On the 5th of December, 13 students in Politics and International Relations joined the Swedish Ambassador to South Africa Håkan Juholt at his residence for a working lunch ahead of the launch of the Youth Advisors Programme. Eight of the thirteen incoming Youth Advisors are we the Gauteng based IYTT Youth Fellows: me (Ruth Kasanga), Angela Khumalo, Kaitlyn Albertyn, Noor Ahmad, Ontiretse Moatshe, Otsile Nkadimeng, Palesa Meva, and Zanoxolo Mciteka.

The launch of the Youth Advisory Programme was a culmination of our initiative to find platforms to promote and implement the proposals from the 6th IYTT Youth Conference, the will of the Swedish Embassy, and them similarly planning to establish a Youth Advisors’ programme, as well as the work of the five other youth in their respective roles in the field of politics and international relations.

The working lunch served to familiarize ourselves with the embassy staff and the other five Youth Advisors. We also brainstormed current issues in politics and international relations from a national, regional and international perspective—these ranged from democratic regression, regional cooperation, BRICS, South Africa’s 2025 G20 Presidency, and a decline in the social contract. As such, two themes were drawn out from the conversation in which our work with the embassy will focus on—foreign policy and democracy.

Going forward, the Youth Advisors will have another meeting to start planning our first event for January 2025 where we will be presenting outcomes from the 6th IYTT Youth Conference and Nobel Symposium to local politicians and possible ways we can collaborate with the local politicians to implement projects.

Beyond that, we will also be planning future project ideas aligning with the identified themes and the current work of the embassy. As part of our responsibilities, we will also plan how to go about monitoring and evaluating current democracy promotion efforts of the Swedish Embassy to South Africa.

Ruth Kasanga, Youth Fellow, IYTT