District Directors and Officers of the National Youth Authority (NYA) have undergone a two-day orientation and training workshop on the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion Project (SOCO) in general and the component that focuses on youth. It was to help fashion out a workable strategy together to help in the implementation of the project in all the 48 districts in the six regions, including Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East, Upper West and Oti. The participants, who were drawn from all the 48 districts in the six regions where the SOCO project would be implemented, were taken through various sessions to sharpen their youth mobilisation and engagement skills, reorient them on how to conduct research on the ground, and how to relate with the stakeholders, as well as what the project was about, its scope and focus. It was organised by the NYA, and featured facilitators from the various agencies and Ministries partnering for the implementation of the project. Mr Pius Enam Hadzide, Chief Executive Officer of NYA, speaking during the workshop, which ended in Tamale, said it was to let the NYA’s District Directors and Officers, who ultimately would be implementing the SOCO project in their respective districts, appreciate and understand the project to ensure effective implementation. The SOCO project is a US$450 million multi-country project to be implemented in Benin, Cote D’ Ivoire, Togo, and Ghana with support from the World Bank. The Government of Ghana’s allocation is a total of US$ 150 million credit facility (Loan), and it is being led by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, and Ministry of Youth and Sports amongst others. The project aims at providing support to the northern parts of the Gulf of Guinea countries that are hardest hit by fragilities due to food insecurity and climate change, conflict, and violence. It also seeks to improve regional collaboration as well as the socio-economic and climate resilience of border communities in the target northern regions of the Gulf of Guinea countries exposed to conflict and climate risk. One of the key components of the project is youth inclusion, engagement and empowerment, hence the orientation and training workshop for the District Directors and Officers of the NYA drawn from the project beneficiary districts. Mr Hadzide said ‘The youth constitute a large portion of the population (38.2%, which is almost 12 million aged between 15 and 35 years) and that is a critical mass, and the vulnerabilities in that constituency are quite high. So, the SOCO project has a major sub-component on the youth to ensure that they are properly engaged in terms of employment, decision-making to value the country’s democratic experiment so that we can protect the country, the communities from the threat of violent extremism and terrorism.’ He said the NYA’s Youth Parliaments would be used extensively to engage the youth, adding that, there would also be community sensitisation and engagement as part of the project implementation. He said ‘We are hoping that when we begin these engagements, we can occupy our young people productively to solve the threat of extreme violence and terrorism because people are now gainfully employed. They will move away from societal issues such as teenage pregnancy, substance and drug abuse.’ Mr Hadzide emphasised that just like any other country in the world, Ghana was faced with some challenges, urging the youth ‘To be wary of people, who come to us to want to deceive us and take advantage of the difficulties that we face.’
Source: Ghana News Agency