ASSESSMENT OF THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY YOUTH AMBASSADORS’ PLATFORM IN PROMOTING A COLLECTIVE REGIONAL IDENTITY AMONG THE YOUTH

Abstract

Through this research, I do an assessment of the East African Community Youth Ambassadors Platform in promoting a collective regional identity among young people in Tanzania and Kenya from the year 2012 - 2018. I start by evaluating the quality of institutionalization of the East African Community Youth Ambassadors platform by looking at the existing and non-existing institutional and policy frameworks. I then document experiences of the EAC Youth Ambassadors from their inception to date. In this, I focus on the activities and population segments that the youth ambassadors engaged with. I go deeper to understand the experience beyond the formal meetings focusing on whether there have been inter cohort collaborations or any sort of formal work plan in the chapters. I have also looked at the similar mechanisms and studies from other regional blocs such as the European Union (EU) and ASEAN to see whether there are things to learn from these studies. In this study, I have based on constructivist, essentialist and functionalist views on identity and link them to theories of institutionalization and identity engineering so as to draw a solid stand for my arguments. The aim is to generate a proposal for making the East African Community Youth Ambassadors‟ Platform more effective in playing its role.