(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Youth Ambassador programme opened its three-day strategic planning and evaluation workshop yesterday Tuesday 11 December 2007, in Nassau, The Bahamas, under the theme Lessons of the Past: Building blocks for the future.

More than 30 delegates including twenty-two youth ambassadors, youth officers, and facilitators are attending the meeting at the Wyndham Nassau Resort and Crystal Palace, to engage in a comprehensive assessment of both the qualitative and quantitative achievements of the youth programme for the past three years and to develop the framework for a new Strategic Development Plan for 2008-2010.

The CARICOM Youth Ambassador Programme is a mechanism for leadership development and youth participation. Youth ambassadors, appointed annually, serve as focal points for deepening the regional integration and development process through advocacy and peer education initiatives.

Addressing the Opening Ceremony, the Honourable S. Byran Woodside, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of The Bahamas, acknowledged the Youth as “the most valuable resource and asset of the Caribbean region,” and added that “the voice of the youth has been recognized as an important dynamic in the evolution of regional strategies in youth involvement.”

“Young people are viewed …as catalysts of the development potential of the Caribbean. The participation of young people throughout the Region therefore, continues to be critical in the discourse on unity amongst Caribbean countries,” the Minister opined.

Minister Woodside commended the CYAs for what he said was the excellent work they had done in implementing the PANCAP/CARICOM Youth Ambassadors’ Mini Grant Programme against HIV and AIDS, and for leading the Region in the first private sector partnership for youth development. This was given expression in the signing on October 10 last, of a Memorandum of Agreement between Suriname’s Telecommunications service provider, Telesur and the CARICOM Secretariat, to promote youth development.

He further pledged his country’s commitment to facilitating youth participation in development and governance and ensuring continued partnership with national, regional and international levels to promote the development of young people.

In presenting an overview of the CYP, Dr Heather Johnson, Deputy Programme Manager, Community Development and Youth, underscored the need for the Community to address the disenchantment expressed among young people noting that their issues were more critical today than they were fourteen years ago when Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community acknowledged the need for youth development.

She pointed to the importance of bringing young people together “to dispel notions of problems of dissonance; to build bridges of friendships, cultural appreciation and Caribbean citizenship.”

She also noted that the outcomes of the meeting would be shared with the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development.

Interim Dean of the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors, John Darville who gave the welcome, reiterated the necessity of creating opportunities for youth to be heard, asserting that it was “their right to respected and taken seriously.”

The meeting continues with a critical review of the CYA programme facilitated by Mr Henry Mangal, Director of Youth, Saint Lucia and the presentation of the Dean’s Report which accounts for the stewardship of the Youth Ambassadors in critical areas such as promotion of the CSME; partnering in the fight against HC and AIDS and facilitating greater youth participation at the national and regional level for 2007.

The meeting will end on Thursday 13.

Contact: piu@caricom.org