Political Parties Dump Youth Policy Review Engagement

From the outlook it may seem like the political parties had the youth, who constitute two-thirds of the population, at heart, but when it comes to fulfilling promises made to them and other matters concerning their development, it is otherwise.

A clear scenario was a programme organised by the National Youth Authority (NYA) to review the National Youth Policy, which was vehemently and awfully abandoned by these political parties.

The policy review, which the political parties were invited to participate actively in to enable it respond to relevant international development protocols and frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063 of the African Union, in Accra yesterday, had none of them in attendance.

However, a few other groups drawn from across the country attended the stakeholder engagement session to make their inputs into the policy.

The Chief Executive Officer of the NYA, Emmanuel Sin-Nyet Asigri, addressing the participants, which were mainly women groups, said the stakeholder engagement was necessitated by the current stature of the policy, which was not fit for purpose.

Thus, he said, there was a need to be upgraded it to align with the government's development agenda, as well as relevant international development protocols and frameworks.

Although the bourgeoisie, in whose bellies lie policy making and implementation, left the programme to its fate, Mr. Asigri said: “The process to review the policy is progressing steadily, and today's event, among others, is one of the key consultative sessions. So far, preliminary stakeholder engagements have been carried out, a National Technical Committee has been established, a concept paper for the review developed, retreats organised to evaluate the exiting youth policy to identify gaps and generate a gap analysis report.”

He continued that the gap analysis report had been completed and widely disseminated to inform and elicit inputs.

“Today, participants will have the opportunity to make inputs, so that your views are captured into the policy to reflect the demands of contemporary times. Please, feel free to have an open, lovely and engagement.

“Considering the dynamic nature of society, particularly, issues related to the youth, there is the need for a review in order to respond to the changing needs and emerging issues affecting youth development such as gender and youth with disabilities, these are not covered by the existing policy, thus, the need for disability mainstreaming in the revised Youth Policy,” he added.

He continued that process started last year, and it was taking steps to get the views of all those who matter to be captured in the document.