Kenya Youth Manifesto Asks
The youth of Kenya are a most resourceful, innovative, and active segment of our society. It generates ideas and their applications to spur and catalyse social and economic transformation.
The youth of Kenya are a most resourceful, innovative, and active segment of our society. It generates ideas and their applications to spur and catalyse social and economic transformation.
Specifically, the Youth Tax Justice Network (YTJN) will be present at the Fourth INC Session, advocating for youth-inclusive tax governance, intergenerational accountability, and transparent fiscal systems that respond to the social and economic realities facing young people globally. YTJN aims to contribute youth-centered perspectives to ongoing debates on taxing rights, transparency, and international cooperation against tax abuse.
For young people across Africa and the world, these negotiations represent more than just policy debates. They offer an unprecedented opportunity to shape an economic future focused on intergenerational equity, where every resource counts, and where fiscal justice becomes a tool for equality, innovation, and opportunity.
By addressing the challenges of youth unemployment through targeted investments in skills development, health, and education and by leveraging digital technologies, Uganda can harness the potential of its young population to drive sustainable development and economic growth. Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies will collaborate extensively with Development Partners, Civil Society Organizations and young people’s movements to realize a demographic dividend and the aspirations of this National Youth Manifesto.
This November, young people from across the world come together to explore an urgent connection that few are talking about: how the UN Climate Conference (COP 30) in Belém and the UN negotiations for a Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation in Nairobi are part of the same story.
In an era marked by deepening inequalities and shifting global financial systems, the question of who decides how resources are raised, shared, and governed has never been more urgent. Taxation, which has been long perceived as a technical issue reserved for experts and state negotiators, is now at the heart of global justice debates. As nations move toward a new United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, the need to ensure inclusivity, fairness, intergenerational equity and legitimacy within this process is critical.
At this critical juncture, the Youth Tax Justice Network (YTJN) stands at the forefront of redefining participation and representation in fiscal processes and fiscourse by championing the voices, priorities, and aspirations of young people across the Global South and beyond. We are backed by the belief and recognition that youth are not merely future taxpayers, but they are present stakeholders, who continue to find ways of organizing, researching, and advocating for a tax system that delivers equity, transparency, and sustainability.
The pathway to a just and youth-friendly tax regime is clear: policies must keep pace with the realities of young entrepreneurs, formal and informal, urban and rural alike. Only through ongoing reform, robust support systems, and genuine participatory tax justice can Uganda unlock the full power of its youth as architects of a more prosperous future.
n 2015, the Mbeki Panel on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) unveiled a truth that shook the continent: Africa was losing over $50 billion every year through illicit financial flows, all these are resources that could have transformed education, health, and infrastructure. Reports by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), UNCTAD and TJNA in recent years have underscored that these amounts are even higher in 2025. The report did more than expose a crisis; it offered a roadmap for reclaiming Africa’s wealth and strengthening domestic resource mobilization.
A decade later, that call for action still resonates, but it now meets a generation ready to act. The Youth for Tax Justice Network (YTJN) represents this renewed energy. It demonstrates the work young people are doing to advance the Mbeki Report’s vision through advocacy, policy dialogue, and youth-led campaigns that push for greater transparency, fair taxation, and accountability across Africa and beyond.
Download Full Report HERE
Ce document propose dix principes clés pour aider l’Afrique à affronter le poids de la dette souveraine avec sagesse et souveraineté. Transparence, redevabilité, exigence d’investissements productifs, implication de la jeunesse et construction d’une indépendance financière – autant de piliers pour transformer la dette en levier de développement, et non en outil de dépendance.