Caribbean youth are working towards the implementation of the revised Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Regional Youth Ambassador (RYA) programme. RYAs will be trained to function as activists and advocates for regional integration, Caribbean Unity and Youth empowerment; and to design and implement community-based youth development and empowerment programmes.
For just under two hours on 5 February, 2001, the CARICOM Secretariat convened a meeting to build consensus on guidelines and procedures for the RYA programme. The meeting took place via the University of the West Indies Distance Education Center (UWIDEC) and delegates comprised Directors of Youth, Senior Youth Development Officers and Youth Ambassadors from the following countries: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the CARICOM Secretariat. Suriname experienced technical difficulties in linking into the teleconference.
The meeting identified constraints to the development and implementation of national programmes and defined the proposed eligibility criteria, role and function of RYAs. Highlights included the identification of core knowledge and skills required for effective RYA functioning, specifically; networking; community mobilisation; strategic planning, project development; group facilitation; proposal writing; and peer counseling. The guidelines proposed for a leadership development workshop scheduled to be held in Suriname later this year is that it should be “hands on”and provide opportunities for RYAs to test their skills in a practical setting and to interact with youth in their communities.
The delegates were up-beat on the process of consultation and networking with Departments of Youth, Youth Non-Governmental Organisations, international youth ambassadors and other key stakeholders, and saw this as a means of ensuring effectiveness and relevance of programme design”
The meeting identified the primary source of institutional support for the RYAs at the national level as the National Youth Councils and Departments of Youth Affairs, and requested the Secretariat to coordinate the development of models of joint supervision and evaluation.>
The CARICOM Regional Youth Ambassadors’ programme was mandated by the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community as one element of the Community’s Twentieth Anniversary celebrations in 1993; and endorsed by the Conference as a continuing regional priority in 1996. The existing programme guidelines were developed in consultation with the Regional Youth Ambassadors in July 2000 and approved by the CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) in October 2000.
