Coordinator: Collapse of programme affects many

 A VACUUM has been created in provinces since the national youth programme collapsed, a youth coordinator says.

This has been more so because youth development in the country has been given low priority despite their huge numbers compared with development plans, West New Britain youth and sports coordinator, Conrad Golumu said 

He said the lack of direction on youth development in the provinces had left the young people in the dark, not knowing where to go to seek information.

Golumu said insufficient funding for youth programmes from the government made it very difficult to implement programmes, especially for young people living in the rural areas with no access to necessary infrastructure to enable them to participate in the development process.

“The national government has established various schemes aimed at provoking participation by the population, including the young people, in economic activities but most of the young people in the provinces live in rural communities and have no idea or what to do because there is no tangible development reaching them,” he said.

Golumu is calling on the national and provincial governments to create conducive environment for youth participation in the development process.

“The government should improve the institutional capacity of implementing youth programmes, provide adequate funding of not less than K300,000 to implement youth programmes, support the initiative on SME as a vehicle for employment creation and enterprise for young people, development of infrastructure to enable youth in the rural communities to  participate in and benefit from development, establish youth finance schemes to provide collateral funding to young people, including those who graduate from TVET, to enable them to qualify for credit facilities with the NDB and other financial institutions,” he said.

Golumu stressed making use of the youths on the land rather than spending money on other things.