Kuwaiti Youth Council...fresh crucial springboard for young empowerment

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Report by Mubarak Al-Ajmi KUWAIT, April 27 (KUNA) -- The planned Kuwaiti Youth Council is a core part of relentless efforts exerted by the country's Political leadership to stimulate and spur youngster involvement in society.
The idea of creating this body caps the directives of His Highness the Amir to enable young people to demonstrate excellence and creativity, and even to listen to them on their needs and hopes.
The fledgling agency is purposed to keep abreast of a worldwide youth development drive involving councils for young people with a view to propping up their participation in decision-making.
It constitutes a young advisory framework for analyzing the conditions and needs of young people, promoting their societal involvement, reflecting on their issues and finding solutions to them with the ultimate goal of promoting national identity and developing dialogue and communication with them.
Making up 72 percent of population, Kuwaiti young people enjoy much care and attention on the part of the country's political leadership, with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah having instructed the holding of major events on youth.
Addressing a parliamentary session on February 15, 2012, His Highness the Amir emphasized that it was imperative to fulfill the expectations and hopes of young people, provide them with jobs and encourage them to play a constructive role so as to serve their own society.
His Highness the Amir also directed the holding of a national youth conference aiming at capitalizing on their capabilities and skills for the sake of their nation.
Accordingly, young people joined a preparatory youth council including non-governmental organizations, which would be interested in key youth and social issues.
The agency came up with a national youth document that encompassed solutions to many problems and issues that bug youth in the country.
The document involved 10 recommendations in the fields of promoting citizenship, education, small and medium-sized enterprises, housing, health, legal and administrative development, human and sports development, environment, culture, arts and literature.
His Highness the Amir asked the Cabinet to take concrete moves to implement the recommendations enshrined in the national document by means of setting up relevant bodies, overhauling laws and programs and highlighting their requirements.
In this context, youth police-makers decided to create an entity that would reflect the hopes of young people in the country, so a decree was adopted on January 26, 2013 for establishing the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs.
The ministry was tasked with exerting national efforts to stimulate and launch integrated and holistic strategies, policies, initiatives and programs to ensure the development of societal youth participation.
In 2015, another edict was adopted for creating the Public Authority for Youth (PAY) to pay more heed to young people who are the real wealth source of the country.
The authority is meant to spur youth involvement in societal activities, safeguard national unity, maintain national identity and ensure balance between rights and duties.
It is also working to create the Kuwait Youth Council which is mainly intended to beef up young presence in society and launch partnership between young people and state agencies in line with Kuwait's 2015 development vision.
As an advisory body, the council will handpick, by a random drawing, 36 members from all the six governorates of the country; three males and three females from each governorate, in addition to a secretary.
Furthermore, the agency should comprise a number of people with special needs as per the PAY's regulations.
The council's members should be between 18 and 34 years old and should have got at least high school certificates with no criminal records.
The also ought to have experience in voluntary activities, knowledge of youth affairs and issues, and to have communications with young people.
Finally, several state agencies have adopted initiatives and programs purposed to help young people and encourage them to live up to their due role in various domains in the society. (end) msa.tb.mt

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