CARICOM Youth Ambassador puts report recommendations forward
ZIZ News…February 12, 2010 – The recommendations put forward from the report of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development (CCYD) have been endorsed by the heads of the Caribbean community.
That’s according to St. Kitts and Nevis’ Caricom Youth Ambassador (CYA), Ian Richards who was speaking with ZIZ News about their national role upon returning to their respective countries from the youth development summit in Suriname.
He told ZIZ News that the young people presented a copy of the report to Prime Minister Douglas early last year and since the summit, all heads have been in receipt of the document. Mr Richards spoke of the next step to achieving their goal.
“We would have consultations with the Youth Department and the Minister of Youth and also the Prime Minister to encourage them to pay specific attention to the recommendations that comes out of the report. Of major importance is that it calls for the need to invest more in young people and the Prime Minister himself signaled that in a message he sent to be read at the conference.”
The Youth Ambassador continued, “We want to hold him to his word. We want to see all Prime Ministers and Presidents in the region demonstrate the political will to say that this is what the young persons are asking for. This is what we can do to help them and actually go out and do it.”
Aside from the need to invest more in young people, the youths also expressed genuine concern about the proliferation of small illegal weapons. Mr Richards says they requested that the issues be addressed with haste.
“It is a perception that is really there in the region and it is one that is a reality now in many countries. We want to see the proliferation of small weapons addressed as urgently as possible. Not only does it affect young people but all nationals. Every country needs to be safe, especially those promoting tourism. Crime and violence will eventually create an environment that is unproductive and unsafe for persons to live.”
The Youth Ambassador stated that hopefully all that was discussed between the CYA’s, national representatives and heads of government will be immediately transformed into practical, effective and efficient plans of action.