Roseau, Dominica. Thursday 12 August, 2010. The National Youth Council of Dominica joins the international community to recognize International Youth Day and usher in the International Year of the Youth (IYY)- 365 days of international focus on youth-oriented dialogue and action.

The United Nations asks that all members of our global village celebrate and honor the contributions of young people but also seek to understand the opinions, views and perceptions of the youth through the theme “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding.”

The National Youth Council of Dominica urges the young people of our beloved island to seek avenues to positively contribute to the sustainable development of our island throughout this period of focus and beyond.

The theme of the IYY asks that we engage our peers and the wider society in meaningful discussion especially as it relates to resolving conflicts, seeking joint solutions to problems and addressing the ills of our society.

It is the opportune time to reflect upon the current trends and direction of the behavior of young persons in Dominica. We have seen the advent and popularity of a drug culture, increase in violence and a progressive breakdown of society’s morals and values. This year offers Dominica an opportunity to frankly discuss these behavioral patterns, seek out our young people for meaningful debate/dialogue and seek to identify areas for intervention.

The National Youth Council assures the young people of Dominica that it will continue to be a voice to promote the successes of all youth and also address the realities of our island youth (unemployment and underemployment, drug abuse, HIV/AIDS and the many others).

Even as we celebrate this year, we must also remember that there still remains a lot that needs to be done to ensure youth participation in all development process that stem from policy development to implementation and we must create these opportunities for our young people. Our systems of governance need to become more youth relevant, integrity-driven and based on mutual respect. These challenges will not solely affect our youth but every strata of society. We must offer positivity throughout society and seek to:

1. Transform the plethora of policy statements and strategy documents on youth development into concrete action. Indeed history will only be kind to us if these statements of intent are reflected in real terms in our national budgets and that the requisite political will is visibly demonstrated.

2. We must abandon the misconception of young people being problems to be resolved and adopt the enlightened posture of treating them as valuable assets and strategic partners in the development process.

3. We must resolve to address the issues of youth unemployment, with due haste and in a comprehensive manner.

4. We must facilitate appropriate opportunities, relevant space and requisite moral and material support for genuine youth participation in the development process. In this regard political parties and organizations must of necessity transform their internal processes and programmatic platforms to more adequately reflect their commitment to youth empowerment.

5. We must engage young people as a positive influence and as agents of peace in our daily struggle to resolve the issues of conflict, societal crime and violence.

6. National Youth Councils and other such democratic youth networks must urgently transform into more effective and genuine youth representative youth networks.

7. International and regional entities engaged in the business of youth development must either shape up or ship out. These must become more dynamic and timely in the execution of youth friendly mandates.

“No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline.”-  Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary General