youth and women participation elections Improvement of the participation of youth and women in credible, inclusive and transparent elections in Niger through the media.
Niger is a landlocked country, located in the heart of the Sahel region, with an estimated population of 20.65 million. Morethan half of the population are children. More than eight out of ten people (84%) live in rural areas and nearly one out of two people (45.4%)live in poverty. Niger has one of the youngest populations and one of the highest population growth rates in theworld . Young people and women make up a significant portion of the population (more than half). These two layers essential to the country's development are often involved in informal, politically relevant processes such as activism or civic engagement,they are not formally represented in national political institutions such as parliaments, and many do not participate in elections. This can have an impact on thequality of democratic governance. The inclusion of youth and women in formal political lifeisimperative, and in sub-Saharan countries like Niger, innovative ideas and new leadership can help overcome authoritarian practices related to poor governance.As a reminder, in 2014, Niger's parliamentarians passed a law granting a 15% quota to women for elective positions and 25% for nominative positions, following a tough fight unlike the youth where no similar quota has yet been voted. Once again, this shows that young people are not involved in major decisions, which could also be explained by their lack of commitment or even ignorance of their rights and duties in terms of human rights. Yet, the international community has recognized the importance of the participation of young people and women in political systems, including through several international conventions and UN resolutions.  These include, for example,the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which states that everyone "has the right to take part in the conduct of the public affairs of his country, either directly or through freely chosen representatives. "(Article 21).In 2010, the 122nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union adopted by consensus an ambitious resolution on youth. One of the points calls on parliaments to adopt concrete measures (possibly the adoption of quotas)to strengthen the representation of young people in parliament and other representative bodies, while respecting human dignity, freedom, democracy and equality.In spite of these regulatory acts promoting the emergence and participation of young people and women in decision making and even their participation in all electoral processes, it appears that in Niger these two main targets are poorly involved, while their civil rights, including the conditions that create their rights and duties, are concealed from them.To help solve this problem, the Network of Journalists for Education and Development (RENJED) intends to implement an advocacy tactic focused on the media. Among others, it is a matter of setting up an E-campaign of advocacy focused on social networks (twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, blogs, etc.) which will be led by young people coupled with actions of mobilization of different actors to bring young people and women to implement actions of dialogue to influence decision-makers and leaders of potential political parties in future elections to engage in the implementation of human rights especially in favor of youngpeople and women for their effective involvement in decision making. The E-campaign advocacy approach is relevant and innovative inthesense that Nigerien youth are more on social networks and it is a new modern channel of influencing on which decision-makers andcitizens are also engaged. The better this campaign will allow these young girls and boys to engage in the electoral process in order to contribute to the economic and social development of the country.Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)