By Albert Futukpor, GNA
Tamale, Aug 14, GNA - Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL) has called on government to step up its game to decentralise the structures of the National Youth Authority (NYA) and to adequately fund them for effective and meaningful youth engagement at the local level.
Mr Alhassan Abdul-Ganiyu, Technical Advisor for Youth, Advocacy and Gender for YEfL, who made the call at a media engagement in Tamale as part of this year’s International Youth Day (IYD) celebration, demanded that Parliament in collaboration with NYA took steps to pass the Legislative Instrument for the NYA Act (Act 939) to ensure its effective implementation.
The IYD is marked on August 12, every year, to recognise and celebrate the contributions of young people globally, and this year’s celebration was on the theme “Safe Spaces for Youth”.
The YEfL, a Non-Governmental Organisation, and its Empowerment for Life Programme (E4L) have and continued to implement a number of interventions to promote youth participation in decision making processes at the local level, make them see themselves as assets and improve their livelihoods and employment through entrepreneurship.
The interventions include; The Youth Speak Up, The Youth Parliament, and the Youth Entrepreneurship, which help to create platforms of engagement where the youth including; persons with disabilities feel free to mobilise, create and engage one another including; duty bearers to improve their livelihoods and lead change in their communities.
The interventions respond to the theme for this year’s IYD celebrations as they help to create safe spaces for the youth for effective youth mobilisation as well as the productive engagement of their talents in a supportive environment for them to realise their full potential.
Mr Abdul-Ganiyu demanded that “The Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) took steps to ensure the establishment of Youth Desk within their jurisdictions to highlight youth issues and their participation.”
He demanded that government and other actors interested in promoting youth entrepreneurship and employment collaborated with YEfL to scale up its entrepreneurship training for job creation in the country.
He demanded that MMDAs established or revamped district libraries as safe spaces to promote educational outcomes for the youth.
He also called on other development partners to join hands with YEfL to transform the teeming youth to lead the change in their respective communities.
GNA
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