From Russia with vision: Mathew Marandu on youth engagement in decision-making

Recently, the Russian capital hosted 50 youth from across the world to attend the ‘New Generation’ programme that aimed to build relations with young leaders from other nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe in what they refer to as people-to-people diplomacy.

Tanzanian Matthew Marandu, a young influencer and ‘Young Professional in Education’ Award winner based in Dar es Salaam, was in attendance.

The long-running youth initiative programme is a glueing one; for seven days, these young people are taken through extensive training with sessions ranging from global geopolitics, Russia-Africa relations, and youth leadership and diplomacy, among many other things.

Mathew’s first day was unforgettable, he recalls. The welcoming dinner was spectacular, where he rubbed shoulders with other young people from Kenya, Malaysia, South Africa, and other countries.

It was an introductory moment where he made friends and a network that has been vital in his work. Often referred to as ‘MC Marandu’, this young man is a natural-born orator.

He has used his skills hosting ceremonies, speaking at global youth events, and even employing social media to speak to his fellow Gen Zs on the responsibilities their generation carries in moving Tanzania forward.

This people-to-people diplomacy training couldn’t come at a better time for Mathew. He got to attend the conference marking a hundred years of people-to-people diplomacy. Centring on the importance of people’s collaborations and engagement to further common global goals as nations.

Emphasising the importance of dialogue and understanding.

They had a chance to explore how cultural exchange, education, and youth involvement can bring nations closer and find global solutions to the world’s challenges.

In Tanzania, Mathew is an executive director at Youth Dreams Foundation, an NGO focusing on negotiations, youth engagement and diplomacy, and climate change.

“People-to-people diplomacy and the New Generation programme in Russia equipped me with more knowledge on diplomacy, collaborations, and also leadership,” he said.

This is vital for Mathew, as all his work involves dealing with young people, his agemates. The training sharpens his skills at a time when he is about to embark on programmes centred around young people.

He is at the age when, like most of his peers, he is discovering his footing in the world—professionally, academically, and in understanding his purpose, as he forges his own path and considers what he might accomplish a decade from now.

Mathew said, at this age, that’s the most important stage in their lives, and it’s the stage that can easily be broken or make a young person.

So guidance, knowledge sharing, networking with other young people from across the globe, and learning are the only things that can determine what a young person can make of themselves in this world.

A cautionary tale he shares with other youth is about these years, with the presence of social media, which records everything. How one word or deed can come to haunt a young person for years to come.

So he urges awareness and caution in everything a youth does and everyone they associate with. His time in Moscow opened him to how much young people can accomplish just by talking to each other as the first step to learning.

He figured that if the young people could put down their phones and shake hands and have a sit-down with each other.

There is so much knowledge that can be life-changing, but one has to make the initial step.

He is diligently working on that. Extending his expertise and skills to all young people who are willing to learn from him. He acknowledged that, like many African nations, people his age face limited opportunities and representation:

“Many young people are passionate and active but lack access to decision-making positions,” he mentioned.

Youth in Africa, even in Tanzania, he observed, lack adequate positions in institutions and in politics where decisions about life that affect them are made. “Most of the decisions are made by the older generations,” he added.

He also pointed out that the economic barriers that youth face in Tanzania are also similar to those of other youth from other African nations he met in Moscow, noting the high unemployment and financial instability among them as one of the challenges that were discussed and how they can be the solutions to these predicaments that seem to consume youth from various countries.

He noted that sharing these challenges with others was one step in the right direction because they were able to brainstorm and share experiences on what interventions worked in other countries and how they can replicate that in their own nations.

“If you look at financial instability, that alone prevents young people from participating in political activities or even running for office,” he said.

That locks them out of the decision-making rooms; that limits their say in how their countries are governed.

Even at the forum he attended in Russia, many young people from Africa couldn’t afford to fund themselves to attend and learn new skills that can drastically improve their lives, careers, or chances at employability.

Many of them have to rely on scholarships or funding.

Not only in the forum, but that goes even when they pursue higher learning locally in their countries or abroad. Matthew has seen laxity in leadership training and mentorship in Tanzania, and he fears young people in Tanzania are left behind.

These are the very youth who will be at the steering wheel of governing the nation but lack a proper foundation. “Most of them lack exposure to global leadership practices,” he quipped.

To be a global leader, you must be exposed to global leadership studies, seminars, and practices, he noted. These help the youth build confidence and competence.

It is a hard sell to convince young people to care for their planet and climate change if they are not exposed to what it even means and the impact it has on a global scale, Mathew insisted.

Young people have to be majorly involved if the nation plans to entrust them with the future of the nation, he pointed out. A champion of youth leadership development, Matthew urges direct government investment and involvement in moulding its young generation.

He warns that this creates a gap for youth to nourish their skills. Even the private sector has hardly invested that on a large scale, excluding the in-house job training for its young employees, but not on a national level that would benefit a huge population and not corporate interest.

He is seizing this opportunity and his ties to Russia to collaborate with them much further in leadership training, but not on a Russia-Tanzania level, so that more young Tanzanians can learn what he was able to gather at the New Generation conference in Moscow. And he is putting his words into action.

His plans are underway for an event he is personally organising to reach out to the young people in different regions across Tanzania to share what he and his peers learnt in Russia.

He wants to maximise his knowledge and share it with whoever is willing to listen.

Hoping to work with the Russian Embassy in Dar es Salaam in his ambitious plans to connect with more young Tanzanians.

Matthew is blessed to have a mentor, and he also has several mentees himself, all in the name of guiding each other to a better nation.

He urges the older generation to trust and prepare the young people who are braced to inherit Tanzania.

“If we want to build a better country, it’s obvious the youth are the inherent generation that will govern this country; you cannot plan the future and exclude them,” she ended.