Ghana launched its national Youth Policy in 2010 after several attempts to institute one since independence. This is the policy that is to serve as a framework for the government to ensure that the youth are developed strategically to be useful to themselves, their community and the country at large.
The policy also seeks to create space for young people to participate in our governance process especially at the local level. The Youth Policy is on the theme: Towards an empowered youth, impacting positively on national development and has nineteen priority areas. Some of the Priority areas are
? Education and Skills Development
? Science, Research and Technology
? ICT
? Youth and Employment
? Entrepreneurial Development
? Youth in Modern Agriculture
? Gender Mainstreaming
The Youth Policy after its inception did not have an action plan until January, 2015. In other words, it took four solid years for the government to come out with an action plan.
The action plan touches on four integrated thematic areas namely;
? governance and leadership,
? human resource development and technology
? economic empowerment and
? culture, sports and national orientation
The 2012 Population and Housing Census show that the youth form the majority of Ghana’s population.
Awareness of the National Youth Policy and Action Plan
It is a known fact that a lot of young people in this country today are not aware of the existence of the youth policy and its content. The Action plan that was launched in early this year is not different from the policy itself with respect to awareness.
One of the finest youth advocate in Ghana, Chibeze S. Ezekiel in one of his numerous contributions in fine tuning the Youth Policy described it as “a dead corpse worth resurrecting”
As I read through his feature published on modernghana, I understood his frustration because he has been involved in the entire process of the formulation of the Policy and was even present when it was launched by our current President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama (Vice President then) in Elmina.
The youth who must own the policy and push for its agenda to be executed are not well abreast with its content. Media discourse around the policy is rare not even on special occasions such as the international youth day in August every year.
In most of the cases, Politicians are invited instead to talk on political party manifestoes on youth development.
I have personally volunteered to distribute copies of the implementation plan to stakeholders in the Adansi South District in the Ashanti Region and some media houses in Obuasi. In most of the instances, our duty bearers appear to not have knowledge about the policy.
The young people openly tell me they have not seen copies of the policy. Whose responsibility then is to create this awareness?
The National Youth Authority
It is the National Youth Authority that engineered the formulation and adoption of the Youth Policy and therefore has the responsibility of disseminating its content to the youth.
The National Youth Authority is mandated by law to oversee the general development of young people in the Country. The Authority which is under the Ministry of Youth and Sports is there to co-ordinate and facilitates youth development activities in the country. However, there are several empirical evidences to show that the National Youth Authority as an institution is weak and seem to be losing its relevance.
For instance, the workers of the Authority recently complained about inadequate resources to them to implement the policy. According to the workers, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has neglected them and uses its budget allocation on sports. To them the current posture of the Ministry has rendered them helpless in the execution of their duties.
The workers also revealed that currently only 72 out of the 216 constituencies have active coordinators working. Which people would ensure the implementation of the Youth Policy in the rest of the Districts which are in the majority?
(https://www.modernghana.com/news/606889/1/national-youth-authority-should-not-suffer-from-en.html)
Ironically, Youth Employment Agency (YEA) which in my view should be managed by the Youth Authority has offices in all the Districts with Coordinators and seems to be very popular than the Youth Authority.
We can therefore conclude that the Authority is not well resourced to perform its mandate hence the knowledge gap on the policy.
The way forward
The content of the National Youth Policy with its action plan must be disseminated well to all young people across the country through conscious effort by the government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports. For me, the policy must be communicated well to local governance players at the District, Municipal and Metropolitan level so that they can initiate processes to engage young people to be involved in decisions that affect them.
The government must resource the National Youth Authority to perform its mandate and stop paying lip services to them. The Youth of this Country are not interested in long and nice speeches churned out by government anytime this issue is raised.
The budget on the implementation of the policy must be captured by central government in its annual budget allocation.
The Ghana Education Service must be brought on board to integrate aspect of the Policy into the curricula in the various Senior High Schools.
The Districts Assemblies must institute Youth Policy Dialogues on the National Youth Policy to reach out to grass root youth.
Media Houses should allocate some time every week to highlight some important issues in the Youth Policy.
Finally, the youth who are in Districts where the National Youth Authority exist should visit their offices and learn about their mandate or visit the website of the Authority on www.nya.gov.gh
Ali Tanti Robert
Obuasi
0246486740/0206125181
tantirobert@yahoo.co.uk
The writer is the Executive Director of Youth Alliance for Development based in Obuasi.
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