The Department of Youth, Sports and Social Services plans to launch the Nyeri County Youth Development Policy (NYPD) next Wednesday.
The document, the first of its kind in the greater Mount Kenya region and third in the 47 counties, was ratified by the Nyeri County Assembly last year after approval by the Governor Dr. Mutahi Kahiga’s Cabinet.
The Policy is anchored on the need to have a strategic approach that will help address the challenges facing the youth, whose numbers stand at 203,400 out of the county’s total population of 759,164 persons according to the 2019 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data.
Among critical thematic areas contained in the document include health and well-being, Labour and employment, skills development, agriculture and agribusiness, environmental sustainability for climate Action and Radicalization and Prevention of Violent Extremism.
While addressing the media in Nyeri, the county executive for Gender, Youth, Sports, and Social Services Esther Ndung’u said they have invited both government and non-government actors for the official launch of the document to help come up with a multi-pronged approach in addressing challenges affecting young people.
She similarly underscored the critical role of the media in disseminating the contents of the policy document to the public insisting that this is key to ensuring as many people as possible get acquainted with what the county is doing towards tackling challenges affecting the youth.
“The youth policy document began in 2020 during the Covid pandemic crisis and we engaged youth from all the sub counties where each sub county had 100 youth. We took their views, their voices were heard and incorporated in the document. After that process the document went through various stakeholders who also validated it and gave their voices.” she told reporters.
“A total of 12 thematic areas were identified including health and wellbeing of the youth. We know youth are affected and they have issues including mental health, sexual and gender-based violence, drugs and substance abuse.”
Among strategies the document proposes in tackling issues affecting the youth include empowering them to participate and contribute to the socio-economic development of the county, promote the holistic health of young people and develop youth-oriented approaches to access healthcare.
Other interventions include promoting youth participation in community service, volunteerism, peace building and focusing on life skills, career development, employability, entrepreneurship and talent development.
Ndung’u noted that youth being a critical segment of the most productive segment of the county population are needed in policies that will not only pull them out of poverty, but also be at the forefront in coming up with remedies to the problems affecting the society today.
“We are talking about the youth bulge where issues of unemployment are the number one. There are so many youths who are coming out of university and other institutions of learning but they lack employment. We are also addressing the issue of underemployment and unemployment because many of the youths have skills which are not in line with what you have. The media is a key player in this process and for now they have a better understanding of what this youth policy is all about,” she added.
This initiative aligns with the department’s mandate to develop programs that engage the youth, promote sports, tackle challenges such as drug addiction, and introduce modern solutions to improve the quality of life.
By Samuel Maina
