A youth leader in Central Equatoria State’s Yei River County has urged the Ministry of Youth and Sports to decentralize the National Youth Development Policy to the local government and grassroots levels to enable the youth to understand their role in nation-building.
The youth policy was passed by the National Council of Ministers on 31 May and covers key aspects including the definition of youth as anyone from the age of 15 to 35, promotion of national youth services and voluntarism, entrepreneurial training and sports activities among others. The policy will now be presented in the National Legislature for debate and eventual passing.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, Johnson Poru Hillary, the chairperson of the Youth Association in Yei River County, said it is high time the policy is decentralized so that the youth understand it.
“The National Youth Development Policy should be decentralized to the local and grassroots levels. The serious work of the government is usually done by the local government,” he stated. “So, the recently presented National Youth Development Policy should be decentralized so that young people can understand how the local, state, and national government is responding to their issues and what are the things that have been captured in the national plan.”
Poru added: “If they have not been captured, then how can they be included so that it can address the concerns of the young people?”
According to the youth leader, local governments should support youth programs, include youth in decision-making processes, and develop mechanisms to include youth structures in the annual budget so that they do not feel deserted.
“What we want from the national government is to support youth programs because if youth programs are not being supported, youth organizations and structures will go and do other things because they feel sidelined. Secondly, they should be included in all decision-making processes which will motivate them because their concerns are being recognized and heard,” he explained. “Thirdly, the local governments should now begin to develop a mechanism of including the youth structures into their annual budget. This is to enable them to do work because youth structures are normally not functional because they are not supported.”
Efforts to reach the office of the National Youth Union for comment were unsuccessful.