Democracy stakeholders and youth advocates across West Africa have decried legal, financial and technological barriers limiting young people’s participation in politics and democratic processes.

The stakeholders spoke on Wednesday at the opening of the three-day West Africa Youth Democracy Conference in Dakar, Senegal, organised by Legis360 to examine the state of youth political inclusion and develop practical mechanisms for greater participation.

The conference, themed, “From Participation to Power: Re-evaluating the Political Inclusion of Young People in West Africa and Advancing a Regional Agenda for Democratic Governance,” is assessing progress on youth political inclusion, persistent barriers and possible political and institutional reforms across ECOWAS member states.

Speaking at the conference, Founder and Executive Director of Legis360, Samuel Folorunsho, said West Africa had no shortage of young people with ideas and the capacity to contribute to governance, but lacked the institutional mechanisms required to translate their ideas into policies and laws.

“West Africa is not short of young people with ideas. What we have been short of is the machinery to turn those ideas into rules,” Folorunsho said.

He challenged political parties, legislators and other institutional stakeholders to move beyond recommendations and repeated commitments on youth inclusion.

He urged them to take concrete steps to create meaningful opportunities for young people to participate in political processes.

According to him, the conference was designed to address the persistent gap between commitments to youth political participation and their implementation.

Folorunsho said the discussions would move from identifying the challenges to developing practical solutions, with political parties expected to respond to questions on youth inclusion and legislators engaged on the legal and institutional framework required to facilitate greater participation.

He added that five policy labs would examine the legal, financial and technological barriers confronting young people seeking to participate in politics.

Meanwhile, the ECOWAS Commission has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening the inclusion of young people in the democratic systems of West African countries.

Speaking on behalf of ECOWAS, the Commission’s Resident Representative in Senegal, Ambassador Zelma Yollande Nobre Fassinou, commended Legis360 for placing youth participation at the centre of the regional democracy debate.

She said the initiative aligned with ECOWAS’ vision of making youth inclusion an essential component of democratic consolidation in the region.

“The political inclusion of young people must not be seen as a favour. It is an investment in the future and in the resilience of our democracies. This responsibility also falls on the institutions,” Fassinou said.

Speaking, Director of Political Affairs, ECOWAS Commission, Dr Babatunde Afolabi, reaffirmed the Commission’s commitment to strengthening youth inclusion through initiatives such as the ECOWAS Youth Electoral Observation Mission.

Afolabi said young people, when trained, equipped and given responsibilities, could make significant contributions to inclusive governance and credible elections across West Africa.

Representative of the ECOWAS National Office in Senegal, Moustapha Mamadou Seck, commended the Commission and its Directorate of Political Affairs for efforts to involve young people in electoral processes.

Seck particularly cited the participation of young people in election observation missions in Côte d’Ivoire and Benin as an example of efforts to give youths practical roles in democratic processes.

“We hear the sound of the wall crumbling, but never that of the wheat growing,” Seck said.

He stressed the importance of sustaining efforts to create meaningful opportunities for young people to contribute to electoral and democratic processes.

The Director of Communications at the German Embassy in Senegal, Jonas Tylewski, urged participants to use the conference to share experiences, deepen their knowledge and develop concrete proposals for more inclusive democratic governance.

Folorunsho said the conference would culminate in the adoption of the Dakar Declaration and a Regional Action Framework, aimed at sustaining efforts to advance youth political inclusion across West Africa.

He added that the conference would also introduce the West Africa Youth Observers Network, which would provide a platform for sustaining the commitments and actions agreed at the meeting beyond the three-day conference.