MOU provides avenue for improving representation

By ROBINSON LEKA
PROVINCES participating in regional and national sporting events will now be able to fully represent themselves through the network of district youth councils, according to an official.
National Youth Development Authority director-general Joe Itaki said the councils were now an important tool in selecting athletes following the signing of a memorandum of understanding yesterday.
The memorandum is between the authority, Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation, and Community Development, Youth and Religion Department for the Regional Youth Games.
“The district youth council network will give us the mechanism to recognise the voices in the district,” he said.
“The selection of players and participants in the Games will come from the grassroots as much as possible from the local-level governments (LLG), districts and province.
“From there, youths are fairly represented.
“So if we are saying for example that it’s a team from East Sepik, it means that representatives from that team are coming from the province’s five districts and their respective LLGs.
“It won’t be a case where you have a team from Wewak picked and say that it’s Team East Sepik.
“With the arrangement we have now, we are doing away with this type of selection, any provincial team will now be a reflection of its districts.
“This is the value that we’re going to be giving back to the youths.
“By doing so, it will be a true reflection of the PNG Games.”
Itaki said the end-of-year Southern Games would be a first for provincial sides to adopt following the signing of the memorandum.