By Solomon Gumah
Nalerigu (NE/R), Dec 24, GNA – The North East Regional Coordinating Council (NERCC) has organized a day’s Adolescent and Youth Development Advocacy session for young people at Nalerigu to promote their inclusion in local and regional development planning processes.
It was sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and brought together adolescents, youth and students from the area.
It provided a platform for young people to contribute to development planning and decision-making processes of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and the Regional Coordinating Council.
Participants were taken through the region’s development planning framework, particularly the Medium-Term Development Plans (MTDPs), which are designed to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to express their needs, priorities and aspirations for consideration by local government authorities.
During interactions at the session, it emerged that young people had often been excluded from development planning, resulting in decisions on issues affecting them being taken without their direct involvement.
The adolescents and youth attributed their exclusion to factors such as inexperience, low self-confidence, and prevailing societal norms, among others, which limited their participation in governance and decision-making.
The session, therefore, offered them the opportunity to express their views and share concerns for onward consideration by the NERCC and the respective Assemblies.
On the way forward, the youth indicated that they possessed the talent, energy and creativity to actively support development initiatives particularly, those directly affecting their wellbeing and future.
They called for increased inclusion and deliberate efforts to create enabling platforms that would allow them to develop and realise their full potential.
Other key areas identified by the youth for support included access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT), agriculture, climate change innovations, entrepreneurship and skills development as well as the establishment of youth resource centres.
Mr Samson Nsasil Kpanob, Programme Focal Person for UNFPA at the NERCC, expressed appreciation to UNFPA for supporting the region to organise the youth empowerment session.
He said similar support had earlier been extended to the NERCC to hold town hall sessions in the Bunkpurugu-Nakpanduri, Yunyoo-Nasuan, Chereponi and West Mamprusi District Assemblies as part of efforts to deepen youth participation in governance across the region.
The advocacy sessions formed part of broader initiatives to strengthen adolescent and youth engagement in development planning and to ensure that their voices are reflected in policies and programmes at all levels of governance.
GNA
Edited by Eric K. Amoh/Lydia Kukua Asamoah