PNG to host youth ministers meet

STRATEGICAL planning for youth empowerment is what the 8th Commonwealth Youth Ministers meeting in April next year will focus on.
Minister for Youth, Religion and Community Development Loujaya Toni said yesterday the meeting would greatly benefit youths in the country and the Pacific in terms of sustaining development and opportunities for “voice, leadership, equality and growth for the young people”.
Toni said youths were the only group that had not been given enough opportunities to take part fully in the country’s development in the past 37 years.
“Our ambition is to take discourse to new heights and in new directions and inspire commitment to national, regional, Commonwealth and global action to further youth development and youth integration into all aspects of deve­lopment,” she said.
“We would like to establish mechanisms whereby young people are represented at all le­vels of decision-making.”
PNG will host all Commonwealth leaders during the meeting which Toni will chair.
The theme of the meeting is ‘Young People at the Centre of Sustainable Development’ and it was set in line with the target of the Commonwealth to enforce and sustain youth empowerment.
The meeting will be attended by all major stakeholders, heads of government agencies, civil societies, youth representatives from across the Commonwealth to report, discuss and strategise possible ways to elevate youth standards and participation in economic, social and political arenas.
The meeting aims to set clear recommendations for the Commonwealth Head of Governments to feed into high level of decision making processes, including the post-MDG 2015, collaborate specific initiatives to lessen the gap in achieving comprehensive youth empowerment, endorse and commission youth development frameworks, guidelines and resources to engage youth mainstreaming in the Commonwealth.
She said the government had confidence in the strengths and skills of youths and the 2013 budget was focused to include the youth population.      
The funding for the event will be made available by the cabinet.