By
Hannah Awadzi/Benjamin Adamafio Commey, GNA
Accra, Feb. 18, GNA –
Representatives of five Sahel countries implementing the Empowerment initiative
dubbed: “Youth, Education for citizenship and Gender Equality” (YEG), have
begun deliberations towards strengthening its success in the next phase.
The meeting organised
by OXFAM, the implementing agency, with funding from DANIDA, Denmark, is being
attended by members of Civil Society Organisations and youth groups from Ghana,
Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Burkina Faso.
YEG Initiative was
designed to empower the youth and CSOs at all regional and local levels to
enable them to participate actively in the decision making processes and
influence governments policies across the Sahel region.
In an interview with
the Ghana News Agency Mr Tijani Ahmed Hamza, the Country Director, OXFAM, said
to ensure the continuous success of the project, it was imperative to bring
together the major stakeholders, to identify the various challenges and
strategise on the way forward and influence national policies.
For instance, he
said, unemployment remained a major challenge for the youth across the African
continent, and this required the robust interventions by their governments.
“We will at the end of the meeting share
experiences from all the regions and find out the key things and challenges and
based on that we will determine which levels of the state’s intervention – be
it the National Youth Authority, in the case of Ghana, or Parliament or even to
influence political parties’ manifestos to enhance the youth’s participation in
political and economic decision making,” he said.
Oxfam would develop
programmes and provide internship opportunities for the youth to build their
capacities to enable them to become active participants in decision making.
Mrs Theodora
Williams Anti, the Programme Manager, Foundation for Security and Development
in Africa (FOSDA) presenting the achievements made by Ghana, said the project
had been able to effect change in 11 national policy initiatives across various
sectors.
The implementers
were also strategising to push for a pragmatic national policy on Technical and
Vocational Education and Training to ensure sustainable technical education.
Mr Wumbei Dokurugu,
the Regional Coordinator for the Project, expressed satisfaction over the
achievements of the project since its inception in 2018.
“Largely, we have
almost achieved half of what the expectations from the countries. Ghana has
done a lot in this direction, and I think it will be the pacesetter because it
has formidable youth programmes and has also been able to mobilise youth
movements across seven different regions,” he said.
However, he pointed
out that the language barrier, compounded by terrorist threats and insecurity
in some implementing countries, remained a major challenge in realising the
total objectives and urged governments of such countries to implement policies
that would enable the youth to become active citizens rather than agents of
destruction.
The four-year
project started with Ghana, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone and roped in Niger
and Liberia for the final two years.
GNA