Opposition yet to receive draft of National Youth Policy – Dr Anthony

Despite Government’s announcement that a draft of the National Youth Policy has been finalised and

completed, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is yet to receive a copy of the Policy draft. This is according to former Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Dr Frank Anthony.

In August 2015, Presidential Adviser on Youth Empowerment Aubrey Norton had announced that the National Youth Policy draft had been completed and was awaiting review from the President and Minister of Education.

Earlier this year, the former Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, issued a call to Government to make the policy available so that it can be appropriately assessed. However Dr Anthony, in an exclusive interview with Guyana Times related that to date, the Party has not received a draft, of the document which outlines the plans for the development of young people as proposed in President Granger’s party manifesto. “We have not been invited to any discussions on the youth policy,” he stated.

According to Dr Anthony, under his tenure, the PPP/C had prepared a draft of the policy after widespread consultations, and as far as he is aware, it is the same policy that the now Government has revised. “When the PPP was in office, we had a draft policy that was done with assistance from the Commonwealth Youth Programme, and a number of other external consultants. So there was a draft that we did, and I understand the new Government took that and is revising it, but we haven’t seen what has come out of what they have revised,” he related.

He explained that the draft that the PPP/C had procured was compiled off of the input of persons nationwide and covers a wide range of youth-related issues. “What happened is that there were a lot of consultations. We had people from across the regions, and young people talking about what they would like to see in the Policy. We also had a questionnaire which we sent out to people to get their thoughts. So from the ideas that people put forward, we were then able to prioritise some of these ideas in the policy itself. The one that we had drafted included things about job creation, youth funding, and what young people wanted to do…for example start their own business and things like that. So a lot of that was included in the plan,” he stated.

Finance Minister Winston Jordan during the presentation of Budget 2016, revealed that allocations were made for youths: “There is significant allocation of resources for training at both the technical and vocational levels and in youth entrepreneurship. This budget allocates resources to deal with youth unemployment in a holistic way. Training will be done in literacy and numeracy, counselling and guidance and youth small business development.”