Accra, Oct.17 GNA - Mr Mat Karlsson, World Bank Country Director, on Tuesday charged the youth to fight the challenges that militated against the country's development. He said it was no longer fashionable for the youth to blame governments for any economic predicament but rather to create opportunities for young people to influence the society positively. Mr Karlsson was speaking at the launch of the "Youth in Action" project in Accra organised by the Global Youth Action Network (GYAN). The Project is aimed at providing the youth with employable skills at community level in all regions in addition to promoting democratic governance.

The three-day workshop that was on the theme: "Youth in Action: Achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015=94 attracted participants from Nigeria; The Gambia; Cameroon; Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The programme also served as the 93West African Regional Workshop on Youth in Civic Engagement=94.

Mr Karlsson expressed concern about the increasing number of guinea worm cases in the Northern Region and urged the Ministry of Health and its collaborative agencies to do more to eradicate the menace. =93There was no excuse any more for the government to tell the people why it had failed to eradicate the guinea worm menace in the Northern part of the country," he said.

He also tasked the Government to do more by tackling corruption, which he described as the greatest enemy of development. Mr Abu-Bakar Saddique Boniface, Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, whose speech was read by Mr Emmanuel Amanfo, Director of Policy Evaluation at the Ministry, said the Government had launched the National Youth Employment Programme, which was expected to create 175,000 employment opportunities for the youth each year.

He said the government was also paying attention to issues of poverty, which had affected the growth, innovation and dignity of the people.

He said practical steps had been taken with the establishment of various credit schemes at concessionary rates and made available to all citizens to improve upon individual, micro and small-scale enterprises. Mr Kwame Anane Frimpong, Country Coordinator, GYAN, said the objective of the organisation was to ensure that the youth, irrespective of their sex, economic and socio-culture background as well as political affiliation or disability were empowered to develop their potentials. He called on African Leaders to undertake research-oriented approaches to solve the multiple challenges facing the youth and to provide sustainable and comprehensive interventions that would promote the welfare of the youth.