Pictured: Bougainville’s future. Young people were out in force during the recent chocolate festival in Arawa.
The young people of Bougainville are reportedly calling for a special seat in the parliament to be reserved from 2020 for youth representation.
Coming off the back of International Youth Day on August 12, the Post Courier reported that Bougainville’s youth have been meeting in various forums over the past five years to discuss issues of importance to them.
According to the youth representative in the office for community development, Cletus Banak said the young people he had met with had identified the need for a delegate in the parliament a priority agenda issue.
“We want the ABG to look at this matter seriously and include a reserved seat for the youth in the upcoming ABG elections,” he said.
Youth development has long been identified as a priority by the ABG and back in 2012 the Bougainville Youth Policy was adopted to “empower young people to be productive and to actively participate in all forms of development attaining sustainable life and be responsible to their families, communities and the region”.
Resourcing constraints have presented difficulties in terms of advancing the youth agenda, however, some gains have been made through programs such as Carita’s Bougainville Youth Initiative which attracted funding support from Australia.
Some of the activities aimed at empowering youth have included training and skills development in areas such as cocoa production, brickmaking and financial literacy. Industry and business development are considered essential for creating employment opportunities for young people.
Organised sport is also an extremely important constructive outlet for young people and promotes unity and positive spirit in communities.
Empowering young women and encouraging them into areas of leadership is a further extension of the youth development agenda as women have been traditionally underrepresented at leadership levels.