Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) -  Ministers in-charge of youth affairs ended a daylong meeting with a commitment to make youth development programmes an essential component of Africa's sustainable development.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) -  Commending the African Union (AU) Commission for embracing the youth in major
continental concerns, ministers in-charge of youth affairs Monday ended a daylong meeting here with a
commitment to make youth development programmes an essential component of Africa's sustainable development.

In a declaration, the ministerial conference noted that the Commission's initiative to provide the
African youth with a charter would serve both as a political and legal framework for action that takes stock of the current situation of the youth. The ministers considered and adopted the draft African Youth Charter and a strategy for its popularisation. African heads of state and government are due to pass the charter at their forthcoming summit to be held in Banjul, Gambia, early July this year.

Though issues of youth are increasingly complex, Africa, more than ever before, needs its bulging youth population in order to develop. The participation of the youth in political, social and economic debates, the ministerial declaration said, was one of the conditions to foster sustainable development.

In order to coordinate the popularisation of the youth charter, the ministers have encouraged the revitalisation of the Pan-African Youth Union (PYU). They also undertook to ask their governments for financial and technical support so that the youth body could fulfil its tasks. Much of the work entrusted to the PYU would be undertaken by national youth councils and networks.

The drafting of the African Youth Charter has not been an easy task, according to Professor Nagia Essayed, AU Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology. "Young people and their organisations discussed the document before it was submitted to a panel of experts and the ministerial conference. "It has now become a very important document for the young people in Africa to confront the future. We have to ensure that the Charter is well known in all corners of the continent," she added.

Ministers for youth development are to meet twice yearly to evaluate the work and situation of young people in Africa in relation to the Charter. Their next meeting will be in September.
  
Source: http://www.panapress.com/freenews.asp?code=eng112623&dte=29/05/2006