The consultant of the National Youth Council (NYC) working on the mid-term review of the National Youth Policy, recently met with the youth committee of Banjul as part of the review process.
Held at the Banjul Youth office at Lassowarf, the meeting was attended by ten people from all the constituencies in Banjul.
The National Youth Policy, 2009-2018, is a 10-year youth policy of The Gambia. It should have been reviewed in 2013 but could not “due to technical reasons”.
The NYC has now received funding from The Gambia government, UNESCO and UNFPA to review the document.
The consultant, Burama Kebba Sagnia, said the review will monitor and evaluate the 10-year policy to see whether the implementation process is on track.
He said there might be issues now that are of more concerns to the youth but which were not captured in the policy because during the preparation some of those issues might not be a concern.
Mr Sagnia said the review would take note of some of those issues particularly illegal migration to Europe through the Sahara desert and the high seas.
He said the review process will involve as many stakeholders as possible so that relevant adjustments can be made to the policy.
One of the key recommendations from the meeting with the Banjul youth committee was the need for active youth representation at the level of the National Youth Council and more involvement of the youth in the council’s budget allocations.
