“Democracy is not what we have but what we do,” said Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba as she urged young people to actively participate in building and nurturing democracy on Thursday, 6 December 2012.
Mrs Masire-Mwamba asked delegates from the 5th Commonwealth Youth Parliament to pass on their learning back to their communities, as she answered their questions at the Commonwealth Secretariat’s headquarters at Marlborough House in London.
The Commonwealth Youth Parliament from 4 to 8 December is jointly hosted by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and its UK branch.
Mrs Masire-Mwamba and the Secretariat’s Youth Affairs Director Katherine Ellis spoke on the Commonwealth’s initiatives to engage and empower young people to make a difference for their communities. The Deputy Secretary-General encouraged young people across the Commonwealth to take personal responsibility and use social media to promote issues that help and support their communities.
“Part of what we’re trying to do is to encourage you to take the issues forward, to make sure that we close the gap between the statements and policies and implementation on the ground,” she said.
