National strategy to address youth-related issues over next eight years

AMMAN — Stakeholders on Wednesday highlighted the role of the participatory approach adopted in drafting the National Youth Empowerment Strategy 2017-2025, which will contribute to enhancing its inclusiveness and efficiency.

Speaking at the first stakeholders’ forum, Youth Minister Hadithah Khreisha said the implementation of the strategy, which is currently in its drafting phase, will be supervised by an executive office that includes representatives of all stakeholders involved.

Representatives from UN agencies, civil society organisations, the private sector and the youth sector will monitor the translation of the strategy into executive measures, with an impact that young people “can feel”, he said.

Khreisha noted that the action plan and the programmes of the strategy will be covered by the ministry’s budget.

Based on five pillars, the strategy addresses health, education, peace and security, as well as economic empowerment and active citizenship.

Khreisha underlined that the issue of improving the living conditions of youth and boosting their opportunities is of international dimension.

For her part, United Nations Development Programme Jordan Country Director Sara Ferrer Olivella said the strategy will help youth-targeted efforts to be more consistent and to adopt a forward-looking approach, instead of traditional ones.

She noted that youth are drafters of this strategy, “not passive bystandards”, as the local and international stakeholders are supporting the ministry’s efforts for inclusion by providing their expertise in the sectors covered by the strategy.

While the youth-based strategy seeks to offer realistic and applicable actions for advancing the conditions of youth, it also adopts a future vision and employs international best practices, said Sami Hourani, the strategy’s coordinator.

Stakeholders want the strategy, which addresses the needs of young people aged between 12 and 30 years old, to be comprehensive and interdisciplinary, and to unify all efforts so as for the young generation.  

He said consultative workshops were held with over 600 young people across the country to identify the five pillars included in the strategy’s technical infrastructure.