By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bolgatanga, Nov 30, GNA – The low representation of youth in governance and decision-making structures of Ghana is worrisome, the Rural Initiatives for Self-Empowerment Ghana (RISE-Ghana), a Non-Governmental Organisation has expressed.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a forum in Bolgatanga, Ms Jaw-haratu Amadu, Head of Programmes at RISE-Ghana, said the situation needed urgent attention to change the trend and address challenges confronting young people for sustainable development.
“We know that in Ghana, 38 percent of our population is youth…but very limited numbers are represented in our governance and decision-making structures”, Ms Amadu lamented.
“When you look at our policy on age bracket for youth in Ghana is between 15 and 35 years but our district assembly structures have very limited number of youth and women, some don’t even have youth participation both appointed and elected”.
The forum was organised by RISE-Ghana with funding from Norsaac, a local NGO working in the Northern Region as part of the Heard Everywhere and Represented Daily (HEARD) project.
The HEARD project, being implemented in the Bolgatanga Municipal and Kassena-Nankana West District in the Upper East Region, aims to promote the voice, participation and inclusion of rural vulnerable youth and women in Ghana’s governance and decision-making structures.
The forum, which brought together some youth and women groups, community-based organisation, civil society organisation, persons with disability among others, was to create a platform for knowledge sharing, networking and foster collaboration among the stakeholders that would help the youth to learn and grow.
The forum was also intended to expose the participants, particularly the youth to key policies, institutions and governance structures in Ghana to empower them to reposition themselves to take advantage of opportunities to be part of governance and decision-making structures of the country.
Ms Amadu said as part of the activities, the project had exposed the youth to the National Youth Policy, Right to Information Law and the Local Governance Act to ensure that the youth were well positioned to be part of governance structures especially at the local level.
Ms Amadu added that some of the youth had little or no knowledge of institutions that dealt with youth issues, saying “we are planning an exposure visit where we will take youth representation to some of the agencies that we have in the region, so that they will know the opportunities that exist and can take advantage of”.
Ms Sandra Sore, Founder of The Napiness Network, a community-based organisation, noted that young people faced lots of challenges, ranging from unemployment to educational opportunities and stressed that the forum was an opportunity to empower young people to voice out their challenges and seek redress.
Ms Dorcas Zoogah, a member of the Young Urban Movement, said the knowledge acquired would empower her and other young people to be bold to take challenges at the governance and decision-making levels of the country.
Mr Mark Akubire, Upper East Regional President of the Ghana Federation of Disability, said to ensure sustainable development and equal opportunity for everyone especially the youth and vulnerable, the state needed to implement policies that ensured inclusive participation in the governance structure.
GNA