action Aid. Just like in the other countries, stakeholders showed explicit interest in work with and support the team. Not least, UNFPA, was forthcoming in expressing some long term opportunities for support.

Team Ghana developed a toolkit for young people to monitor the poverty reduction strategies. The launch of the toolkit developed by team Ghana coincided with the launch of the National Youth Policy. The Youth Policy describes young people not only as a target group but as change agents, however, the team is still pushing for the implementation plan and budget allocations for the policy.

We commend team Ghana for their success in reaching out geographically! They have representation from most regions of Ghana.

Great Work team Ghana!!

Lena, Chris

Country Support Visit TPT Malawi

Malawi is growing in terms of youth organisations, that are increasing in numbers. However, like in most parts of the world these youth organisations finds challenges in establishing and to get recognition. Funds and information are less available and decison making arenas are not as open for youth organisations as for other civil society organisations.

Coming together in network like TPT can have strenght in overcoming some of these challenges (Together we are stronger!). Team Malawi managed to take several steps forward during the country support meetings held with actors such as the Ministry of youth, Minsitry of planning and Malawi human rights commission. For an example, the the doors seems to have openeded as for the involvement of the team in the upcoming review of the Malawi Plan for Growth and Development (MGD (equivalent to PRSP)). It is at the same time encouraging that the MGD includes Youth Development as one out of nine prioritised areas. Given this, in combination with a great team spirit, team Malawi are right to be optimistic of their work.

Keep up the good work and good luck to Team Malawi!

TANZANIA COUNTRY SUPPORT MISSION

Greetings from Lilongwe, Malawi.

We had a great mission in Tanzania learnt a great deal on Tanzania’s National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty ‘Mukukuta’. Tanzania is currently reviewing the first Mukukuta and TPT Tanzania has been involved in trying to get youth from all backgrounds to participate in review and development of Mukukuta II. The TPT Tanzania team is inspiring the young people in different regions of Tanzania by taking up the leadership role and showing that young people need to be involved in development processes.

We have managed to have discussions with UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, ILO, and Sida - stakeholders identified by TPT Tanzania. The meetings strengthened relations and opened up new links for TPT Tanzania to push forward their agenda and collaborate with the various stakeholders on several issues. We also had a great workshop with TPT Tanzania where we dived more into TPT and into the country team and had a lot of ideas shared.

Great Work TPT TANZANIA.

Chris, Steve, Lena

UGANDA COUNTRY SUPPORT MISSION

Its the last day for the TPT country support mission here in Uganda and a lot of gains made so far.

We have managed to have discussions with various identified stakeholders including , UNFPA Uganda, German Foundation for World Population (DWS), SIDA Uganda, Department of Youth and Children Affairs, National Youth Council -Uganda and Straight Talk Foundation. More meetings still planned for today. The meetings have opened a new avenue for team Uganda to push forward their agenda within the country and seek meaningful collaboration and support from the above and more stakeholders in their work.

Further on Saturday June 12th 2010 we had a workshop with the TPT Uganda country team members where we discussed various topics all geared towards capacity building of the team. These include and not limited to internal & external communication for the team, team working, project planning and discussion on the action plan and progress. These offered a lot of insight to new members present and more so through the activities conducted during the training. It also offered room for new ideas and more so proposals on advancing team Uganda. More of the discussions will be updated by the team.

Today as we focus on the conclusions of the mission and more so do the final meetings we all feel a lot of optimism with the gains made so far by team Uganda and more so the future of this team and more so share lessons learnt so far.

Good work TEAM UGANDA!!

Steve, Lena, Chris