Takoradi, June 16, GNA - Mr Philip Kwesi Nkrumah, Shama-Ahanta East Metropolitan Chief Executive, on Thursday urged the youth to be involved in the designing and implementation of programmes aimed at reducing youth unemployment. He was launching Governance Issue Forum (GIF), an institutional mechanism to promote effective civic participation in public policy, at Takoradi.

The GIF is the brainchild of The Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), a policy think tank, to address youth unemployment. It was under the theme: "Civic Participation in Poverty Reduction". Mr Nkrumah said many programmes to address the problem failed to make the desired impact because people who were not youths drew them up. He said the active participation of the youth in the fashioning of such programmes would enable them to embrace it.

Mr Nkrumah said the country should also come out with a policy on the problem, pointing out that many youths did not possess the requisite skills for employment and the drop out rate at all levels of education was alarming. He said many government programmes were unknown to the majority of the people and this affected the country's democratic progress and development.

Papa Assan, Western Regional Coordinator of the National Youth Council (NYC), said youth employment policies should be linked to macro-economic policies and poverty reduction strategies. He said: "The best approach for addressing youth unemployment is the design and implementation of macroeconomic policies that can expand overall employment opportunities".