Accra, Aug. 10, GNA – Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Wednesday reiterated government’s commitment to continue to pursue the right-based approach to youth development.

That, he said, included the right to education and skills training, employment and health, guidance and counselling, arts and culture and access to information and social security.

The Vice President said this in a speech read for him by Dr Antwi Boasiako-Sekyere, Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, at the opening of the Third African Youth and Governance Conference in Accra.

The three-day conference, on the theme: “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding: Our Year Our Voice,” is to equip the youth with the knowledge in doing business in Africa.

It is being organised by the National Youth Authority under the auspices of the Ministry of Youth and Sports with support from rlg Communications and Vodafone for about 6,000 African youth.

Media partners include the Ghana News Agency (GNA), TV3 Network and Business and Financial Times, among others.

The conference, which would evaluate five economic development areas, namely, education, ICT, Youth development, entrepreneurship and agriculture is going on concurrently in 30 Youth Volunteer Work Camps mounted by the Sports Ministry nationwide with three in each region.

The climax would coincide with the International Youth Day on August 12, with the joint commemoration of Inter-(National) Youth Day.

Vice President Mahama said to fulfil its commitment, the government had expanded and enhanced the National Youth Employment Programme and given it the necessary legislative backing to actively engage the youth in productive employment such as road construction, health extension work, waste and sanitation, teaching and paid interns in industry.

“In our search for solutions to the challenges which face the youth – whether it is their education, development or employment – we must be careful not to neglect the family as a social unit because it initiates the socialization process of every human being.

“This is why a range of initiatives have been evolved to address the issue of the family in Ghana.”

Vice President Mahama mentioned the National Social Protection Strategy, the Children’s Act, the Domestic Violence Act, Human Trafficking Act, the National Plan of Action for the Elimination of Child Labour and the Ghana Child Labour Monitoring Systems, now in place at community levels to track offenders and to bring them to justice, as part of the multi-faceted policies and programmes developed to provide support to the family unit.

Vice President Mahama expressed the hope that the conference would come up with proposals which would further deepen the approach to mainstreaming youth employment issues into the development agenda and find solutions to the challenges which faced youth employment in the economy.

Mrs Sedina Tamakloe-Attionu, National Coordinator of the National Youth Authority, said the potential of the youth as catalyst for societal development had been proved empirically thereby attracting the attention of politicians, economic development planners, social engineers and development partners.

She said the demographic features of the youth as well as their socio-economic and governance potentials were brought into sharp focus in contemporary times.

Consequently, global and national strategies were being developed to mainstream youth issues into development agenda, Mrs Tamakloe-Attionu said.

She noted that youth development in Ghana was saddled with inadequate funding for youth programmes, adverse effect of globalization, proliferation of religious faith with divergent doctrine and erosion of social support system of extended family system leading to youth poverty and deviance, and rapid urbanization leading to streetism and creation of urban slumps.

Mrs Tamakloe-Attionu said in spite of the challenges encountered, opportunities such as high level of government commitment, availability of committed youth development workers and youth related NGOs, good governance, peace and stability and the recognition of the potentials of the youth for the development, both at the national and international levels, could facilitate youth development.

She commended the government for showing significant commitment towards youth empowerment and development ensuring that youth issues were mainstreamed into the national development agenda.

“The positive development of our young people is a collective responsibility,” she said, and called on all friends and lovers of the youth and the youth themselves to complement government’s efforts aimed at developing future leaders.

Mr Seth Oteng, Executive Director of the Youth Bridge Foundation, said it was time to talk solutions and focus on the strengths of Africa.

He said if indeed the population of Africa was projected at two billion by 2015 with majority being under 25 years, then Africa could boast of about 1.2 billion young people who would be better educated than their predecessors with better access to information technology and renewed confidence and resolved to push the continent forward.

“The African youth is further resilient and able to survive under very harsh economic conditions and difficult times. The average young African is very intelligent and the trail of African students studying in the Diaspora are there as evidence to show,” he said.

Mr Oteng said investing in the youth remained a strategic investment that every government, corporate organisation and development partners should consider.

He appealed to all stakeholders to commit resources to youth programmes to guarantee the development of this critical mass of people that would lead Africa into her desired destiny.

The United Nations declared 1995 as International Youth Year to draw society’s attention to the significant contributions the youth have made towards sustainable development.

Subsequently, August 12 of every year has also been declared International Youth Day and celebrated by all member countries.