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In an effort to harness the youth for national development, the National Youth Authority (NYA) in collaboration with a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) called Future Group with support from DFID has met directors of the various stakeholders in the country.

In the dialogue session to discuss Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health as the enhancement to national development, the Director, Organizer of Programs, Mr. Mensah-Etsibah made a passionate appeal not to only government but to private sector, parents and opinion leaders to assist.

“We hope the dialogue session will pitch all the sectors together including parents and opinion leaders to think about programs which will help the youth to be productive and responsible…Ghana’s population is very youthful and when you look at the statistics, you’ll realize that the fertility rate among young person is becoming more and more…the teenage pregnancy is on the ascendancy and it is a problem especially in the vulnerable areas. We feel that if we don’t do something about it, its future implication the country cannot bear it”, he stated.

Speaking to Peacefmonline.com, Mr. Mensah-Etsibah said the National Youth Authority acknowledges the need of government to respond with efficient policies and programs in the field education, health, skills training and employment.

He added that training young persons to become productive and responsible citizen is not a one man affair; reiterating it is the affair of all manner of people in the society.

Addressing the target group, David Logan, Team Leader of Futures Group narrated the choice for the youth is because they look up to the society, gatekeepers, parents and traditional people for direction.

He insisted before government can impact in the young people, they must first be empowered through information so that they will protect themselves and take charge of the situation around.

He mentioned that the challenge in this exercise is how to link the understanding of traditional people with the children’s right to information regarding their reproductive and sexual health.

Mr. Ernest Kofi Amoako, Director of ICT/ UN Focal Person also stated the NYA is promoting comprehensive sexuality education through this Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health for young people with the aim of spreading information about sexuality to entire country.

He stressed that with the limited resources in NYA, it has able be to team up with organizations to make sure this comprehensive sexuality information becomes part of the youth so that they can make an informed choices in their lives.

The Assistant CEO of NYA, Peter Boamah Otukono concluded that the adolescent reproductive and sexual health form the pivot around which youth development revolves; thus it is critical because the future of  the country depend on young people.

He reminded that it is very critical to make adolescent reproductive health a priority area, explaining why the NYA in collaboration with the Futures Group has invited all the stakeholders that matter to take part in this course since every sector has youth desk.