Take Part in Finding Solutions to Problems Confronting Nation, Nts'ekhe Urges Youth

The Department of Youth Affairs held a three days workshop from September 22 to 24   at Mohale Lodge, in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project area to introduce the youth to national, regional and global programmes, including Vision 2020; the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP); the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and; the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).  

The workshop also aimed at assisting the youth to appreciate how their plans can be integrated into the above programmes, so that they can benefit from the resources associated with them as well as prepare a National Youth Development Programme to be implemented in the short and medium term. 

It was also to try expand the draft bill on the National Youth Council in the light of national and regional best practices and in addition, ensuring that all issues of interest and importance of the youth are addressed in the bill.  

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the Assistant Minister of Gender, Youth, Sports and Recreation, Mr. Hlonepho Nts’ekhe said the workshop aimed at transcending preoccupations with the National Youth Policy and instead confronting issues that currently challenge the whole nation and its initiatives.  

Interrogating whether the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme can operate effectively and efficiently at the level of youth development; what the youth had in store as strategies for their development in order to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are achievable in the near future were some of the questions that would help capacity building, Mr. Nts’ekhe said. 

“Looking to the future, there still remains a scope for more strategic partnership and collaboration on youth affairs at all levels, including local, national and international,” the Minister said, adding that the significant role played by organizations such as the Commonwealth Youth Africa Region and NEPAD in youth development is worth noting.

28 September 2004