Global Youth Action Network Ghana Office - Groupes virtuels - Communauté

Message

De:	Kenneth Amoateng [ Profil ]
Sujet:	[gyanghana] International Youth Day
Envoyé:	Aug 12th, 2009 - 04:40:56

	PRESS STATEMENT 12Th August 2009 International Youth Day Government Must Show Greater Commitment for Youth Development The youth of Ghana are joining other counterparts across the world to celebrate this year’s World Youth Day with a clarion call on government, development partners, religious bodies and traditional authorities to show greater commitment to the development of youth. The youth of today are faced with myriads of problems which require prudent policy measures and collaboration from all stakeholders in addressing them. It is therefore critical that a national youth policy be implemented. In its 2009 budget statement, the government noted that "... a draft National Youth Policy Implementation Plan was finalized and expected to be submitted to Cabinet in 2009 for consideration. The draft policy reflects the growing needs of the youth as well as their contributions to national development. Consequently, all youth programmes and activities are to be guided by the new Youth Policy." Paragraph 790 of the same budget statement revealed that "... the Ministry will initiate action to review the national youth policy to make it dynamic, pro-youth and multi-partisan in line with the youth manifesto prepared during the 2004 general election." One would wonder why it is taking the government such a long time to act on the Youth Policy as outlined in its 2009 budget statement. It is just not enough to put it into the budget and not implement. Currently, there is no direction to which the various stakeholders are embarking on youth based development because there is no policy guideline. The youth of this country is faced with a continued challenge of unemployment. Access to affordable and quality education and health are some of the critical challenges faced by the Ghanaian youth. This is the reason why young people have taken up to armed robbery, ‘sakawa’, drug and human trafficking in other to make ends meet. It is rather unfortunate that the country does not even have a labour economist at the Ministry of Employment who would assist in creating a viable labour market to aid employment. We call on government to collaborate with other stakeholders in creating an enabling environment for the development of youth. As we celebrate International Youth Day, we must be reminded that our destiny lies in our own hands and we must rise up to the call in accomplishing what our predecessors could not achieve. We also use this opportunity to congratulate all youth who are excelling in their various endeavors and encourage them to continue to work hard for the betterment of a mother Ghana. Kenneth Nana Amoateng- 0244023651 For enquiries; 0244766409 , 0249175629

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