NYC validates national youth peace, security report

By Omar Bah The National Youth Council has validated the country’s first national youth peace and security report response to the UNSCR2250 and UNSCR2419 resolutions 2015. The report is intended to examine the role of young people in the implementation of the UN resolution 2250, which is focused on peace and security. The report, prepared by Fabakary Kalleh, a former Youth Ambassadors chairman, covered many issues affecting young people in The Gambia and put forward recommendations to tackling them. Speaking to The Standard on the sidelines of the validation organised at Nana conference hall, the NYC executive director said the report is necessitated as a result of growing conflicts in West Africa and the Sahel Region. “The implementation of this resolution is important to bring young people onboard to contribute their parts because often young people are the front runners of conflict and some of the times they become victims or even perpetrators of violence,” Mr Lamin Darboe told the gathering. He said in an effort to get their voices onboard and be able to ensure that they play pivotal role in prevention of conflicts is essential. “The UN resolution 2250 which came to be being in 2015 is looking at certain pillars in terms of youth engagement in peace and security. “These pillars will include participation, protection, prevention, partnership and most importantly engagement and integration. In The Gambia, he added, we take this very important because often people take young people to be perpetrators of violence and often when duty bearers are talking about peace and security they only concentrate on those in uniform forgetting the common civilians especially the young people,” he said.   Challenges of young people NYC, he added, as the body serving as interface between young people and government, recognised some of these issues which include unemployment and marginalization, are negative factors that could fuel conflicts. “So it is essential that government respond to some of these issues with all urgency and be able to address it. If that did not happen then we will have a constituency that is not satisfied and we know when you have dissatisfy citizens what that means,” he stressed. Darboe said although there has been increased in terms of budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Youth and Sport and its satellite institutions in 2018, the NYC has not receive all the funds allocated to them in 2017.]]>