Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony last week urged representatives at the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) meeting to review priorities for youth development, with a view to implementing safeguards against substance abuse and other challenges.
The meeting follows last year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka, where leaders vowed to make young people the priority of policy-making to ensure sustainable development.
In his address at the two-day conference, Anthony spoke on the importance of youth development, noting that the decisions made at the meeting will profoundly impact this generation of youth as well as the generation to come.
He also said that today’s youth face many challenges, including diseases and substance abuse and called for the implementation of mechanisms to safeguard against such dangers, according to a Government Information Agency (GINA) report.
Anthony lauded the work of the CYP over the years to promote youth empowerment and researching and identifying issues relating to youth which resulted in policies being crafted and actions taken by governments and people across the region.
“I would therefore expect that over the two days you would pay more attention and apply yourselves diligently because the decisions that we are going to be taking are not going to be light ones,” Dr Anthony said. “We here in Guyana would have had the privilege of hosting the centre, and from where we stand, we can see the impact that CYP would have made over the last 40 years.”
The minister noted that the CYP has also created forums for the exchange of ideas, sharing of concepts, and practices among young people. “We have seen and we know and some of us would have experienced the capacity building that CYP would have also done (implementing) programmes for educating persons, certifying, accrediting youth workers and thereby helping to professionalise the youth sector,” the minister said.
The CYP office in Guyana will be closed to facilitate the crafting of a new role for the organization. The minister said that while this is being done Guyana is willing to host the focal point person during this person.
Director of Youth Affairs of the Commonwealth, Katherine Ellis, in her address said, “While economists and pundits are focused on GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and growth projections, it is all too easy to lose sight of the needs and potential of young people who are often worst hit by economic crisis.” She noted that it is imperative that those youths’ voices be heard and that decision makers have the right policy tools accessible to them.
