Albert Einstein’s quote, “creativity is intelligence having fun”, will live it’s meaning come August 11, 2016 as over 200 young people drawn from all corners of the Northern Region of Ghana, gather in Tamale to express their views on youth development issues, and as well, demand responsiveness from duty bearers through artistic paintings among other innovative approaches at the 2016 Annual Youth Forum.
The Annual Youth Forum (AYF) remains one of the flagship events of Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL), a leading youth NGO in the Northern Region.
The Project Coordinator, Youth Speak Up Project at the Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL), Clement Boateng explained: “The forum seeks to provide a platform for young people to decide on an advocacy message to be presented to government and other key stakeholders in youth development”.
This year, YEfL is collaborating with Centre for Active Learning and Integrated Development (CALID), Youth Network for Sustainable Development (YNSD) and National Youth Authority (NYA) to organize the 2016 AYF and other activities to mark the 2016 International Youth Day, according to him.
The forum has over the years witnessed various approaches as organisers keep devising effective strategies to facilitate the engagement among the youth and stakeholders.
This year’s event, according to the Technical Advisor of YEfL, Kamaldeen Habib, will feature innovative and interesting sessions like artistic painting to give pictorial impressions of the advocacy issues while having fun.
Being an election year, the 2016 AYF among other things, will also discuss the role of the youth in ensuring peaceful election. This informed the selection of the theme for the event, “One Ghana, One People: Youth Must Act For Peace.” Youth of various political parties in the region will also participate and commit to promoting decorous political campaign and peaceful election.
Characteristic of the AYF, all key advocacy issues will be compiled in a form of communiqué and presented to the government through Northern Regional Coordinating Council for action to be taken on those issues.
African Eye Report
