By Florence Afriyie Mensah, GNA
Kumasi, Aug. 25, GNA – The African Youth and Adolescents Network on Population and Development (AfriYAN Ghana), a youth – and women-led organisation advancing development priorities of adolescents and young people has organised a one-day dialogue to intensify youth participation in local governance.
The meeting was put together by AfriYAN Ghana, in collaboration with RU-Care Foundation, and with funding support from UNFPA.
Dialogue participants including youth groups and assembly representatives were drawn from Adansi Akrofuom, Adansi Asokwa, Asokore Mampong, Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipal, and Kwadaso, where the project activities are being led by recognized AfriYAN member organizations, ProActif Global LBG, Vision for Action, and RU Care Foundation.
Mr Osei Bonsu Aning, Member, AfriYan Ghana, opening the dialogue acknowledged that young people constituted a significant segment of Ghana’s population and were important partners in the country’s development process.
Their meaningful participation in local governance is, therefore, essential to ensuring that development policies, plans and programmes adequately reflected their needs, aspirations, and priorities.
The District and Municipal Assemblies, he noted, played a critical role in local development planning and implementation through their Medium-Term Development Plans, annual action plans, budgets, and other planning instruments.
However, despite the existence of these frameworks, young people continue to face challenges in accessing information, participating meaningfully in planning, and budgeting processes, monitoring implementation, and influencing decisions that directly affected their lives.
Mr Aning noted that this was why the stakeholder dialogue could provide an important platform for young people and youth organisations to engage directly with local government authorities, share their priorities and experiences, discuss barriers to meaningful participation, and identify practical mechanisms for strengthening and institutionalizing youth participation in local governance.
He affirmed that, this was why the AfriYan Ghana comprising over 85 youth-led member organisations across Ghana and connected to networks in more than 35 African countries, was driving youth programming through policy advocacy, strategic partnerships, and innovation.
The organisation, as a sub-implementing partner is supporting the implementation of the EmpowerED and Adolescent Girls Project (AGP), which aims to empower adolescent girls with knowledge on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV).
Madam Akua Frimpomaa Frimpong, Development Planning Officer at Adansi Asokwa, said when serving community needs the assemblies make conscious efforts to invite youth associations.
The challenge, she noted, has been that most youth groups do not make time for such engagements which engendered development.
Mr Nathaniel Akwasi Oduro, Executive Director of ProActif Global, urged the assemblies to move away from the optics, deeply engage the youth in planning purposes and institutionalize youth-oriented programmes.
The dialogue was themed “Strengthening Youth Participation in Local Governance: A Stakeholder Dialogue on Policy Implementation and Medium- and Long-Term Development Planning in Ghana.”
GNA
Edited by Kwabia Owusu-Mensah/Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Florence Afriyie Mensah
Reporter’s email address: [email protected]