CSOs Call For LI On Youth Act

A Coalition of youth groups, has urged Mr Isaac Asiamah, Minister of Youth and Sports, to take steps to ensure that Parliament approves a Legislative Instrument (LI) on the National Youth Authority (NYA) Act, 2016 (Act 939).

According to the Ghana Youth Development Enhancement Project (GYDEP), an umbrella body of CSOs Coalition for Youth Development, a coalition of youth leaders, there was the need to hasten the process of putting the LI in place for approval by Parliament for the full implementation of the provisions of the Act.

The NYA Act was passed in December 2016 as a measure to develop a dynamic and disciplined youth imbued with a spirit of nationalism, and a sense of public service and morality, and to provide for related matters.

Mrs Theodora Williams Anti, the Coordinator of CSOs Coalition for Youth Development, made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sideline of the GYDEP meeting on the LI for the NYA Act.

The purpose of the meeting was to give the youth of Ghana an opportunity to have a say in the NYA LI.

Mrs Anti said: "As we celebrated African Youth Day, this month, which fell on November 1, on the theme 'Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in the Youth', we are happy that there is a new Act that is championing youth development in this country.

"We are very sure that with this new Act, youth development will see a lot of change going forward," she added.

Mrs Anti said there were issues that had to be tackled for the Act to be fully implemented.

She mentioned that one of such issues was the passage of an LI on the National Youth Act.

"For us, much as we are happy about the Act, we believe that government and all stakeholders should move very fast to ensure that the LI comes into being as soon as possible," she added.

"We know of Acts that have been passed for years without LIs. We don't want that to happen to this Act. That is why we are working as youth groups and youth organisations to ensure that this National Youth Authority Act has an LI as soon as possible," she said.

She said: "We know the NYA needs a board before the LI can be passed, but for now, we are contributing our quota, gathering inputs into the LI, which we will present to the Minister of Youth and the Board as soon as it is inaugurated.

"And that is to say all stakeholders should hasten the process of having an LI to the National Youth Authority Act."

GYDEP members and associates include the Centre for Active Learning and Integrated Development, Youth Employment for Life, National Network of Youth Groups in Governance and YOUTH ICONS.

Others are The Youth Network for Human Rights and Democracy, Ghana Federation of the Disabled, Political Party Representatives, National Development Planning Commission and the National Union of Ghana Students. GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA