Minister of State for Youth Development Collaborates with CSI to tackle Unemployment Among Corps Members
Oru Leonard
Minister of State for Youth Development sets up task force to implement Youth Development Programmes
The Minister of State for Youth Development, Mr. Ayodele Olawande has sets up a task force for the purpose of implementing youth development programmes with the various stakeholders. This includes government agencies, private corporations and development partners called ‘Nigerian Youth Joint Task Force (NYJTF)’.
He made this known when he received the National stakeholders of various youth groups representing the ethnic nationalities and political parties in Abuja, recently.
During the meeting, the various groups unanimously agreed that the Task Force is opened to membership from all other professional youth organizations and groups, including people with disability that may want to contribute to the actualization of the Task Force’s mandate.
The mandate is to unite all youth across political, ethnic and religious divide to pursue the common goal of implementing youth development initiatives by all critical actors such as governments, private sectors and development partners. This according to the groups will serve as a support to augment Mr. President’s effort in youth development.
The meeting agreed that a new approach would be adopted in the pursuit of youth development in the country that will enable the youth to feel the government and be part of the government.
A task force will develop practical initiatives for improving youth welfare. They have a 6-month timeline to provide 3 deliverables such as better living conditions for corps members, sustainable skills for the informal sector, and grassroots development initiatives. Other ideas include cooperatives for cottage industries and funding to improve local production capability.
The meeting agreed to have a technical committee that will distill ideas and put forward great initiatives to improve the lot of the youth, while others will continue to galvanize support for the implementation of the initiatives.
The committee further agreed to accommodate as many youth groups as possible across the federation.
It is expected that at least three states would be visited by the committee to commence engagement with relevant stakeholders on how to chart a course for youth inclusion and development within the next two weeks.
(FMYD Press)
