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More Must Be Done to Secure the Future of Young People, Says Secretary-General

25 May 2006

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon has urged member countries to do more "to secure not just the future of young people, but the present". It was important, he said, to enable young Commonwealth citizens to "grow up to see their own visions become reality".

Speaking at the opening of a plenary session of the Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting (CYMM) in Nassau, The Bahamas, on 24 May 2006, the Secretary-General stressed that the prospects for young people today look grim.

"Two hundred million youth worldwide live on less than a dollar a day; 130 million are illiterate; 88 million are unemployed; 10 million live with HIV. Those figures are difficult to absorb, but one thing is clear -- they are millions too many."

Mr McKinnon said the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP), which is run by the Commonwealth Secretariat, has given hope to young people through financial and technical assistance. In the past three years, he said, the CYP has provided small loans to help establish some 8,000 youth businesses across the Commonwealth, generating jobs for about 50,000 young people. Three thousand young people have been given new skills in information and communication technology (ICT) through the CYP Technology Empowerment Centre. He said the CYP has conducted training with government and partner agencies in 25 countries on developing, managing and monitoring youth enterprises.

CYP's Youth Work Diploma programme is being delivered through 26 tertiary education institutes to 42 Commonwealth countries. It has trained 20,000 youth workers since the establishment of the CYP 32 years ago. The Secretary-General said the CYP has been working with other development agencies, including the United Nations, in youth development projects like the establishment of global Youth Development Indicators to measure trends in youth welfare such as population, education, employment, poverty, health, environment, migration, drug abuse, delinquency and ICT usage to better target development programmes.

Mr McKinnon said the CYP can do much more with increased funding and called on member countries to increase their financial support for the CYP from its current annual budget of £2.2 million -- a figure that has remained the same since 1985.

"If we want to keep having any sort of impact on one of the biggest single challenges that the Commonwealth faces -- to give its young people a future worth having -- then we simply cannot continue to do so on this level of funding. It is my fervent hope that this meeting will not just endorse but underline the proposals in my paper, and revise the CYP budget upwards," stated the Secretary-General.

At the 23 May opening of the CYMM, which bears the theme 'Youth Empowerment for the Eradication of Crime, Poverty and HIV/AIDS', Mr McKinnon encouraged ministers to create success stories in their own countries. He cited the cases of four young people from Botswana, India, Malawi and Zambia who have triumphed through adversity.

"These are stories of lives which have been changed. These stories, and more, give us confidence to keep going, to keep engaging with our youth. We want more of these stories to spread our messages -- to make a difference and change lives," said the Secretary-General.

The Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Perry Christie, said his country has succeeded in combating HIV/AIDS, but told ministers and youth delegates that crime and drug trafficking have become major issues in many small states.

"For various reasons, too many of our young people in all of our countries seem drawn to a life of crime. We are faced with the reprehensible recruitment of young people as child soldiers and criminal operatives by warlords in areas of armed conflict and by the drugs and criminal enterprises in some regions, including the Caribbean, which perpetuates the cycle of violence, fear and some of the most heinous crimes," stated Mr Christie.

The Minister of Youth, Sports and Housing of The Bahamas, Neville Wisdom, said his country has made substantial inroads in youth development by refocusing on a 'Fresh Start Programme' -- an initiative designed for at-risk, out-of-school youth to give them a second chance in business, education and social involvement.

 

CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 286, 24 May 2006

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