(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The CARICOM Commission on Youth Development (CCYD) is preparing its regional report on findings of a research done on the situation of Caribbean youth which will be a major input into its report to the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community.
As a result, the Commission is engaged in a flurry of activities designed primarily to highlight, to the Region, some of the key issues emanating from the research.
One such activity was a two-day regional sensitization workshop held in Antigua on 25-26 May. This workshop was organized by the CARICOM Secretariat with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to develop a plan of action for a regional sensitization campaign and to train approximately 30 young people to implement this plan within their countries and communities.
The workshop explored several critical areas in designing communication campaigns, including advocacy skills and strategies, factors influencing media choice, the behaviour of target audiences and message development. The workshop also explored appropriate communication strategies and new media technologies to advance the messages of the Commission’s work.
At the end of the two days, the participants, who were drawn from youth organizations across the Region, had developed messages to be tested for the campaign as well as a plan of action to implement a regional campaign to sensitise the Caribbean youth population to the Commission’s report.
Following closely on the heels of that workshop (27-28 May) was another meeting designed to commence preparations for the staging of a regional knowledge fair and a cultural exposé, which will showcase Caribbean youth excellence in a broad array of areas, including, entrepreneurship, education and the cultural, visual and literary arts. The Regional Knowledge Fair is scheduled to be staged in Suriname later this year.
The CARICOM Commission on Youth Development which was launched in March 2007 has a mandate from the 26th CARICOM Conference of Heads of Government to provide an analysis of the challenges and opportunities for youth in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME); and to make recommendations on how to improve their well-being and empowerment.
Since the research was completed, the Commission has been working assiduously with the CARICOM Secretariat to validate the research findings and to solicit feedback from stakeholders across the Region which led to a regional vision and strategic framework for sustainable youth connectivity and engagement.
In December 2008, the Commission met in Haiti to discuss quantitative and qualitative preliminary research findings and to develop a plan of action to complete the Commission’s Report. It is anticipated that the Eighteenth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) to be convened in Jamaica next week will also discuss research findings.
On Saturday, 30 May Commissioners will meet in Antigua to commence the process of developing Caribbean Development Goals (CDGs) and updating the Regional Strategy for Youth Development as part of their recommendations to the Heads.
