Through Minister Anthony…
GAINS made through interventions towards children’s development during the first decade of their lives are often negated because of insufficient support in the second decade, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony observed on Wednesday. He made the observation at Regency Suites Hotel, Hadfield Street, Stabroek, Georgetown, where the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released its ‘State of the World’s Children’ 2011 report.
Anthony endorsed the compilation, themed ‘Adolescence – An age of Opportunity’, which examines the challenges faced by children in the second phase of their lives, highlights the risks and vulnerabilities, as well as the opportunities that adolescence offers for both adolescents and their communities.
He lauded UNICEF’s commitment to addressing the problems that affect children, expressly the successes that Guyana has seen with the vaccination programme which is quintessential to the development of every child.
According to him, even with the successes, challenges persist and adolescents are the most vulnerable.
Anthony underscored the need for special programming to target youths in an environment, particularly when their development is exasperated by various crises, economic recession and climate change, among others.
Maintaining that education is essential, he said: “We recognise the issues and measures are being taken to address them. We still have more to do. The report brings a number of things into focus.”
Anthony said all efforts must contribute to the creation of an enabling situation, where adolescents are engaged in the formulation of programmes to address their development and build on the interventions made in the first decade of their lives.
UNICEF Deputy Representative, Mr. Rudiger Luchmann, in his address, said: “The adolescent group has become very critical to the welfare and development of children around the world.”
He said that group has special needs but is often neglected in policy and programmes.
Luchmann said: ”This year’s report highlights the fact that investing in adolescents is our best hope of bridging the inequalities and breaking this entrenched cycle of poverty.”  He posited that more attention needs to be paid to adolescents, girls especially, by stepping up investments in education, health and other measures to improve their lives.

RIGHT THING
“Fullfilling these commitments to adolescents is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do and it makes economic sense, as well, enabling us to consolidate our historic gains in early childhood and child survival,” Luchmann advised.
The diplomat said adopting national polices and targeting adolescents with specific programmes that afford them access to quality education and health care while protecting their rights will see past gains sustained.
He added that the compendium draws attention to the frustration and limitations of many adolescents who are unable to transition, successfully, from one stage in their lives to another and end up putting themselves at risk.
Chairperson of the Rights of the Child Commission (ROC), Mrs. Aleema Nasir, who also spoke at the forum, agreed that investing in the development of adolescents is non-negotiable.
She acknowledged that compelling facts are highlighted in the documentation and said focus on the well-being and development of adolescents, in a comprehensive way, is an imperative.
Nasir said enough is not being done to address the new and emerging challenges that face today’s adolescents.
The UNICEF document points to the dangers that adolescents face, the trauma that take up to 400,000 lives every year, the pregnancies and childbirths at an early age that are the main causes of mortality among adolescent girls, the pressures that prevent 70 million adolescents from going to school, the exploitation and violent conflicts that cause suffering, from all of which the world’s adolescents should be protected.
The four chapters focus on ‘The Emerging Generation’, ‘Realizing the Rights of Adolescents’; ‘Global Challenges for Adolescents’ and ‘Investing in Adolescents.’