Hon. Kasune,MP, Provincial Minister for Central Province, has challenged fellow Members of Parliament to focus on youth empowerment at the just-ended Africa-Asia Parliamentary Meeting on Population and Development in Kigali, Rwanda.The meeting, which took place from 24th to 26th October, 2023, brought together over thirty Members of Parliament from Africa and Asia to review progress made on the implementation of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD, Cairo, 1993) commitments, whose target is to improve the world's population conditions in the areas of health, education, economic development, youth empowerment, improving the environment, and promoting gender equity.The Kigali meeting was also aimed at reviewing regional-specific goals for Africa, whose review commitments were made in the Addis Ababa Declaration on Population and Development (AAD PD) in 2013.

The Kigali meeting was officially opened by the Right Hon. Ms. Donatille Mukabarisa, Speaker of the Parliament of Rwanda, on Tuesday, 24th October, 2023.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Zambia office, youth empowerment is one of the four pillars in the African Union's quest to harness or accelerate the demographic dividend, which is the gain or profit as a result of investing in the youth, so that Africa's youthful population can be economically empowered in the future and be less dependent on their current breadwinners.

On Thursday, 26th October 2023, participants were taken on a tour of the Africa Youth and Adolescents Network Population and Development Hub in Kigali.Afriyan was established in Lusaka, Zambia, in 2015 and has since spread to other countries in Africa.

Thereafter, participants were taken to the Parliament of Rwanda for an interaction with the Deputy Speaker in charge of Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Ms. Edda Mukabagiwiza.