By Moses Magadza

WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA – Young people in Southern Africa must be treated as partners capable of generating evidence, shaping solutions and holding decision-makers accountable, speakers said in Windhoek ahead of the handover of the SARSYC VI Windhoek Declaration.

Speaking during the official closing ceremony of the Sixth Southern African Regional Students and Youth Conference (SARSYC VI) on 7 August 2026, SAYWHAT Executive Director and SARSYC Convener Mr Jimmy Wilford and SADC Parliamentary Forum Secretary General Ms Boemo Sekgoma called for a shift from declarations and dialogue to implementation, accountability and measurable results.

Held under the theme “Align for Action: Sustaining Progress in Youth Health and Education,” SARSYC VI brought together young people from 13 countries alongside parliamentarians, academics, civil society organisations and development partners.

Mr Wilford said the conference represented the latest chapter in a 12-year journey in which young people had consistently challenged the notion that decisions affecting their lives could be made without their meaningful participation.

“What you have seen is a journey of young people refusing to accept that decisions about their lives should be made without them,” he said.

He said what distinguished the Windhoek conference was its emphasis on “action, implementation and accountability.”

Mr Wilford highlighted the Regional Research Indaba, where young researchers, students and practitioners presented evidence and proposed solutions across five thematic areas: education rights and equity; HIV and sexual health; non-communicable diseases and healthy lifestyles; digital health and safety; and mental health and substance abuse.

“Young people not only identified problems, but presented evidence-based solutions,” he said and added that the deliberations demonstrated that “effective policy begins with credible evidence.”

The conference also launched the second edition of the SADC Regional Perspective by Young People on emerging issues, a compilation of research papers presented during SARSYC V.

Other platforms at SARSYC VI examined the interconnected challenges confronting girls, young women and young men.

Through the Southern African Web for Life Girls Network Symposium, young women explored barriers that push girls out of learning spaces as well as threats to their physical, mental, emotional and digital wellbeing.

The Mugota/Ixhiba Young Men’s Forum, meanwhile, confronted suicide, substance abuse, betting addiction and sexual health challenges affecting young men. Namibia’s Deputy Minister of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture, Hon. Dino Ballotti, encouraged participants to ensure that the boy child was not left behind.

Mr Wilford said the Alliance Building Labs demonstrated the potential of regional solidarity and cross-border partnerships, drawing lessons from initiatives including the GEAR Alliance, SHE SOARS and the Kuyenda Collection.

Through the Students Talks and Engagement with Policy Makers and Partners (STEPP) platform, young people also sat alongside parliamentarians, development partners and sector leaders to explore practical approaches to wellbeing, educational equity, gender equality, digital safety and adolescent health.

Mr Wilford urged decision-makers to take the resulting recommendations seriously, arguing that the authority of young people’s voices rested on evidence and lived experience.

“Let us trust the voices that have filled these rooms over the past two days. Not because they are young, but because they are informed. Not because they represent the future, but because they understand the present,” he said.

He stressed that challenges such as unemployment, mental health, digital risks, gender inequality, substance abuse, social exclusion and barriers to health and education were not abstract policy questions for young people.

“They are lived experiences,” he said.

Mr Wilford said the young delegates had gone beyond identifying problems by bringing research, innovation, evidence and practical recommendations to the table.

“The success of our region will not be determined by how often we speak about youth participation. It will be determined by how willing we are to trust young people’s ideas, invest in their leadership, and work with them as equal partners in building the Southern Africa we all want to see,” he said.

Receiving the Windhoek Declaration, Ms Sekgoma said the choice of Namibia – the “Land of the Brave” – as host was fitting because courage was required to move the region “from declaration to action, from dialogue to delivery.”

“Bravery, after all, is not only found on a battlefield. It is found, too, in the willingness of young people to hold their leaders to account, and in the willingness of leaders to be so held,” she said.

Ms Sekgoma recalled that two years earlier in Gaborone, young people had handed the SADC PF a Declaration and asked Parliament to act.

She revealed that on the eve of the Windhoek handover, the SARSYC VI Youth Steering Committee and parliamentarians had signed an Accountability Compact containing named champions and agreed timelines.

The intention, she said, was to ensure that “no commitment made in this region should again be allowed to fade quietly between one conference and the next.”

She received the Windhoek Declaration “as an instruction, once again, from young people.”

Ms Sekgoma paid tribute to Mr Wilford for his role in developing SARSYC and particularly the Regional Research Indaba, which she described as having grown into “a haven of knowledge, shaped by young people, for young people, and increasingly consulted by the very policymakers it was once designed simply to inform.”

She stressed, however, that responsibility for implementing the Windhoek Declaration did not rest with parliaments alone.

“The progress we will account for at SARSYC VII, and the commitments we made in the Accountability Compact, rest on a partnership between this Forum, civil society allies, development partners and International NGOs, and, above all, young people themselves,” she said.

Ms Sekgoma said Parliament had responsibility for legislation and appropriations, while civil society helped keep evidence honest, development partners sustained platforms where evidence was generated, and young people continually demanded accountability.

She also warned that implementation would take place against a difficult financing environment characterised by contracting traditional development aid and changing global funding priorities.

Rather than diminishing parliamentary responsibility, she argued, the funding squeeze strengthened the case for domestic resource mobilisation and rigorous parliamentary oversight.

“Where donor resources recede, it is domestic budgets, scrutinised and approved by this very institution, that must rise to meet the gap,” she said.

Ms Sekgoma pledged the SADC PF’s support for the undertakings flowing from the conference’s thematic tracks.

“On behalf of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, I commit this Forum, formally and without qualification, to supporting the undertakings aligned to the thematic tracks that have carried this conference,” she said, stressing that implementation would be pursued in partnership with young people, civil society and development partners.

She said the Windhoek Declaration would be backed by the Accountability Compact and its designated parliamentary and youth champions, who would be “side by side, each answerable to the other” until the next conference.

Invoking Namibia’s founding President, Dr Sam Nujoma, and his emphasis on safeguarding opportunities for future generations, Ms Sekgoma pledged that the Forum would report honestly on progress when SARSYC reconvenes.

“Let it be recorded that in Windhoek, on this day, the SADC Parliamentary Forum took it as an entreaty to swift action, and indeed, will heed the call,” she declared.

Members of Parliament also attended the conference and pledged their support. They included: Hon. Collins Bajila (Zimbabwe); Hon. Imms Nathinge (Namibia); Hon. Tuhafeni Kalola (Namibia); Hon. Lilani Brinkman (Namibia); Hon Caterpillar Hikuama (Botswana); Hon Enock Phale (Malawi); Hon Sandile Nxulamo (Eswatini); and Senator Dr David Parirenyatwa (Zimbabwe).

-Moses Magadza is the Media and Communications Manager at the SADC Parliamentary Forum.