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Empower youth leaders and professionals to measure and articulate economic impact of youth developme |
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The CYP and some of its strategic partners have been leading the charge in promoting a paradigm shift in youth development and some governments have been responding positively. Regional Director of the Commonwealth Youth Programme Caribbean Centre (CYPCC), Mr Henry Charles, has reiterated a call for governments and policy makers to embrace youth mainstreaming as a key component of their sustainable development strategy.
Stating that the core function of the CYP is youth empowerment, Mr Charles noted that recently the organization has been placing greater emphasis on promotion of the youth mainstreaming paradigm as critical development tool.
"The CYP and some of its strategic partners have been leading the charge in promoting a paradigm shift in youth development and some governments have been responding positively"
"However, there is much work to be done to secure the support and commitment of our economic development and planning policy advisors and technocrats for the youth empowerment and mainstreaming strategies…in the current scenario, with increasing demands for the Public Sector to take decisions based on sound financial and economic imperatives, very often the bottom line is what takes priority," he observed.
According to Mr Charles, when requests are made to finance departments and/ or corporate citizens for money to put into youth development, the critical concern is how will this investment impact on the bottom-line or the economic development of the country.
"Governments want to know that when they produce their report cards to the IMF, World Bank or the CDB, they can demonstrate how their social investment programmes will impact on the economic performance in hard and real terms," Mr. Charles declared.
"In this regard, if governments are serious about youth development, then they have a solemn responsibility to engage CYPCC and other strategic partners to formulate a progressive youth empowerment and mainstreaming strategy which provides adequate opportunities for youth leaders and youth development professionals to acquire the required competencies and/or technical support to better evaluate, measure and articulate the economic impact of youth development strategies and programmes." Mr. Charles concluded. |
