Preparedness Of Ghana Toward The Post- 2015 World Development Agenda And Other Matters Arising From State Of World Population Report, 2014

The state of World Population Report ,2014 has done a great job by identifying and bringing to the attention of persons and institutions in charge of legislation and policy making,the true needs and for that matter priorities of the world in contemporary times, and its implications for decades yet to come.

The report which per the United Nations definition of youth, puts the present population of young people globally at 1.8 billion,a figure which could be several times higher if other definitions including that of the African Youth Charter and for that matter, Ghanaian definition is used, also speak of refocusing attention on the social and economic potential of the unprecendented high number of young people instead of regarding them as a cohort, that will place demands on strained resources of nations.

Given the fact that 32 percent of the population of 33 countries in Sub-saharan Africa is made up of people in the age bracket of 10 and 24,policy makers in the region and the continent at large have a greater responsibility of providing the right environment and adopting the right strategies, that will make it possible for the potentials of the huge numbers of youth to be harnessed for the socio-economic transformation of the continent.

It is definitely in line with the above that the report calls on leaders of such regions of the world to among other things, make the youth the centre of the post 2015 Development Agenda by fashioning out a sustainable development framework which will ensure that young people do not only acquire skills and knowledge, but also the skills and knowledge acquired are relevant to the current economy of the continent and makes them innovators,thinkers and problem-solvers.

In Ghana, Government is doing well in this direction by identifying technical and vocational education and entrepreneurship as the way forward ,as far as youth employment and ultimately ,transformation of the economy are concerned.

This notwithstanding,vocational and technical education still remains unattractive to the teeming Ghanaian youth.The onus therefore lies on policy makers to make the sector attractive to the youth to ensure a quicker departure from the acquisition of knowledge that is not relevant to the modern economy to one that responds to its needs.

The FYPD in this regard wish to call on Government to give the issue of turning the nation's polytechnics into Technical Universities the attention it deserves and more importantly at least 80% of vacancies in such institutions should be reserved for people who have acquired vocational and technical skills at the various skill training centres and desire to pursue higher education in such fields.That we believe is an important way of making the sector attractive to the youth.

Efforts at youth empowerment through training programmes in solar Technology,Automative repairs,leather works,refrigeration and airconditioning ,computer aided jewelry ,acquaculture and poultry production,among others are all laudable initiatives that will make the youth independent of the central Government for employment .

It is however important that the capacity of the institutions, including the Business Advisory Centres of the various MMDAs which have started training programmes for young people in agro-business etc is enhanced, so that they can extend it to the greater number of Ghanaian youth and indeed make them ready for their role as the centre of the post 2015 development agenda

It is also significant to say that there have been several attempts to address youth employment problems by introducing a number of youth development programmes including the NYEP/GYEEDA,YESDEC,LESDEP and recently the YES fund.It is common knowledge that much of what became of some of these laudable initiatives is as a result of the absence of the relevant legislations to back them and to an extent the unwillingness of the various Governments to channel them through the only institution with the mandate to handle youth matters,namely the National Youth Authority for better co-ordination.

It is therefore a welcomed news that the nation's legislators are working hard to give some of these programmes the necessary legal backing so that they can serve the needs of the youth effectively.We however wish to add our voice to calls for due diligence to be done to all corruptible activities that led to the collapse of some of them,especially GYEEDA,in order to forestall similar incidents in the future

A post 2015 development agenda with young people at the centre also demands strong and credible institutions that will instill in the youth, discipline,a sense of patriotism and more importantly,the spirit of selflessness and volunteerism.

It is for this reason that the recent corruptible case found with the National Service Scheme should be a cause of worry for all well meaning Ghanaians.As the foremost institution for the promotion of volunteerism and patriotism among the nation's young people, scandals of the magnitude that was reported in the media has the potential of undermining its authority to carry out such responsibilities.It is therefore important that the new administration work assiduously to build the scheme into a respectable institution to which the youth will submit themselves for direction and guidance so as to become responsible citizens and therefore capable of contributing to national development.

Additionally, the issue of military training for service personnel should be given the attention it deserves since it is a major way of providing the present generation of youth who are beginning to feel too relaxed in the comfort of the freedom that constitutional rule brings,a sense of duty and urgency in their endeavours.

Finally,the era demands adequate and reliable economic infrastructure that will make it possible for the skills and knowledge acquired by young people through the various Government initiatives to be translated into production of goods and services on commercial basis.

It is therefore important, that as we bring year 2014 to an end, greater focus should be on how to prepare the nation for the post 2015 world development agenda by giving greater attention to the issues raised in the above and particularly,the energy needs of the country in order not to lag behind other nations in the pursuit of the new development agenda.

Joseph Tetteh
Advocate of Youth Right and Peace and Founder,FYPD

e-mail:[email protected] call:0244571090