Youth Told To Avoid Being Agents Of Conflict


A youth leader has urged the youth in Bawku to say “enough is enough” to the recurring ethnic conflicts in the area.

David James Abang-Gos, Upper East regional coordinator of the National Youth Council, told a regional youth dialogue forum here on Tuesday that saying “no” to the conflict was necessary because the youth are both the perpetrators and victims.

The forum, organised by the NYC and attended by over 200 people, discussed issues on youth development and participation in local governance and decision making.

Mr. Abang-Gos said the youth in Bawku had been misled to start and sustain the conflict while their sponsors live comfortably with their families outside the “war zone.”

The Regional Co-ordinator appealed to unscrupulous people who took advantage of the youth to perpetuate crimes, violence and mayhem to stop the practice.

Mr. Abang-Gos also advised the youth to be wary of such persons and rather focus on their education to build a bright future for themselves.

Mr. Mark Woyongo, the Regional Minister, opening the forum deplored the absence of a national youth policy to guide and direct their systematic mobilisation and development for sustainable development.

The government, he said, recognising that lapse was therefore committed to developing a dynamic youth policy taking cognisance of the 2004 youth manifesto prepared by the youth of Ghana for that year’s general election.

The policy, according to Mr. Woyongo would provide an appropriate platform for encouraging the youth to engage in matters that affect them.

He said it would also be designed to bring the youth to the governance table and engage them in civil responsibility debate as well as the decision-making process.

Mr. Woyongo explained that the intention to involve the youth in the decision-making process was not an empty pledge but had already been implemented.

He said it was refreshing that the NYC had initiated the move by organising such a forum with the view to increasing youth participation in local governance and election issues, among other things.

The Regional Minister stressed the need for the youth to learn from the horrific experiences of their peers in war-ravaged countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and refrain from acts that could degenerate into violent conflicts.

He urged the participants of the forum to feel free to air their views and concerns to enable the government and institutions of democratic governance to fashion out youth tailored policies to address their concerns.

Mr. Hillary Adongo, Director of Restorative Seed Club, a youth organisation in a statement on behalf of the youth of the region, called on the government to resource and support the NYC adequately to enable them to discharge their duties efficiently and effectively.

He underscored the importance of the youth and stressed the need for policies regarding them to be given priority attention.

Mr. Donald Adabre, an Ambassador designate, who presided advised the youth to refrain from the use of illicit drugs and be obedient, respectful and disciplined so as to become responsible citizens in the future.

Source: Ibrahim Mohammed, Bolgatanga - newtimesonline.com Story from Modern Ghana News:
http://www.modernghana.com/news/228301/1/youth-told-to-avoid-being-agents-of-conflict.html

Published: Monday, July 20, 2009


MP Speaks For Youth

Saturday, 18 July 2009

THE MEMBER of Parliament for Takoradi, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah has called on government to initiate new pragmatic policies and execute existing ones to give a lasting life line to Ghanaian youth.

He has challenged the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration to build on the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) initiated by the previous government to give a secure future to the young. 

Hon. Darko-Mensah’s call is coming in the wake of agitations by Ghanaian youth asking government to implement the National Youth Policy, which according to them will spell out a clear vision on how they could be appreciated and empowered to contribute to the country’s growth.   

“The youth of Ghana want to be appreciated, encouraged to be productive and assigned key roles in national development.

If the youth make 60 percent of the population then our ability as a nation to move the country forward is to tackle the issues of the youth”, Hon. Darko-Mensah pointed out in a statement.

He said the most important challenge confronting the Ghanaian youth is unemployment, which he noted received a lot of attention under the previous regime.

“Indeed the previous government under President Kufuor should be commended for initiating the National Youth Employment Programme which has been acknowledged by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) as one of the major employment interventions by a Ghanaian government in living memory”, Hon. Darko-Mensah recalled.

According to him, President Mills’ State of the Nation address and the budget seem to have no plans of expanding the NYEP except to mention it in passing.

He said the obvious solution to the country’s youth unemployment problem is to encourage the youth to set up their own businesses using acquired skills and knowledge, noting however that capital remains a challenge and where it is available it is small and tends to erode with rising inflation.

He therefore called for the reactivation of the National Youth Fund, which should be decentralized and disbursed equally amongst the districts of Ghana without central government’s bureaucratic control or organizational encumbrances attached.

Hon. Darko-Mensah also touched on other national issues, including ways of improving the quality of education, support for the private sector and the use of the expected oil revenue which if given priority attention would move the country forward.

He suggested the inclusion of education in the country’s foreign trade or tourism policies as a means of raising revenue to finance education, especially for teacher motivation and facility upgrading. 

He called also for a well-managed national apprenticeship scheme that should set equal, proper and quality standards for all youth vocations for the growth and development of the country, as according to him, about 70 per cent of Ghanaians are engaged in informal sector employment as a major source of social livelihood.

On the country’s emerging oil and gas industry, Hon. Darko-Mensah saidas a way of strengthening the capacity of Ghanaians, local consultants should be included in all consulting processes.

He pointed out that the discovery of oil will be meaningless to the unemployed masses if it is linked to down stream operations like oil refineries, fertilizer production and other petrochemical industrial.


By Awudu Mahama



Former child slave to embark on anti-child slavery project

Accra, Oct. 13, GNA - Mr James Kofi Annan, winner of the Frederick Douglas Award for 2008 at the recent Freedom Awards in the United States, has earmarked his prize money to intensify efforts at contributing to and saving more Ghanaian children from slavery, trafficking and other worse forms of child labour (WFCL). Mr Annan, who was himself a child slave from age of six to 13, won the award for distinguishing himself as a single individual, who survived the scourges of child trafficking and slavery and had been working to contribute towards the freedom of other children. He had since his freedom, been assisting even parents and guardians of other freed children to improve upon their knowledge in child-trafficking and to have improved lives.

As part of his award, Mr Annan, who is the Founder and Chief Executive of Challenging Heights, an anti-child slavery Non-Governmental Organization, was decorated by the South African Human Rights activist and Nobel Laureate, Bishop Desmond Tutu, at a breathtaking ceremony in Los Angeles, USA in September.

He was also presented with an amount of US$10,000 specifically for training and capacity building and to expand his work in saving and helping child slaves and their guardians.

He would also be presented with another US$10,000 to be delivered over a period of two years for a project of his choice. Mr Annan told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that he had chosen to use the money to deepen his effort at what had become his passion, saving and helping trafficked children and child slaves, adding that part of the money would be invested in deepening awareness for action on child trafficking issues across the country. He said he would also improve upon his organizational capacity and logistics, adding that another very important aspect for Challenging Heights was to provide more learning and teaching aids to assist in stimulation at the kindergarten level of their school for deprived children.

Again, Mr Annan said part of the money would go into a number of meaningful motivational packages for volunteers, who work with Challenging Heights, to work towards improving networking and alliance extension with other relevant organizations as well as stakeholders to enable him learn and share.

Mr Emmanuel Otoo, West Africa Regional Coordinator of Free The Slaves (FTS), organisers of the Freedom Awards, told the GNA that Mr Annan was among other winners in various categories, including the William Wilberforce Award for an individual, who had played a leadership role in moving other institutions, including corporate organizations to join the fight against trafficking and slavery.

He said other awards he had received included the Harriet Tubman Award for a community-based organization working directly within communities to make the most significant and transformative contribution to ending slavery as well as the Anne Templeton Zimmerman Award of two fellowships to two young adult anti-slavery activists.

Mr Otoo noted that even though lots of individual Ghanaians and organisations had been involved in making important and laudable contributions toward the progressive and sustainable elimination of human trafficking and modern day slavery, not many Ghanaians filed for the Freedom Awards, which acknowledged winners globally and provided exposure as well as financial and technical support to undertake specific trafficking and anti-slavery interventions.

The Frederick Douglas Award, which Mr Annan won, came with US$20,000, the Harriet Tubman Award came with came with US$55,000 for an organisation, the William Wilberforce Award had a financial package of US$10,000, whiles the Anne Templeton Zimmerman fellowship afforded the winners one year fellowship with US$35,000 salary and other training and travelling packages.

Mr Otoo, therefore, called on individuals and organisations focusing their attention, time and resources on trafficking and anti-slavery, to take advantage of Mr Annan's honour this year and file for their nominations in subsequent awards, beginning from next year. "Each award has its own requirements and nomination form, which can be found on the awards web pages, www.thefreedomawards.net or by emailing us at freedomawards@freetheslaves.net," he said. He said the deadline for nominations was Monday December 1, 2008, adding that nominations received after that date would not be considered for the 2009 awards.

Mr Otoo noted that FTS created the Freedom Awards to celebrate today's anti-slavery heroes and to catalyse additional innovation and resources to end slavery once and for all, saying that the scheme was carefully designed to define what successful, sustainable anti-slavery work looked like and also build a vision of freedom for change-makers to adopt. He said the benefits to the Award winners themselves, were expected to expand capacity and reach people at the grassroots, promote anti-slavery programmes, proliferate creative and transformative leadership, strengthen the infrastructure of modern anti-slavery movements and also to provide inspirations and hope to fuel anti-slavery movement.

Mr Otoo, therefore, urged all stakeholders such as governments, charitable institutions, communities, the private sector/businesses, traditional authorities, faith-based organisations, research institutions, individuals among others to make a commitment and work towards the sustainable elimination of human trafficking and all forms of child labour in Ghana and in West Africa.

Source: GNA