September 3rd, 2007: The Ministry of Social Development – Department of Youth and Culture, is busy preparing for the Inaugural National Conference on youth and development. The conference, which will be held from the 27^th – 28^th September, is designed as a mechanism to involve young people in decision making. This is reflected in the theme, Promoting Youth Involvement in Governance – The Future is Now!

The conference will bring together young people between the ages of 13-30, to discuss and formulate recommendations on various issues of National Development. It is anticipated that in addition to creating a mechanism whereby young people can participate in decision making, the conference will provide an opportunity for young people to be educated about national development issues and for government policies and development strategies to be informed by a youth perspective.

Some of the strategies to be used to achieve the stated outcomes will include; the presentation of papers by young people and public and private sector professionals; interactive sessions with policy makers; open caucus sessions and the drafting of a conference paper outlining the recommendations of the conference.

The Ministry of Social Development – Department of Youth and Culture, is requesting the support of all to make the conference a success. Businesses are being encouraged to become a conference partner by providing time-off for young people to attend, while young people are being encouraged to assist in setting the agenda by participating in the various issue based surveys to be administered across various media over the following two weeks.