NEPAD forum ends in Yaounde

By Rachel NtubeNgwese in Yaounde

Philomon Yang

An International Rural Development Forum has ended in Yaoundé with participants schooled on ways and means of enhancing youth economic empowerment and the socio-economic development of rural areas in Africa.

                Organized by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the two-day forum brought together hundreds of participants from across the continent including leaders of youths associations, agricultural and development experts for a working session to draft ways of transforming Africa’s rural regions through the effective implication of youths.

                According to the moderator of the forum Mr. Martin Bwalya of the NEPAD Agency, the 2011 Summit of AU Heads of State recognized the challenges faced by rural communities and called for an integrated development initiative to promote rural transformation as a pathway to improving rural employment and livelihood opportunities,; facilitate national economic development and sustainability, and ensure exchange of information on best practices on rural development from local to global scale.

                In this regard discussions were based on challenges regarding demographic growth, pressure on natural resources, employment creation and economic diversification in the implementation of new development strategies for job creation in the rural areas, through planning, education and training, financing and an effectively orientated government policy.

                During the opening ceremony of the forum that was chaired by Cameroon’s Prime Minister Philemon Yang, the second edition of the NEPAD Atlas was handed over to the Prime Minister. The atlas focuses on the theme of the forum: ‘Transforming Africa’s rural areas through skills development, job creation and youth economic empowerment’. It provides a reference situation for future work on a new emerging rural community perspective on African rural transformations.

                After two days of serious brainstorming, participants took some major resolutions focused mainly on the empowerment of youths and the socio-economic transformation of the rural communities.

                It was observed that African youths have the necessary potentials of transforming the history of Africa and thus should be accompanied by a well orientated national economic policy in each state. If these measures are effectively implemented then the way forward as will be seen in the next forum will be numerous job opportunities in the rural areas and the redynamization of the African youth.