At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, students and young people across Africa have joined their peers around the world to demanding from their leaders to deliver and defend the basic human rights, especially, the rights of vulnerable citizens. From global summits around the G20 to local campaigns to ensure that every girl goes back to school, students and young people are stepping up to this unprecedented crisis. This is to ensure that those who need the most support receive it. Sadly, we are reminded of the disservice done to young people, because If every citizen had access to their fair share of resources, policies and social protection from the state, the medium-to-long term consequences of the pandemic would have been less devastating. Communities and countries could have prevented the devastation on our health systems, and the disruption caused our educational institutions. The economic implications and social restrictions would have been mitigated if young people had received their fair share of resources prior to this pandemic.
