Star Ghana Foundation, has officially announced commencement of implementation of its maiden edition of Action for Youth Development ( “Our City Project”) in Koforidua Eastern regional capital to empower the youth to active part in activities of New Juaben South Municipal Assembly.
The Action for Youth Development project funded by BOTNAR Foundation launched in April ,2023 aims at building capacity of the youth and duty bearers so that young people will be factored in the work of the assembly.
It falls under phase 2 of the Action for Youth Development dubbed “Our City Project” and it is to enable the various youth advocacy groups in the New Juaben South Municipality to present their proposals to the duty bearers so that they can align their development agenda with the initiatives of the youth.
Four youth groups in New Juaben- Divine Mother and Child Foundation (DMAC) , Bibia B3 Y3 Fine (BBF) , Youth Parliament and AFES have been selected as implementation partners.
Addressing the media in Koforidua , the Programs Manager for the Action for Youth Development Project- Star Ghana Foundation Dr. Ernestina Tetteh said “the project was launched in April 2023 here in Koforidua and what we embarked on was to introduce the project in the municipality and then go on to engage partners that will implement the project”.
She explained further investigation the partner implementing groups ” submitted their ideas to us and the team of experts that we have brought they got feedback from us then after the two days we gave them experts to help them put the ideas they’ve brought the input they got from us into fully developed proposals and they had their accompanists to hold their hand through out the development process so they developed their proposals , they developed their performance plans and they also developed the budget for their projects.they came back to us we gave them feedback we held the series of meetings for clarification and strengthening of the proposals that they had presented and having been satisfied with what they had done , we arranged for this meeting where they could present their proposals or initiatives to the duty bearers because they are the important part of the project”
She said the three year Project has two sides of demand and supply.
” The project has two sided what we call the demand side so that the young people who are demanding services who are going to work but we also have the supply side they have to meet where the young have otherwise development will take place so we brought in the supply side to hear what the demand side have to say so that they can also craft interventions that will align to what the young people are asking for.So the essence of today’s meeting was to showcase all the processes that we have gone through to arrive at today’s point to also allow the duty bearers to hear what the young people intends to do so that they align their development agenda with the initiatives of the young people” she said
Dr.Ernestina Tetteh stressed that the proposal of the four youth groups are viable and achievable .
“The proposals of the young people is viable , the proposal addresses the objective of the Action for Youth Development project dubbed “Our City Project.The Our City Project aims to have a municipality where young people are informed and have the competencies and capacity to engage the in the governance process in their interest so that they influence governance for their benefit”.
In his address, the Municipal Chief Executive for New Juaben South Hon. Isaac Apaw Gyasi bemoaned that majority of the youth in the municipality do not show any interest in what they do as assembly.
He is however hopeful through the Action for Youth Development project, the assembly will get involvement of the various youth groups in the planning and budgeting of projects going forward to cater for the needs and aspirations of the youth.
He finally entreated the youth to take advantage of the initiative and lobby from their assembly members since the assembly members are the decision makers at the general assembly meeting.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
