Following the Citizen Insaka that was held on Saturday 11 November 2017, the Alliance for Community Action (ACA) hosted a one-day Youth Insaka on Public Resource Accountability on 24th November 2017 at their offices in PHI area.
The Youth Insaka brought together young people aged between 18-25 years to reflect on the Public Resource management situation in the country as well as youths’ responsibilities in demanding accountability. The young people were drawn from the civil society community including Africa Direction, Agents of Change Zambia, Barefeet Childrens’ Council and Step Up Zambia among others. University and college students from Lusaka based institutions also attended the event.
Among the key issues discussed during the Insaka was the 2016 Report of the Auditor General. Also, central in the discussions was the role that young people through social media can play to demand accountability.
There was consensus that using social media, young people can stimulate the conversations around public resource management and potentially influence policy. The group also agreed that there was a need for young people to engage in more meaningful discussions on social media and refrain from gossip and cyber bullying.
When shown evidence of waste and abuse of public money as published in the Report of the Auditor General, many of the youths expressed shock and disbelief. For many the surprise soon turned to anger. The young people expressed concern over the way public money is being misapplied and misappropriated at the expense of improving service delivery.
The Youth Insaka agreed that it was time young people became more interested in the outputs of oversight bodies including the Auditor General and Public Accounts Committee of parliament.
In closing, it was agreed that the young people will together with ACA to stimulate conversations and campaigns on Public Resource Management using various social media platforms using the hashtag #YouthsAndAccountability.
