Kampala, UGANDA: On Thursday, 25th August 2022, Open Space hosted youth and their leaders, as well as policymakers, at the Lubaga Division Headquarters for a youth parliament ‘Seesaamu’ Session. This was under the project dubbed Training and Mentoring of Youth Leaders in Local Government processes. The community leaders at the parliament engaged the participants on pre-selected discussion topics in line with local government budget planning cycle/processes.

This activity fell well within our organization model centred around nurturing young leaders, building their capacity through debates and dialogues and subsequently empowering them to influence both national and global development agendas.

The leaders were mobilized and gathered together to cultivate dialogue on emerging community issues in line with the local government processes and devise possible solutions to address the identified issues.

This space engaged ordinary people in ordinary conversations, in languages they understood, on issues pertinent to them in the presence of their leaders. The session was a learning opportunity for the youth leaders, providing circumstantial evidence of their preparedness to meaningfully interact with the government processes.

Context
The Training and Mentoring of Youth Leaders in Local Government Processes project by Open Space serves to build the youth leaders’ leadership capacity to serve as change agents within their communities. Through the project, the centre has conducted professional training for youth leaders to facilitate an in-depth understanding of the local government budget planning cycle and processes. The project is running in the districts of Kampala and Gulu, respectively.