Kaduna, May 06, 2007: Young people are asking for the inclusion of critical issues related to their development into the second National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS 2). As part of the ongoing consultations being carried out by the National Planning Commission, Development Partnership International (DPI) and the Nigerian Youth Network on the Millennium Development Goals (NYNM) with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have been mobilizing young people to meet in each of the 6 geopolitical zones to identify and highlight priority issues affecting them through youth position papers, in order to ensure that these issues are clearly reflected in the final NEEDS 2 document.

In the Southwest, young people identified the need to: invest massively in information and communication technology (ICT) education, ensure that the education curriculum is market driven, and make the various micro credit schemes across the country youth friendly to enable young entrepreneurs access resources to start-up or expand their businesses. In the Southeast the key issues focused on agriculture, land reforms and the need to provide incentives through a reward system that will encourage young boys to attend and remain in school until tertiary education. In the south-south region, where the core states of the Niger-delta are, the young people called for: a policy system that will guarantee 30 percent of professional and 70 percent of low cadre jobs for communities where oil and gas companies operate, the establishment of a Niger-delta Youth Development Agency and the provision of insecticide treated mosquito nets to young people in boarding schools and hostels at secondary school and tertiary levels respectively, in order to protect them from the scourge of malaria. NEEDS 2 will be Nigeria’s development framework for 2008-2011 and will seek to reduce poverty levels by 30 percent through employment generation and wealth creation. The draft strategy circulated at each meeting has proposed the creation of 13.7 million new jobs by 2011, as well as other critical interventions in fifteen thematic areas in order for these goals to be met.

The draft youth position paper in the North- is calling for the establishment of youth related mechanisms to track progress with the implementation of NEEDS 2 over the next few years. One such mechanism is the establishment of a Nigerian Youth Expert Panel on NEEDS 2 to work with the various state monitoring committees on SEEDS and NEEDS, to ensure that youth specific indicators in the various thematic areas are being implemented.



Contact: Rotimi Olawale rotimi@youthaidscoalition.org 0805 770 4111

Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima dabesaki@developmentpartnership.org 0805 518 2526