Mr Sasenarine Singh on business related issues. sasesin1@yahoo.com

Young people between the ages of 15 to 34 number 2.8 billion of the world's human capital, just over 45% of the world's population. This group's contribution to development and its ability to contribute need to be recognized, acknowledged and strengthened.

In Guyana, there is a high risk of loss associated with this age group through migration. Policy makers are trying to integrate this group of human capital into the development process but much more needs to be done.

The 2006 general elections saw an increased recognition of this element of human capital for participation in the electoral process by all political stakeholders. But the rhetoric is over and the role of young capital in the decision-making process and in developing Guyana needs to be seriously addressed and taken advantage of sooner rather than later.

I would like to use this article to look at how this group can be targeted to meet one of the Millennium Development Goals - Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger in our society.

MDG GOAL 1: ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER

Target 1: Between 1990 and 2015, reduce by 50%, the proportion of people whose income is less than US$1 a day;

Target 2: Between 1990 and 2015, reduce by 50%, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Poverty affects young people in a visible and personal manner. Fifteen years ago, a young Amerindian girl in Region 8 for example, living in extreme poverty, could not have attended school because her family did not have the money to pay for her to travel to school. Further, if her family could afford to pay, she did not have as an option a secondary school.

This scenario has changed dramatically as a result of determined and targeted intervention efforts by the Government in education, health and hinterland development. Now a child in Region 8 has a higher chance of finding a place in the new dormitories at the new schools in her region as well as an option to attend secondary school. Last week, over 100 students were on a plane to Cuba to study medicine.

But there are still many young persons in Guyana living in poverty and lacking access to opportunities for their own economic growth. There are young persons out there who have grown up within a strong family support system and have had enough to eat, but are lacking opportunities of decent work since our country needs more opportunities in the local economy. Youth unemployment remains an issue of significant importance that needs to be quickly addressed.

Many things can be done to speed up our responses to aggressively eradicate extreme poverty and hunger in Guyana including creating more employment opportunities. But having more youths involved in the design and implementation of poverty reduction strategies increasing commitment to address the diverse needs of youth in rural Guyana, and a greater facilitation of youth leadership in combating graft and corruption can go a long way in making young people feel more involved in the developmental process.

Youth Engagement In Poverty Reduction Strategy Processes (PRSPs)

Government needs to create a more formal mechanism to ensure more young people are involved in the refining of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) through re-invigorating the National Youth Councils and Regional Youth Councils and providing for their representation on State Boards, and other policy making bodies.

With the aid of local governments and civil society organizations, National Youth Councils and/or alternative forums for youth representation can take the lead in organizing grass root level poverty reduction consultations with young people. These fora can be the sounding board for youth perspectives in national-level PRS discussions and will ensure a hearing at all levels in Government. The PRS will then become more relevant to the concerns of youths.

Investing in the engagement of youths in the PRS may contribute to more of our talented youths staying home rather than migrating as there will be serious buy-in and ownership of the process of development, creating a sense of belonging and patriotic pride rather than distance and disenchantment in this critical mass. Identifying the needs of youths may result in the identification of the "greatest poverty-payoff". Young people, by their sheer number and vulnerability to poverty, are key clients of the PRS process and also have a huge potential to contribute to Guyana's poverty reduction efforts, especially at the grassroots and rural level.

Government needs to intensify its inclusion of young people in the fold of implementation of new projects identified for national development, as well as deepen the support for youth-led development initiatives. More youths should be consulted on the National Budget to ensure their developmental needs are adequately addressed. Just as the Private Sector bodies are consulted, the Progressive Youth Organisation (PYO), the Guyana Youth and Students Movement, VYC, Youth Chal-lenge and other youth organisations should be consulted.

Youths and Rural Development

Our development policies must prioritize the growth and development of rural areas, which have higher percentages of unemployed youths and inadequate public infrastructure as compared to the urban centres. The government has taken a step in this direction with the secondary towns project.

The government and the private sector can contribute more to support agri-based micro-entrepreneurial endeavours of young people and invest more in farming technologies that boost agricultural production.

As Walter Rodney recognized in his book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, "taxes do not produce national wealth, wealth is produced out of nature - from tilling the land or mining metals or felling trees or turning raw materials into finished goods." A vast majority of this tilling and mining is done in rural and hinterland Guyana by the farmers and workers. These are the true wealth creators in this country and they must be further supported to create more wealth.

The Bureau of Statistics Living Conditions Index (or LCI) indicates that poverty incidences are much higher in rural and hinterland communities than in urban communities. These areas are often characterized by poverty of opportunity for stable employment, public infrastructure (e.g. farm-to-market roads, post-harvest facilities, irrigation systems) and lack of adequate social safety nets with an influx of foreign agricultural products due to economic liberalization.

Rural youths, many of whom have the potential and capacity to spark increased agricultural production through innovative, eco-friendly planting practices and post-harvest methods, are widely unrecognised and thus remain untapped. They are unappealing to the official banking sector and lack access to the quantity of finance needed to change their lives for the better forever. With more support in the form of infrastructure, financial incentives, microfinance opportunities, and land reform, young people in rural areas can fuel economic growth in these agricultural regions and produce national wealth.

Recognition, however, must be shown of the huge amount of monies currently being spent in rural Guyana by the Government but there is need to focus some of these development funds to intensify the building of the capacity of the rural poor to do their own fishing rather than depend on handouts.

Local governments and the private sector can likewise tap into youth skills to erect agricultural infrastructure, such as irrigation systems and rural road networks. This experience would provide rural unemployed youths with valuable and practical skills in rural infrastructure that could then be transferred to other employment opportunities while improving rural infrastructure for the general population and thereby increasing economic opportunities. There may also be the need for a Government led national brigade to organize young people to execute small infrastructural works with support from the state in the form of equipment.

Youth Vigilance in Combating Corruption

Widespread support must be extended to the World Bank's Youth and Governance Pro-gramme. Guyanese youths must be further trained to help eliminate all types of corruption and engender whistle-blowing strategies through country-specific youth-driven anti-corruption projects. Governments must create communication strategies to inform young people on the benefits of anti-corruption which will redound to their economic opportunities.

According to the World Bank Institute, the total cost of corruption is more than $1 trillion dollars (US$1,000 billion) each year. "Countries that tackle corruption and improve their rule of law can increase their national incomes by as much as four times in the long-term, and child mortality can fall as much as 75 percent." In poverty-stricken countries, corruption, both in the government and private sector, is a chronic problem that cripples the economic stability of markets and erodes the moral fibre of society, the World Bank found.

Guyana has one of the most modern and transparent procurement laws and systems and it does contribute to improved corporate practices. But youths need to be provided with a mechanism to play a greater role in eradicating poverty by minimizing corruption. Central to solving the dilemma of corruption and good governance is the tapping into the idealism and high ethical standards of youths.

Conclusion