International Alert and African Youth Growth Foundation in partnership with the United Nations Agency, International Organization for Migration have held an advocacy road walk to mark the International Youth Day 2023 in Abuja Nigeria.
Executive Director of Africa Youth Growth Foundation Dr. Arome Salifu said the walk was to draw the attention of government and stakeholders to prioritise and engage young people on issues of Youth development, inclusion, poverty reduction, and employment generation.
Salifu said these could be done through economically competitive climate-smart agriculture opportunities to stem brain drain and the general welfare of the young people.
”Climate Smart agriculture is one of the biggest sectors around the world where massive employment is generated and a lot of poverty reduction opportunities in that sector so for us as a country, given the huge youth population we have, we need to explore the opportunities presented by Climate Smart Agriculture,” Salifu said.
While noting that for the very first time in the history of Nigeria, progress is being made in youth inclusiveness with the appointment of some ministers who are below the age of 40, Salifu said that a lot could be done to improve the current numbers with more youths in appointive positions since they constitute over 70% of the population.
He explained that youths should be included in the planning process, policy design, and implementation at all levels to guarantee good governance.
“What we expect from the new government is to have that constructive youth engagement in governance to guarantee that we have clear change of trajectory in delivering public services to the people,” Salifu added.
Programme Officer of International Alert, Sunday Jimoh said that as an organisation, its mandate was promoting sustainable peace building as a nexus for development since the work of International Alert has been focused on the role young people can play when it comes to leadership, peace and security.
According to Jimoh, “it is important for youths to have a voice especially when it comes to policy making, decision making, peace, and security to amplify and forge opportunities for young people to collaborate with decision-makers and contribute positively to peace, leadership and development.”
He urged the government to tap into the resources of youth participation as it sets agenda of how it goes about development issues by viewing youth inclusion in politics, policy development and implementation as a panacea for development.
Jimoh also said the convergence of youths doing innovative works around green skills drawn from all around the country provides an opportunity for young people to amplify their voices on the importance and economic benefits of green skills to the planet and the people.
International Organisation for Migration Focal Person, Aisha Dahiru said that the UN agency’s partnership with Africa Youth Growth Foundation and International Alert is aimed at engaging youths to curb irregular migration and the dangers inherent in them through youth centred approaches vis-à-vis policies, innovation and entrepreneurship being mainstreamed into migration issues.
Dahiru said; “How have we as youths taken it upon ourselves to create awareness of the dangers of irregular migration? Migration is a right and anybody can migrate but the channels which we migrate are the issues. IOM has set up an awareness raising campaign on alerting people about the dangers in irregular migration and if you look at it today, it is actually youths that are migrating.”
The Theme for the 2023 International Youth day is Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
