MINISTER of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony yesterday urged Commonwealth Caribbean Youth Ministry officials to think “big and bold” in identifying the challenges facing youths in the Region.He also called on them to find ways to craft the new types of programmes that are urgently needed to ensure the effective participation of youths in the development process.

Minister Anthony made the appeal in opening remarks at a meeting of officials under the auspices of the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP), being held at the Regency Suites/Hotel, Hadfield Street, Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown.

The meeting which started yesterday would end on Friday.

The delegates from several Caribbean countries are meeting to review national and regional priorities for youth development, particularly in light of the imminent closure of the CYP Office in Guyana which served as the CYP’s Headquarters for the Caribbean.

In his remarks, Minister Anthony complimented the CYP for the tremendous role it has played in youth development in the Caribbean since its establishment 40 years ago.

Not in vain
He said: “The investments made by the CYP over the past 40 years were not in vain. The programme has really helped to change the way we think about youths; the way that we work with youths and certainly made an impact on the development of a number of programmes for young people in this Region. CYP certainly made an impact. We should stop and think whether the Region would have been what it is today for young people had it not been for the CYP.”

In obvious reference to the imminent closure, he said that it was somewhat paradoxical that the CYP was pulling out at a time of numerous challenges confronting the young people of today.

He said that there are many youth issues that confront Caribbean countries and they will not go away if there is not a continuing desire to spend money, to invest in finding solutions.

Issues
He mentioned issues affecting youths such as HIV/ AIDS, unintentional injuries afflicting them in their second decade of life, intentional injuries such as gunshots, homicides, the high incidence of non-communicable diseases, substance abuse, the brain drain, situations where girls are doing well in school but boys are dropping out, and the need for involvement of the private sector in providing employment. These are issues which need to be urgently addressed by agencies such as the CYP.

He stressed: “These are the things that you senior officials have to think about, to address.”

And he warned: “If we don’t invest in youth; if we don’t unceasingly try to resolve the issues affecting them, the results we reap are not going to be nice.”

Anthony said that the CYP had done a lot of great pioneering things in the last 40 years and he felt that it would be a shame if a new role cannot be crafted for the CYP to continue in this pioneering spirit in advocating and bringing new types of changes to what is needed in the youth sector today.

The participants at the three-day meeting include senior officials from Youth Departments in Commonwealth Member States, the Director of the Youth Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Youth Programme Caribbean Center Staff, a representative of the Commonwealth Youth Council, a representative of the Caribbean Regional Youth Council, the CARICOM Secretariat and representatives of the University of the West Indies (UWI), the University of Guyana (UG) and CUSO Canadian Volunteers as observers.

Ms. Katherine Ellis, Director of Youth Affairs at the Commonwealth Secretariat, agreed with Minister Anthony that the investment in youths was not matching the talk.

Socio-economic returns
She said: “As young people graduate to adulthood they have the potential to be burdens on their societies or they have the potential to make enormous contributions to development. Investing in young people actually has socio-economic returns that are exponentially larger than the input for those investments. It would be crazy to do otherwise.”

Topics being addressed at the three-day meeting include the future of the CYP, youth development, national and regional priorities, regional youth leaders and planning for a Regional Youth Ministers meeting to be held at a date and venue to be announced.

The CYP was established in 1974 by the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOG) as the Youth Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Its primary objective was developing the potential of young people in Commonwealth countries to be dynamic and productive members of their societies.

The programme has sought to encourage youths to participate fully at every level of decision-making and development, both individually and collectively, promoting Commonwealth values of international co-operation, social justice, democracy and human rights.
Written By Clifford Stanley