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Papua New Guinea Promotes Commonwealth Youth Programme

13 December 2007

The Commonwealth Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment 2007 – 2015, was officially launched this month, with the aim of promoting youth development in Papua New Guinea

On receiving the Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment (PAYE), the Commissioner for National Youth Commission, Mr Johnson Hebe, said the success of any country relies heavily on the development of youth.

The PNG Governor General, Grand Chief Sir Paulias Matane has expressed support for this programme on several occasions.

The Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) is part of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, and is an inter-governmental youth and development agency working primarily with member governments’ ministries and departments of youth.

Programme Manager of the CYP Pacific Centre, based in the Solomon Islands, Mr Sushil Ram, who officially handed over the Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment to Mr Hebe, said CYP works to engage and empower youth people to enhance their contribution to development.

“CYP advocates the effective participation of young women and men in the development process and for social transformation” said Mr Ram.

The document is a framework for Commonwealth action in youth affairs; as such it is a foundational document for the CYP and its ministerial network. The PAYE 2007-2015 has been approved as the Commonwealth's guiding strategy to guide youth empowerment and participation in the coming years, and is in keeping with the organisation's commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Mr Sushil Ram said at the launching that the CYP South Pacific Centre's goal with the PAYE is to ensure that it is much better marketed, internalised and used by the key stakeholders: governments; youth networks, including our Youth Caucus; and other development partners of the Commonwealth Youth Programme within the Commonwealth Secretariat and around the world.

The work of the Commonwealth Youth Programme falls under three strategic areas, which are guided by the Plan of Action: Youth Enterprise and Sustainable Livelihoods, which aims to assist young people to train themselves to get into some enterprises and business for self-employment; Youth Work Education and Training – which is dedicated to professionalising youth work and establishing code of ethics and organising youth workers into professional association; and Governance, Development and Youth Networks – which promotes young people’s participation in policy making.

In the meantime, a distance education course for the Diploma in Youth Development Work is being coordinated by the PNG Institute of Public Administration in partnership with the National Youth Commission and the Commonwealth Youth Programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

A total of 14 modules of the diploma course which spans over a two-year period are being taught to students, aim at assisting in empowering young people so that they can play an assertive and constructive role in the development of their own communities, and at the same time, provide training for persons currently working, or preparing to work in the youth work field.

The modules cover a wide range of values that are geared towards developing young people in the society.

Youth workers are being encouraged to enrol in these programmes to acquire various skills in developing youth.

Course entrants must have a minimum of Grade 10 education with related work experience and able to read and write in English.

Meanwhile, the first batches of 15 students who have completed the 14 modules are expected to graduate at the Papua New Guinea Institute of Public Administration (PNG IPA) at the end of this year.