CYP Regional Director congratulates CARICOM on the Special Meeting on Youth

January 26, 2010

PRESS RELEASE

CYP Regional Director congratulates CARICOM on the occasion of the

Special Meeting on Youth

A more highly marketable, competitive and multi-faceted Caribbean is an unfolding reality. But investing wisely in our youth in creative ways that channel culture, technology, innovations and the passion and experiences of youth people themselves is the sure way forward in sustaining this reality and for greater integration and development in CARICOM.

These remarks were made by Henry Charles, Regional Director of the Commonwealth Youth Programme Caribbean Centre over the weekend as he prepared to represent his Organization at the CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting in Suriname, and the Special Meeting of the Council of Human and Social Development (COHSOD) on Youth Development that precedes the Heads. That Meeting will consider the Report of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development and table recommendations to CARICOM leaders for common strategies and policies for investments in youth and development.

The work of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development (CCYD) is impressive and timely, said Charles. CARICOM Heads of Government deserve the highest praise for their decision to establish the CCYD. Once and for all, I believe we are heading in the right direction when the business of youth development takes its rightful place within all-encompassing mainstreamed national development, and not as the responsibility of a Youth Ministry. The CCYD has done a lot to provide empirical evidence of the contributions of youth across various spheres of development. Moreover, the Report raises the cogent issue of the need to quantify the cost to CARICOM countries of not investing adequately in young people according to current and emerging needs.   

Charles emphasized that the CCYD Report can be a turning phase for the strategic management of CARICOM adolescent and youth resources. Young people have always known that there is no sphere of national and regional development in which they are not implicated. I am looking forward to seeing some far-reaching policies emerge from the meeting of the Heads that project for regional capacity and competiveness with concrete youth policies.

Charles pointed out that the work of the Commonwealth Youth Programme for and with young people is predicated on the basis that youth are central to all development- policy development, research, advocacy, dialogue, legislation, resource allocation, the planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes and projects etc. He cautioned that all sectors should be equally involved in making youth concerns and experiences an integral dimension of all spheres of development: political, economic and social. Youth issues by nature cut across sectors, while policies are set within sectors. The accountability must start at the top with Heads of Government. The challenge of coordination can be eased by ensuring Youth Ministries are well equipped to play the vital coordinating role and to ensure that all development approaches are asset-based and rights-based.

Charles said that youth policy development and action planning, the professionalisation of youth work, and the strengthening of national and regional youth networks will remain among the critical development pillars for transforming the regional youth development agenda. He revealed that the CYP has been supporting Governments in these areas for years, and the organization is now realigning its strategies and partnerships to strengthen its support to all stakeholders. In this way, Charles said, we will be contributing more profoundly to the empowerment of youth, who can successfully manage their own lives and as productive, contributing members of society.

Henry Charles

Regional Director