By Ramatoulie Jawo
The National Youth Council of The Gambia and its partners are preparing to host the third edition of the Youth Connekt Gambia Summit.
The summit, which is expected to attract 350 young people from across the country, will take place from October 23-25, 2023 at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Centre under the theme “The moment for the youth, action for social economic development.”
The summit aims to promote policy dialogue, program harmonization, and partnerships to achieve the goals of Youth Connekt Africa in The Gambia and to inspire and galvanize support for Youth Connekt activities in the country.
In a recent press briefing, Alhagie Jarju, the Executive Director of the National Youth Council of the Gambia, outlined the goals of the upcoming Youth Connekt Gambia Summit. He highlighted that the summit aims to encourage policy dialogue, robust investment for youth, and partnership to achieve the goals of Youth Connekt Gambia.
“The intention of the summit is to first and foremost encourage policy dialogue, robust investment for youth and partnership to achieve the goals of youth Connekt Gambia, we also intend to strengthen the ecosystem to actively participate and support the implementation of the recovery focus national development plan, the AU agenda 2063, the National youth policy 2019 – 2028 and the United Nations sustainable development goals,” he highlighted.
Mr. Jarju added in terms of working towards achieving the goals, they are ensuring Gambia bridges the gap between the different ministries and regions by bringing together government leaders, and policy influences to implement youth policies, and share knowledge and ideas that assist others in achieving their own goals.
“In terms of programming, the youths Connekt Gambia recognized current youth initiatives that are aligned with initiatives and goals in other to provide a platform for working together to achieve our goals. These programs will also help in terms of measuring, monitoring, and maintaining effective efforts that are consistent with youth Connekt objectives,” he said.
Mr. Jarju, the National Youth Council Coordinator, said that Youth Connekt Gambia is seeking partners and collaborators from the commercial sector, government institutions, UN Agencies, and NGOs to help deliver the program.
Basiru Jaye, the Youth Connekt Gambia Focal Person, emphasized their level of participation in the summit.
“On our level of preparation in few months back we established the National organization committee for the youth Connekt it’s drawn from different diversified groups, and the youth organizations from different sectors came together and also shared our ideas and also made the Connekt summit one of its kind,” he said.
Mr.Jaye, said there are different entries in the applications that one can use to participate in the summit
“Over 1,000 young people applied for the general Youth Connekt Edition, a significant increase from the previous edition, which received less than 500 applications. This represents a doubling of the number of applicants, which is a positive sign for the program. Out of the over one thousand applicants, 125 were shortlisted. Of these, 66 were females and 59 were males.”
In addition to the 125 reserved slots, the summit will also have slots for different sectors. It will take a format of open dialogue, panel presentations, breakout discussions, exhibitions, and patching competitions.
Since the launch of the initiative in the Gambia in 2019, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, National Youth Council, and UNDP have initiated and rolled out flagship programmes linked to the various goals of Youth Connekt.