Delegate: Elizabeth Bucknell (18 years)
75. Ms. Bucknell (Fiji), speaking under agenda item 94, thanked her Government for supporting youth policies and programmes and for having for the first time invited a youth representative to address the Third Committee. Since young people would eventually be holding posts of responsibility, their elders had to prepare them to inherit their roles. Policies and programmes must therefore be targeted to young adults and be responsive to their needs. Accordingly, her Government intended to adopt a national youth policy designed and driven primarily by young people and key stakeholders, aimed at providing an operational framework with achievable objectives. The success of any programme or framework also required monitoring and evaluation mechanisms in which, again, young people were involved.
76. It was important to acknowledge the great role that families played in nation-building, for parents were the first role models for young people.
77. Youth activism should aim to mobilize needed support for the elders in their communities, but should also be directed at ensuring that initiatives and programmes for young people enjoyed some degree of continuity.
78. One of the greatest difficulties experienced by the young people of developing nations like Fiji was in entering the labour market. While a youth employment policy had been adopted by her Government, there must also be the assurance that the policy instruments and programmes would be adequately funded.
UN Doc.: A/C.3/59/SR.5
Cite as:
UN Doc.: A/C.3/59/SR.5, 6 October 2004, p. 11, Youth Delegate Search: https://youthdelegatesearch.org/fiji-2004/, doi: 10.17176/20221018-194937-0.