“ANY Government in the hemisphere should make youth a priority, and the simple reason for that is that [if] we do not work with the youth, which is the majority of our population, we will have severe problems on our hands in the coming years.”This is according to the outgoing Assistant Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Ambassador Albert Ramdin, who gave an exclusive interview to this publication at the Pegasus Hotel on June 4.

Ramdin, a Surinamese national who served in the OAS since 2005, was at the time responding to the question of the importance of youth and the fact that Guyana is still working on a national youth policy after 20 or so years.

Ramdin pointed to the reality that if the youth are not given direction “in terms of education about care, about upbringing, about social norms [then] we will see many of them end up in criminality.”

He reasoned that youth are not inherently criminal but are railroaded into that position because of circumstances. The senior OAS official spoke further to the need for providing education and job training for youth who are now pushed into “disillusionment, marginalisation, and in the end, frustration” because of limited employment opportunities.

The Guyana National Youth Council has long advocated for a national youth policy to address the issues which are detrimental to youth participation, empowerment, and engagement in Guyana. A policy of such a nature was started some 20 years ago but has remained in draft since.

Meanwhile, newly-appointed Education Minister Dr. Rupert Roopnarine has given assurance that under his watch the policy “is not going to remain in draft for very much long”.

While the Minister could not specify a time for the launching of the national youth policy, he said, “I can assure you it will not be 20 years.”

Youth unemployment remains one of the major concerns in the western hemisphere and specifically for Guyana. A recently released report by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) showed that youth unemployment in Guyana sits at 40%.
“Youth have to become the productive part of our population,” Ambassador Ramdin stated in his interview. He cautioned against a small productive population in the face of a private sector that is not consulted on how to boost youth employment and training.

Ramdin recognised that unless young people are given an opportunity at economic development, they will continue to burden the state’s resources. “We have to be careful that we don’t alienate a generation of youth and create a problem for the future because the cost will be enormous.”
The OAS Assistant Secretary General, during his interview with this publication called for governments to recognise that the absence of opportunities, education, social norms, and stable homes, all contribute to the situation of youth in criminal activities, and he asserted that governments should recognise these factors and address them.

By Derwayne Wills