Separate Youth from the Sports Ministry - NGO

Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF), a youth development oriented non-governmental organization, has launched a policy brief aimed at educating Ghanaians on the need to separate the Ministry of Youth from Sports.

The six -page booklet which was written by Professor Joseph Aryee for YBF was on the theme: “Youth Development in Ghana: The Debate over the Decoupling of Youth and Sports”.

Speaking at the launch, Prof Aryee called for a national debate on decoupling the Youth from the Sports Ministry to enable the country make a conclusive decision.

He called on those who say decoupling the Ministry would be too expensive to do well to come out with the needed financial analysis to back that claim.

He said the Ministry has not been able to perform effectively due to the rate at which ministers were changed at the Ministry.

“For President John Agyekum Kuffour’s eight year rule, the Ministry of Youth and Sports had about eight ministers; on the average the Government every year changed a minister for the Youth and Sports Ministry,” he added.

Prof Aryee said it has come to the notice of Ghanaians that the major focus of the Ministry was the betterment of sports hence the call by a section of Ghanaians for the creation of a separate ministry for the youth.

“Again according to statistics obtained after the 2012 elections, the youth of this country constitute about 58 percent of voters hence the call by some for the creation of a separate ministry to handle their issues effectively,” he said.

He said successive government have paid lip service to issues pertaining to youth development and this necessitated the call for the creation of a ministry to handle such issues.

He called on the various youth oriented organizations to come together with one voice so that successive governments would take them seriously.

Topics treated in the booklet include the concept of decoupling, the pros and the cons of decoupling, examples of ministries which had been decoupled in the past and the state of youth development in Ghana.