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• Launch of the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment 2007-2015

Launch of the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment 2007-2015

14 September 2007

Commonwealth youth ministers have reaffirmed that empowering young people means creating the conditions under which they “can act on their own behalf, and on their own terms, rather than at the direction of others.”

The Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment 2007-2015 was launched by Commonwealth Secretary-General The Rt Hon Don Mckinnon on September 10^th. The document, which is the framework for Commonwealth cooperation on youth affairs, grew from discussions at Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting 2006 in the Bahamas, and consultations with youth networks. The conclusions of young people at Commonwealth Youth Forum 5 held in Malta, 2005, feature prominently.

Explains Dr Fatiha Serour, Director of the CYP: “Young women and men are central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. We need a Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment because so few policy frameworks make this point. It is a philosophy well ingrained in professional youth work, the youth movement and among youth ministries, but it is one that is sorely lacking elsewhere.”

The Plan of Action sets out thirteen action points for government, in such areas as youth employment, youth mainstreaming, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, education, the environment, youth participation in decision-making, and democracy and human rights. In order to make the document “youth friendly” it is illustrated throughout with artwork by young people. Commonwealth youth representatives will play a key role in publicising the Plan of Action in member countries. So will CYP’s 28 partner universities, which deliver a Diploma in Youth Development Work to students in 46 Commonwealth countries.