Some Eighty-three
young men and women, ages 18-35 from ECOWAS forteen Member States yesterday
round-off a one month intensive training in integrated agriculture
entrepreneurship at the Songhai Centre, Porto Novo, Benin Republic, on 29th
October 2013, under the youth capacity building programme of the ECOWAS Youth
and Sports Development Centre (EYSDC) based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
This is the 7th Edition of the capacity-building programme organized by the
Center aimed at training ECOWAS youth in a wide range of vocational skills
acquisition. The youth will be trained in poultry and crop farming, pastery
making, soap production and other forms of cultivating, processing and storage
of food crops.
The youth and Sports Minister of Benin presided over the closing
ceremony, where the graduates were given their certificates in the various
fields, which they have excelled.
The ECOWAS centre promotes integration of cultures and human and social
development through sports, training and capacity building, collection and
management of database and network administration, collection of
information/data relating to youth associations as well as Information, Communication and Telecommunication (ICT) training. All these activities seek to contribute to the Community’s youth empowerment and employment initiatives, including the ECOWAS Volunteer Programme.
Other activities/programmes of the Centre include youth employment and poverty alleviation, youth on the prevention and settlement of conflicts and peace consolidation, as well as development and promotion of traditional sports and games.
More than 200 other community youths have also been trained by the EYSDC in Building and Electrical Wiring at the Soufouroulaye Centre in Mali between 2008 and 2010, while another set of youths have been trained in Air Conditioning, Refrigeration and Motor Mechanic at the Burkina Faso’s Reference Centre for Professional and Vocational Training in Ziniare.
In addition to the 29th October graudating class, the ESYDC would have trained 520 community youth in integrated agricultural entrepreneurship since 2007.
ECOWAS
