The British Embassy organized a roundtable discussion for South Sudanese youth representatives, young people in the government and Chevening Alumni to meet with the UK Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls Education and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Special Representative for Gender Equality. The meeting was held on the 3rd of February 2022 at the British Embassy offices in Juba, South Sudan.
The purpose of the roundtable was to understand the priorities and views of young South Sudanese people in supporting the prosperity of young people and addressing the barriers to access to essential services and economic and employment opportunities in South Sudan. WiSTEM South Sudan members in attendance at the roundtable meeting were: Eng. Patricia Labina, Eng. Irene Abalo and Eng. Karen Geri. They made the following contributions to the very insightful discussions in the meeting:
Eng. Patricia Labina, a Civil Engineer by profession, a WASH Engineer by practice, Chevening Alumni and the Convening Chair of WiSTEM South Sudan talked about the root cause of the issues facing the country with respect to education.
“When the young people are not educated, it is easy for conflicts to arise among them especially when it comes to women. This gives rise to early marriage, rape and other forms of GBV. ” .”_Eng. Patricia Labina Kenyi
Eng. Irene Abalo, a Chemical, Wind and Energy Engineer and a co-convener for WiSTEM South Sudan under Communications went on to talk about the discrimination of female workers. She spoke from her own experience on
how her male counterparts would disrespect her even if she had the same qualification as them simply because she was a woman. She went on to point out some of the benefits of self-employment and her experiences on the same, being an entrepreneur and providing employment for others.
On the other hand, Eng. Karen Geri, a Chemical Engineer by profession, a Researcher and a WiSTEM South Sudan member who also attended the roundtable meeting, emphasized on the quality of education in South Sudan which should be specifically tailored for the country’s needs and not just copy-pasted curriculums from other countries.
Eng. Karen Geri reiterated the importance of giving teachers incentives and better pay to motivate them and inspire their students. She went on to emphasize on the need for merit and qualifications-based employment and remuneration especially for those with the relevant education and academic papers.
“Education may feel useless for young people if after graduating there are no job opportunities. If they see youth suffering despite their academic papers, they may lose hope in education”_Eng. Karen Geri
Other contributions to the roundtable discussion from the rest of the attendees focused on the following:
- The need to enforce and implement laws and policies of the land and for the youth to be united
- How storytelling and writing could help the youth and younger generations in connecting with each other and healing from the traumatic events caused by the war and help eliminate the feelings of isolation
- South Sudanese female youth need prioritization and safeguarded spaces for them to engage in nation building as they are often pushed back and forth by their male youth counterparts who categorize them as women while the women spaces on the other hand leave little room for engaging them as they categorize them as youth.
- Importance of contributing to peaceful and inclusive societies through empowerment of communities using participatory approaches such as advocacy, research and lifelong learning most especially in vulnerable communities and at the grassroots level.
- South Sudan needs counselling and trauma healing services to mitigate the effects of the war.
The discussions were engaging and intense as the youth brought to fore more of their issues among which included rape and gender based violence, bride-price, disconnect and mistrust among the youth. The event was tweeted by the British Embassy and as WiSTEM and South Sudan we look forward to attending such high-level meetings and engaging with the British Embassy to meaningfully contribute to conversations on the youth in South Sudan.
