Pacific youths call to be included in decision-making

Pacific youths call to be included in decision-making

Auckland, New Zealand, 14 September 2011 - “Life is full of challenges, but when these challenges affect our rights, when these challenges are too great to overcome on our own, we must call for help…we ask our leaders, our communities to let us work alongside them,” said Merewalesi Nailatikau, UNICEF Pacific Regional Ambassador.

These sentiments were echoed by other youth leaders presenting during the Officials’ Side Event on “Youth Matters NOW: Investing in Young People for a Secure, Prosperous and Sustainable Pacific” as part of the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting held in Auckland last week.

“We need opportunities, we need service delivery, we need resources…we need capacity building and partnerships through education and training, as well as support for safe and open space for dialogue, and affordable and access to communication technologies to encourage young people to be part of national decision-making processes,” said Fale Lesa, Committee Member for the Wansolwara Youth Pacific Conference.

Leinasei Simon, President of the Vanuatu Youth Council said that the strongest challenge facing young people, in particular young women, is unemployment in the Pacific region. “We urge policy makers to undertake positive investment and youth development through effective policies, evidence based programmes and proper resource allocation.”

Kim Ario, Private Secretary to the President of Nauru spoke of the experience of Nauruan youths today who she referred to as the “lost generation.” She said that as the country gets back on track for development, the challenge for Nauru is to ensure that young people also progress with the development and are not left behind.

Tana Umaga former All Blacks captain and Founder of the Tana Umaga Youth Foundation talked about the importance of supporting youth through employment, sport and empowerment in decision-making While he commended the secondary schools New Zealand and more recently Australia and France who recruit Pacific Islanders from the Pacific Islands to play rugby, he called for guidelines to be in place with focus on education as well as sports. He said too often, many young men have nothing to fall back on after secondary school.

Dr Jimmie Rodgers, Director General, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) said that youths needed to realize that “it’s not the government or your parents who is always going to do things for you, although they need to provide the enabling environment to do so, but the original vision to make a difference needs to be generated from every single youth.”

Cameron Noble, UNDP Conflict Prevention Advisor at the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat emphasized that it was important for young people to go to their leaders to hold them accountable to deliver on youth issues as recognized in the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Communiqué. In the Communiqué , the “Leaders acknowledged the need for greater action in mainstreaming youth issues nationally and regionally, increasing employment and other meaningful opportunities for youth, and including the voice of youth in decision making.”

The findings of two recent reports were also presented, the “Urban Youth in the Pacific: Increasing resilience and reducing risk for involvement in crime and violence” by Mr. Noble and the “State of the Pacific Youth Report” by Ms Nailatikau.

The side event was organised by Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat with assistance from Pacific Youth Council, UNDP Pacific Centre, SPC, UNICEF, ILO, UNFPA and Commonwealth Youth Programme.

ENDS

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