YOUTH FORUM HELD IN TWIN-CITY (PAGE 30)

MORE than 100 youth in the Western Region have attended a forum on how to team up and create innovations that will help speed national development.
At the end of the day’s forum in the twin city, the youth pledged to channel their exuberance into meaningful contribution to the development of the country, instead of engaging in acts that create bad impressions about them.
They were of the view that due to misuse of their life, they were mostly classified as violent.
The forum, according to the Regional Youth Coordinator, Papa Assan, was important to whip up the can-do-spirit of the youth to align themselves to the Better Ghana agenda.
Mr Assan said the expectation of the regional secretariat was that the participants would be more informed about national and regional priorities to enable them to appreciate and respond to various opportunities available to them in the region.
He observed that the challenges facing the youth today required multi-sectoral approach to solve them, saying “the youth are partners in development and it is appropriate that their voices are heard and integrated in development agenda.”
The regional co-ordinator said when people, who were affected by today’s policies and programmes, took part in the future formulation of such policies the possibility of their success would be high.
He said “that is why it is important to include them in all levels of decision-making and national governance, especially in discussions of issues that affect them.”
The Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, said the phenomenon of globalisation had created tremendous potential for economic and social development.
“However, it has also contributed to heightened inequalities and problems associated with urbanisation. Some of the challenges that are being faced by the youth include poor or non-existence of access to good education opportunities, high rate of unemployment, significant vulnerability to HIV/AIDS infection and drug abuse,” he said.
As a result, the minister said the youth needed support and guidance in combating many of the challenges facing them to ensure that their intellect was channeled into their personal and socio-economic development, of their communities and of the country as a whole.
He said the government considered issues regarding development of the youth very important and would do everything possible to ensure that the enabling environment was created for them to succeed
The minister said concerns of young people needed an integral dimension of design, implementation, evaluation of policies and programmes to empower them.
He said these would be factored in the agenda of various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to address some of the challenges.
The minister said, “We are convinced that investing in young people effectively means contributing resource for training them to contribute effectively towards national development.”