West Nile leaders agree on interventions to support youth development

Aug 21, 2019

In line with government policy to promote skills development; Leku revealed that their resolve is to ensure boosted investment into pertinent skills development of the young people in the region.

YOUTH  DEVELOPMENT

West Nile leaders have agreed to joint action to ensure the social-economic transformation of the youth in the region.

Underlining the need for special support from government and development partners, the leaders emphasized that West Nile transformation greatly depended on a healthy and empowered youth population.

 In a joint statement delivered by the Adjumani LC5 chairperson, James Leku at a post-world population day national high-level dialogue in Kampala yesterday, the leaders said the region faced challenges such as high school dropouts, high dependency levels, unemployment, teenage pregnancies, lack of youth-friendly health services and skills' gap. 

 These among others according to Aleku, directly or indirectly undermined the productivity of the youth who should be at the forefront of transforming the region.

"Considering all the challenges we face as a region, recently all the leaders convened and agreed on action points of dealing with the challenges the youth face," he said.

This year's National Population Day Celebrations were held in Adjumani district at Paridi Stadium on July 11, 2019, under the theme, renewing the Promise: Empowering Uganda's Youth to drive Socio-Economic Transformation.

In line with government policy to promote skills development; Leku revealed that their resolve is to ensure boosted investment into pertinent skills development of the young people in the region.

"It is also our aim as leaders to work together to address school dropouts, fight teenage pregnancies, provide youth-friendly services, enforce laws, raise awareness on gender-based violence and sexuality," Leku disclosed.

The leaders also agreed to commit more resources for the youth programmes in their local budgets.

  participant challenges a traditional dancer at the ost orld opulation ay dialogue in ampala  hoto by ddie sejjoba A participant challenges a traditional dancer at the Post World Population Day dialogue in Kampala. (Photo by Eddie Ssejjoba)

 

"In this regard, we appeal to the religious leaders to join us in encouraging the youth to work hard other than preparing them for miracles all the time," he disclosed

The First Deputy Prime Minister, Gen.Moses Ali, used the occasion to emphasize the government's commitment to promote skills development through the establishment of more vocational and technical institutions and education policy reforms.

"I want to assure you that the government is planning rightly for its people. Government intends to establish SACCOs to cater to different categories of people involved mainly in the informal sector.

And many of the beneficiaries will be the youth since they are the majority actively involved in the informal sector,"   Ali revealed.

The Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Netherlands, Joris van Bommel, called on the government and the development partners to effectively respond in policy and action to the diverse needs of the youth population in order to give them a chance in life to exploit their full potential and contribute towards the social-economic transformation of Uganda.

Bommel insisted that aiding the youth to exploit their full potential was not an act of charity but a matter of inclusivity and human rights entitled to everybody.

"Many times actual need for youth and young people can get lost in the development discussions for various reasons.

 It is therefore important to continuously engage and put young people empowerment high on the agenda and mainstreamed into development discussion and actions," he said.

The director-general of the National Population Council, Dr. Jotham Musinguzi emphasized; "We want to empower the young people to become the major drivers of the economy and our focus is to increase the bulk of the youth in the productive category."

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