Accra, Sept 25, GNA – The National Network of Youth Groups (NNYG), has held a national accountability forum on the utilisation of the five per cent District Assemblies’ Common Fund (DACF) by the National Youth Authority (NYA).
The NNYG is a network of youth-led organizations with the sole aim of ensuring youth welfare, youth inclusion in decision making, and youth development.
The forum, which took place in Accra, was aimed at establishing a platform for young people to demand social accountability from duty bearers.
Mr Ali Ibraheem, the President, NNYG, said every individual as a young person should be allowed to participate in decision-making without any hindrance.
He said one of the core values of NNYG was accountability, declaring that the Forum was to hold duty bearers accountable.
He said the Forum sought to understand issues that affect young people and how effectively they were being implemented.
Mr Ibraheem reiterated that the issue of youth unemployment was a national security issue, which must be given the needed attention by duty bearers.
He urged duty bearers and other stakeholders to carry young people along in terms of the decision-making process.
He said the National Youth Authority Act 2016 (Act 939 of 2016) empowers the Authority to champion youth development.
He appealed to the Government to ensure that the Authority was adequately resourced so that young people would benefit from it.
He noted that among the revenues that come to the NYA was the five per cent DACF, adding that since the 2017 update the five per cent DACF had been given to the NYA.
“Is it not curious for young people to know how much NYA is receiving from that? And how they are utilising for the benefit of young people?” He quizzed.
He said the money was meant for the NYA to build the capacity of young people and also make them more relevant to the course of Ghana.
“And so, it is just fair that the NYA creates the space for the young people to also understand how they are spending this for youth development?”
Mr Dennis Ofosu Appiah, a private legal practitioner in his presentation, said the five per cent of the DACF was not to youth employment, saying “employment is not the duty of the state”.
“…. And anytime I meet young people I tell them that you can’t get anything unless you can point to a law or a policy that says it can be given to you.” He said
“Stop dreaming and be real. And because we are not being real, most often what we have that is sitting in documents we don’t go for it.”
He noted that the youth were entitled to only things that could be found in laws and policies.
He, therefore, urged the youth to find out what was in the law for themselves.
Mr Solomon Okine, Programmes Officer, Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA), said young people want employment, skills development, and good governance.
He said the most important feature of democracy was accountability that elected official owes to the citizenry.
“This accountability has been attempted to be achieved in almost all major democracies of the world through the instrument of elections.
GNA