Youth Fund shines at Commonwealth meeting

The Youth Enterprise Development Fund was a key participant at this year’s Commonwealth Youth Programme Consultative meeting. The meeting, dubbed investing in youth (IIY), was held in Nairobi, Kenya from 11-14 April, 2011 and comprised two distinctive consultative processes; Strategy meeting and Youth employment meeting.

The meeting was officially opened by Kenya’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Dr. Paul N. Otuoma on behalf of the Prime Minister, Rt. Honourable Raila Odinga and graced by the presence of Commonwealth Deputy Secretary General Ms. Mmasekgoa M. Mwamba. The IIY meeting was attended by delegates from 19 Commonwealth member countries. The delegates comprised senior government officials, youth leaders, youth enterprise practitioners, representatives from intergovernmental organizations, micro-finance institutions as well as staff of Commonwealth Secretariat.

The Youth Fund sponsored twenty young entrepreneurs to exhibit to delegates at the National Youth Service Engineering Institute, Ruaraka. It also sponsored five youth to participate as delegates in the meeting. Mr. Mwatata Mwangala, the CEO of the Fund also made a presentation on YEDF to the delegates. The delegates lauded Kenya’s achievements in this area.

Meeting Recommendations

Participants discussed a wide range of issues relating to youth development in the region. Sequel to the discussion, the following issues and recommendations were made:-

·         Ministries/agents, of youth are under resourced. There is the need for advocacy and intensive lobbying to revert this trend. There is the need to show consequences of inaction in allocating more resources to youth development.

·         It was also recommended that sports should be embraced as a formidable strategy for enhancing peace and development

·         It was further recommended that all countries must have youth policies translated into legislation to ensure compliance.

·         Participants underscored the need to professionalize and prioritize youth work by member states

·         Lobbying member governments establish/strengthen ministries exclusively dedicated to youth development.

·         The need to establish/strengthen national youth funds

·         Engaging youth in mainstreaming processes and promote accountability

·         Promoting Youth volunteerism as a strategic intervention to ensure that youth get experience in order to be attractive to the job market

·         CYP – to emphasize and prioritize youth work as a profession and scale up the CYP Diploma to Bachelors and Masters levels.

·         Need for CYP to support Youth Funds

·         Need for governments to give tax holidays and single business permits to young entrepreneurs

·         Need to take care of marginalized youth that do not have formal education but are skilled.

The meeting drew an action plan with time frames to implement the recommendations.