Here's How Open Parly Promotes African Youth at Parliament

Young people are less likely to be politically engaged than older citizens. The largest gaps are observed in the most fundamental form of voice and participation: voting. Youth are 20 points less likely to vote than those 56 years and above. But they also lag behind in most other types of community participation and contact with leaders, according to Afrobarometer. In Africa, issues include a dearth of participation space, a lack of cooperation among youth organisations, and poor discipline and leadership in youth organisations.

In Zimbabwe, Open Parly, a digital media platform by Magamba Network, launched in 2015 to address some of these challenges. The initiative, according to Magamba Network, promotes a new generation of young citizen journalists giving young people real-time access to Parliament and local authority news in a simplified manner, while increasing access to alternative media platforms by the youth for engagement in national processes.

Open Parly, which has also expanded on the African continent through the launch of Open Parly Somalia, Zambia, Nigeria and Uganda, won a World Summit Youth Award in 2013 in Sri Lanka for its pioneering work in citizen journalism.