Africa-Press – Zambia. United Party for National Development (UPND) Secretary-General, Batuke Imenda says youths have the solutions to challenges they are currently facing and has urged them to be innovative.
Speaking when he launched the UPND National Youth and Sports Development Policy Framework in Lusaka yesterday, Mr. Imenda said the UPND government has prioritised education in the country as it acts as an equaliser in ensuring that young people are empowered to come up with innovations that will contribute to job creation the country.
He said government is alive to the challenges faced by youths in health, education, inadequate land ownership, lack of credit facilities, early marriages and unemployment and has expressed hope that the policy framework will be effectively used to benefit all Youths.
“If there’s anything this country knows is going to workshops and come up with very beautiful documents that will never ever see the light. I hope this particular one will be used or being promoted by your committee to ensure that the Youths really benefit from the actualization of this framework” he said.
Mr. Imenda further called on the business community to provide employment opportunities for youths stating that the private sector has a greater potential to create more jobs in the country.
And speaking at the same event, UPND National Youth and Sports Committee National Chairperson, Prudence Chinyama said the policy framework document seeks to address the identified mismatch between the skill needs of industry and what is supplied from the vocational and tertiary institutes and that the Committees mandate is to ensure that you Youths are equipped with employable skills at different levels of the economy.
Ms. Chinyama said the implementation of the policy document is expected to loop over the red tape between youths and government agencies as it builds institutional capacity to implement the action plans at all levels as enshrined in the UPND manifesto.
She said the framework is expected to be replicated in all districts of the country and address the needs of all the Youths irrespective of their social, cultural, religious and political backgrounds in order for it to be successfully implemented.
“We are alive to the fact that our Youths are from various social, cultural, religious and political backgrounds. Therefore the success of this policy framework and its implementation shall depend on the ability to manage and address the Youths needs without being selective nor segregative” she said.
Meanwhile, youth representative Mwangala Sipuma said young people are the potent power to the development of every nation and that the Zambian young people are ready to engage with government and provide entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for Youths.
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