The CARICOM Youth Development Action Plan (CYDAP) is currently being finalised by a Technical Working Group (TWG) which was convened on Wednesday 7 October, at the CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Guyana.
CYDAP aims to support the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) by articulating a framework to facilitate greater access to and the quality and quantity of opportunities available to young people between the ages of ten to twenty-nine (10-29) at school, community, national and Regional levels for their safety and security; optimum education, skills, values, health, well being and empowerment; and full social, economic and political participation in society as architects and enablers of development.
The CARICOM Heads of Government, in 2007, established a Commission on Youth Development to undertake a full scale analysis of the challenges and opportunities for youth in the CSME and make recommendations to improve their well-being and empowerment. The CYDAP resulted from deliberations by the Commission.
A monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework to accompany the CYDAP is also being finalised by the working group. The M&E Framework is expected to facilitate measuring the progress in implementing the CYDAP and measuring adolescent and youth well-being and empowerment at programme, national and Regional levels. It also aims to institutionalise the use of M&E as a tool for improving programme implementation and management, transparency and accountability.
According to Programme Manager Culture and Community Development at the CARICOM Secretariat Dr. Hilary Brown the Technical Working Group (TWG) is reviewing the priority actions, benchmarks and indicators of the CARICOM Youth Development Goals in the current draft of the M&E Plan of the CYDAP. She said that the recommendations of the TWG will be reviewed and finalised by Directors of Youth at their Eighth Meeting in Guyana on 19 November and the revised M&E Plan will be presented to the Twenty-Ninth COHSOD on Youth and Culture for review and endorsement.
Dr. Brown, in addressing how the CYDAP and M&E plan would feed into the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) said that they would contain the agreed goals, targets and indicators at the Regional level by Ministers of Youth, for which CARICOM governments will be accountable for measuring progress towards youth development. She also explained that the plans highlighted the priority areas on which Member States have agreed to focus and towards which investments in youth development could be directed. The medium- to long-term expected benefit is, as stated in the CYDAP Vision Statement, “secure, valued and empowered adolescents and youth realising their full potential and contributing to a sustainable Caribbean Community”, Dr. Brown said.
Guyana‘s CARICOM Youth Ambassador, Mr. Adrian Alfred, who was part of the TWG,said he was happy to be part of the working group. He said participating in the finalisation of the document provided a learning opportunity and gave him a chance to have an input in the decision-making process. He said he looked forward to seeing the final document and assisting with its implementation.
Senior Director, Youth and Policy Development from Jamaica, Ms. Michele Small-Bartley, who was also a member of the working group, said participating in the group allowed them to align their individual areas of work with the CYDAP. She said it also helped them to look at some of the salient areas and structures that needed to be addressed in achieving the goal of effective youth development within CARICOM.
The CYADP is being developed with financial and technical support from UNICEF. The working group concluded deliberations on Thursday.
