First Lady calls for investment in African Youth
Accra, Feb. 11, GNA - Ghana's First Lady Dr Mrs Lordina Mahama, has called for investment in the youth in Africa to enable them to realise their useful potentials in nation building.
She said the youth represented the wealth of every nation and must be entitled to all the needed services to ensure their usefulness in society.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the African First Ladies conference on Reproductive Health and Rights, the First Lady expressed the critical need for African countries to focus and work to address all barriers impeding the realisation of the full potential of the youth on the continent.
The conference is on the theme, 'Realising Demographic Dividend in Africa: the Critical Importance of Adolescents and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights'.
'We need a continent full of well-educated and healthy young people; that means that we should start to invest in their education and health care to enable them to grow and contribute towards the development of our dear continent and achieve the 17 sustainable goals,' Mrs Mahama said.
The Organisation of African First Ladies (OAFLA) in collaboration with Curious Minds, Ghana, an organisation of young advocates and youth in broadcasting are organising the three-day conference, being attended by First Ladies from Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali and Cote D'Ivoire.
Others are from Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Burkina Faso and Chad with others First Ladies expected from Sudan, Madagascar and Mozambique.
Also in attendance are the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Africa, the President of the International Women's Health Coalition and over 15 Ministers from the Health, Justice, Gender and Youth Ministries across Africa.
Over 500 participants, representing various stakeholder and constituency groups across the African continent are attending the conference and these include policy makers, development partners, civil society organisations, academia, activists, media, adolescents and youth.
Mrs Mahama noted that the future of every country depended on the activeness of its youth, and expressed OAFLA's continuous support and commitment to all youth programmes to ensure the successful achievement of their targets in nation building.
She said the year 2016 would see the achievement of major milestones in the collective endeavour to secure the future of Africa, improve maternal and child health on the continent and work towards ending the AIDS epidemic.
Mrs Mahama explained that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has provided a new opportunity, and there was the need to identify and utilise entry points across several sectors and at various levels as efficient and cost-effective ways to achieve the ambitious goals of ending AIDS among children and improving adolescent sexual reproductive health and rights.
She said OAFLA was committed to ensuring the removal of all the barriers impeding the full potential of the youth, adding, 'Barriers such as maternal mortality, early and forced marriages, teenage pregnancy, HIV and AIDS would be top on the agenda for discussion during our meeting'.
Dr Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko, AU Commissioner for Social Affairs, reiterated the need for Africa to address the problems of sexual and health rights facing the youth, adding, 'By so doing, we will be achieving the SDGs as well as realising the demographic dividend'.
Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, UN Under Secretary-General and the Executive Director of UNFPA, described the youth as a formidable force to transform Africa and called for the right investments, support and interventions, to empower and transform them.
He noted that the world's seven billion population had the youth constituting over 56 percent and was expedient that their lives were improved.
He said Africa had more than enough natural resources but lacked human resources to man them and called on African countries to strengthen their school systems and invest in adolescent health for the youth to create opportunities for integrated development.
GNA