Edo Holds Inaugural Dialogue For Edo Youth Development Policy

Nehikhare explained that the programme was aimed at aligning youth-based projects across all stakeholders, while strengthening public/private partnership for the overall good of the state.

“As a first step towards the policy formulation, the ministry is inviting key stakeholders including international NGOs, State Ministries and Agencies, Federal Parastatals, Youth Organisations, Civil Society Organisations as well as Youth-driven project organisations to an inaugural dialogue session for deliberations on how to align the goals and mission of government and other stakeholders towards implementing result-based projects for the youths.

He noted that though the event was open to deliberations, discussions would be centered around key areas which include, overall vision of the youth policy document and its strategic objective.

He also said that key indicators of the document would be education, empowerment, and engagement.

“The guiding principles for this programme will be inclusiveness, participation, as well as project/policy approach.

He stressed that state recognizes and values young men and women as important resources and state assets and situates their needs and aspirations at the center of state development.

He went further to say that it was in view of this that the state has adopted a practical, coordinated and strategic methodology to produce a first of its kind Youth Development Policy.

“Our proposed Youth Development Policy (YDP) is a strategic approach with a focus on practices for engaging entire communities in helping all youth thrive. It builds on traditional youth service approaches by emphasizing long term, systemic strategies for cultivating qualities and traits desirable in young people through the creation of environments that support their developmental needs and capacities.

“Our YDP approach is founded on the belief that young people thrive when they are developmentally supported across all sectors of the community — school, youth serving agencies, faith organizations, community governance, business, traditional settings and more.