Union wants youth council activated

THE Papua New Guinea Youth Workers Association has called on the National Youth Commission to review its act and establish the youth council.
Association general secretary Joe Mesa said the executive committee and its members had expressed concern that the National Youth Commission Act (1999) had not been reviewed to allow for the establishment of a national youth council.
“This has caused the country’s sole youth advisory body to lose focus and control in the overall management and administration of affairs concerning Papua New Guinea’s young people,” Mesa said in a statement yesterday.
“Consequently, the youth commission is not able to implement the national youth policy because it lacks the legal teeth and partnership empowerment, integration and cooperation.
“The commission has been working in isolation for so long that it has missed out on many of its stakeholders’ programmes, which include the Department of Community Development’s rural integration roll-out programme.”
Mesa said the interim youth council, chaired by Tau Peruka and whose term expired in 2010, did not have a good working relationship with the commissioner, Johnson Hebe, and his executives.
“Consequently, many youth programmes suffered as there was no control and management of youth affairs.
“The National Youth Commission is an important government institution which should be ta­king the lead in advocating and addressing issues of national importance such as poverty alleviation, youth unemployment, illegal substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and law and order problems affecting the young people of PNG.
“The commission should also be at the forefront advising and implementing youth development programmes to improve the livelihood of young people nationwide.”
Mesa also called on Hebe to, instead of going to the media and wasting government resources, seriously reorganise the commission and enforce workable impact youth programmes to address the real issues affecting young people in PNG.
Meanwhile, Hebe said the commission was not responsible for implementing youth programmes.
He said the commission only helped as implementers of youth plans and policies.
“We only assist the implementers, especially the provincial governments as the major stakeholder of national youth development.”
He said the commission ensured that all provincial youth development plans were aligned with their provincial and national development plans including the Vision 2050 so that funds could easily be allocated.
He said all plans were captured in the national youth policy.