‘Empower rural youths’

 By SHIRLYN BELDEN 

THE interest and welfare of youths in rural areas of Papua New Guinea need to be promoted, a forum has been told.

This was identified at the Commonwealth Youth Stakeholders forum at the Ela Beach Hotel in Port Moresby yesterday.

Youth leaders and stakeholders from youth councils in the Commonwealth discussed ways to empower youths in the changing global environment. 

The forum heard that some countries with a high population of youths in the rural areas, including PNG, faced a lack of education and entrepreneurial skills.

Tasie Mekorie of  the Kimbe Urban Youth Association, West New Britain, said it had been a long-standing issue which the government and supporting bodies such as the Commonwealth needed to look into.

He said youths made up half the population of his province and many of them were from the ward levels which did not benefit from any youth development programmes.

The forum held nine panels of discussion on Pacific youth development framework, collaboration models, addressing youth issues through the collaboration models, trends and strategies for change, responses to changing global youth scenes, alternative spaces for engagements and empowerment of youths, economic empowerment of young people and young people at the centre of development. 

The forum ends today. 

Panels consisting of international youth representatives from the participating Commonwealth countries and the Commonwealth Secretariat gave presentations on their work and initiatives which were discussed.