By Lamarana S Jallow
Following a week-long convergence for the 13th edition of the National Youth Conference and Festival (NAYCONF) in Banjul, young people in a resolution called on the government to intensify support on youth employment, entrepreneurship, and education to ensure the productivity of youth in the country.
The NAYCONF is a biennial event that brings together over 2000 youths to discuss issues affecting their lives as well as their role in national development. The conference affords youths, through their accredited representations the opportunity to discuss matters of common interest.
The Youth forum serves as an authoritative source of information on the problems of youth as seen by the youths themselves.
Delegates from all the seven administrative regions of The Gambia attended the NAYCONF, in which eight thematic areas were discussed. The thematic areas included Environment and Climate Change, Migration, Peace and Security, Substance Abuse, Gender, Youth in Political Participation, ITC and Access to Information, entrepreneurship; and culture.
However, delegates have compiled discussions of these thematic areas as a resolution and adopted it and it will be delivered to the government for implementation in the next two years.
In his remarks during the closing session, Mr. Musa Mbye, Deputy Permanent Secretary Technical at the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) commended the young people for their efforts in the compilation of the resolution.
He called on youth to be objective and critical in the adoption of the national document while urging participants to make sure all sections of the conference and festival are captured in the document.
Ousman Jassey, a delegate recalled that several demands of the NAYCONF 2017 Resolutions have not been implemented. He said there is a greater need for the implementation of the demand made in the NAYCONF 2022 before the next youth gathering in 2024.
Sanaba Jawla, a youth advocate suggested that The Gambia Government and development partners should report to the next youth gathering (NAYCONF 2024) to inform the young people of their demands that are implemented and the demand that failed to be implemented. This, he said would enable the youth and government to have a roadmap as how to implement the demand.
Lamin K.Sanneh, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at National Youth Council (NYC) told delegates that youth leaders should provide a monitoring framework that would enable the young people to monitor the implementation of the NAYCONF 2022 Resolutions.
“This will also help us to report about the implementation of the resolution in NAYCONF 2024,” he said.
