A youth activist, Mr George Musah Dzeto, has underscored the need for the National Youth Bill to be responsive to the multi-dimensional needs of the youth.
He cited the recent establishment of the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) Fund, saying that a major challenge will be that many of the youth do not posses the requirement to access the fund.
The bill, he emphasised, must,therefore, address such issues before it was passed.
Mr Dzeto, who is the Executive Director of the Centre for Development Research and Advocacy (CeDRA),made these remarks at the opening ceremony of a two-day conference for youth leaders in Accra.
�The establishment of the YES Fund is a challenge to our intelligence and our ability to produce viable and worthy proposals that can generate employment for us,� Mr Dzeto stated.
The conference, which was on the theme: �Empowering the youth: a commitment all stakeholders must preserve,� created the platform for the participants to discuss and analyse the bill and make appropriate recommendations to stakeholders.
It was organised by the Friederich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in collaboration with CeDRA, You-NET and Global Youth Focus.
Thematic areas of the youth policy
The Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Mr Ras Mubarak, said before the passage of the bill into law, the NYA had fashioned out the development of a national youth policy which would address key challenges confronting the youth.
He indicated that the policy had over 19 priority areas which were all in the interest of the youth.
Some of the priority areas included education and skills training, gender mainstreaming, environment, HIV/AIDS, governance, sports and youth in conflict resolution.
On education, Mr Mubarak said plans had been put in place to organise workshops and seminars for students aside from the education they received at school to equip them with enough skills for the job market.
He ��encouraged the youth to engage in Agriculture, saying that it was a viable venture which should not be left for the �poor or uneducated.�
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