Youth Involvement in Policy Making: A Case of South Africa

This study sets out to assess the extent at which youth in South Africa participate in policy making. The paper adopted a qualitative approach whereby semi- structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with youth in the University of Fort Hare, Walter Sisulu University and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Secondary analysis was used to establish the role of youth in policy making as defined in the Constitution of South Africa and other legal frameworks. The data from interviews was transcribed to verbatim and presented in a thematic form. The study establishes that youth do not actively participate in policy making due to poor youth policies, education and training, poor intervention strategies by civil society organisations and lack of Information Communication Technology. The study recommends the government to involve the youth at all phases of decision making, to involve civil society organisations and increase funding towards youth programmes.