Naadu Mills returns from UNESCO summit

The First Lady, Ernestina Naadu Mills, returned home after attending a 3-day Youth Infusion Summit in Maryland, USA where she urged the youth to lead the crusade for peace and unity and not be used as agent of violence across continent.

According to the First Lady, peace is an essential pre-requisite that will allow businesses to operate and also create more jobs for the youth.

She said youth unemployment is deepening the levels of poverty particularly in developing countries and called for effective measures that will provide jobs for young people worldwide.

The 3-day summit was organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Centre for Peace under the theme “Empowering Tomorrow's Future”.

Naadu Mills said youth mostly become a major target for political parties especially in election years and advised them against such acts.

Various speakers at the summit were also full of praise for the Mills government particularly in the area of youth development. They said other countries can learn from the social intervention programmes such as the Local Enterprise and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP), the National Youth Authority, distribution of Free Laptops, Youth in Agriculture Programme, Youth in Road Maintenance among others tailored to provide jobs for the youth.

The conference also brought together First Ladies and young leaders from different cultures, civilizations to dialogue based upon respect for commonly shared values.

UNESCO believes it is through such dialogue that the world can achieve global visions of sustainable development encompassing observance of human rights, mutual respect and the alleviation of poverty, all of which are at the heart of UNESCO's missions and activities.