The History of Eswatini National Youth Council - ENYC

The Youth Council precipitates youth led and youth implementing actors with the aim to empower Emaswati youth through a consultative, proactive and representative approach within the national and international institutions acting on youth issues. The council also seeks to ensure the comprehensive development of youth in Eswatini through research and planning.

The ENYC is mandated by the Government of Eswatini through a memorandum of agreement to implement the National Youth Policy. This is a nationally researched and documented evidence of the plight of youth in Eswatini and the interventions there-of that need to be implemented in order to transform the lives of Swati youth. In 2019, the Council coordinated the reviewing of the policy which was first put in place in 2009. The revised National Youth Policy was launched in 2020. The Policy seeks to address challenges faced by all who fall into the youth demographic in Eswatini and ensure that Eswatini is in line with the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals and is in a better position to harness the demographic dividend.

The council targets out of school youth between the ages 15 – 35 years. The core mandate of the council is to provide quality coordination and advisory services to all youth actors, organizations, associations and partners working in the youth space in the kingdom of Eswatini.

The council has its own office space which moved from Mbabane to Manzini in 2018.  It is a highly competitive organization which has properly qualified staff and a well-structured line of command through a board of Directors focusing on governance, an Executive management team led by a chief executive officer responsible for operations, accountability and technical expertise and a programs team which consists of program officers who are the program drivers concentrating on operations and delivery.