16 June 2010 marks the 34th anniversary of the Soweto and related uprisings of 1976. This year’s commemoration especially takes place within the context of the first anniversary of the establishment of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), a South African agency responsible for coordinating youth development across spheres of government and the private sector.
Despite budgetary constraints the NYDA has made great strides in assisting young people access economic and skills development opportunities.
“It’s almost a year now since the establishment of the NYDA. When we launched in June last year the expectations were high, they remain high; this is not surprising as we are dealing with the largest unemployed population group. Basically the hopes and aspirations of young South Africans remain on our shoulders and we have made a commitment not to fail them,” said NYDA executive chairperson Andile Lungisa during a media briefing to launch Youth Month in Pretoria, earlier today.
Looking said looking back it has been both a period of constraints and progress, constraints mainly due to an insufficient budget allocation to the NYDA since its establishment. Most notably the NYDA adopted eight Key Performance areas (KPAs), economic participation, national youth service, social cohesion, education and skills development, information services and communications, effective and efficient management of resources, policy, lobby and advocacy and research, monitoring and evaluation.
These now serve as a guide in addressing the challenges of young people. This is achieved through supporting self-employment initiatives, linking young people to jobs and business opportunities. In assisting young people with business start up capital, the NYDA has disbursed 7 593 loans to micro enterprises to the value of R23 million, disbursed small and medium enterprise loans to the value of R3 057,354. Furthermore 4, 224 Business consultancy services vouchers were issued to the value of R33 467, 520 and in the area of skills development the NYDA is engaging 16 093 under the National Youth Service Programme.
To supplement the limited budget the NYDA is also pursuing partnerships with various organisations including some of the country’s smallest in both public and private sectors.
“We acknowledge that not all our funding should come from government and therefore we have worked hard to establish new partnerships. We have also managed to maintain existing relationships including with Nestle, Youth Build International, various municipalities and government departments,” said NYDA chief executive officer Steven Ngubeni.
With only 10 days left before the FIFA World Cup kicks off, the NYDA has ensured that young people participate in the successful hosting of this historic event. In partnership with the 2010 Organising Committee the NYDA facilitated the volunteer registration and training of 15 000 volunteers to participate in the World Cup. Currently in partnership with the South African Football Association (SAFA) the NYDA is embarking on a four week roadshow throughout the country with emphasis on rural areas to mobilise millions of South African citizens to rally behind Bafana Bafana.
“We have been met with a lot of excitement in the areas that we have visited. The mood is extremely ecstatic, and we are convinced that Bafana Bafana will receive the type of support necessary to make them perform miracles,” explains Ngubeni.
The road ahead
As part of its interventionist approach the NYDA will assist government in meeting some of its objectives including providing quality basic education where in it will engage 2 000 young people in a matric re-write programme by March 2011. On vibrant, equitable sustainable rural communities and contributing towards food security, the NYDA will engage 50 000 youth in the National Youth Service programme and help establish at least 86 cooperatives in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and Free State.
The NYDA will work towards the professionalisation of Youth Work and ensuring that youth workers are trained by March 2011. The NYDA is also heading the call by President Jacob Zuma to establish structures throughout the country, with Youth Advisory Centres to be established in all the 283 municipalities’ in-line with the NYDA mandate to facilitate the mainstreaming of Youth Development across all spheres of government. To achieve this, the NYDA needs financial resources and buy-in from municipalities, most of which have already demonstrated a keen interest.
134 Youth Advisory Centres (YACs) are already operational including at municipalities and over 152 342 young people have received information through these YACs. Ngubeni says moving forward the NYDA sets to establish NYDA Provincial Advisory Boards in all nine provinces and has already advertised for suitable candidates to apply.
“As we look set to the June month activities while we have kept core events such as the annual Nelson Mandela Lecture on 8 June, Youth Day commemoration event on 16 June, we have trimmed our activities such that there is no clash with the Soccer World Cup activities. As such we are re-affirming our call to South African citizens in general and young people in particular to support Bafana Bafana in numbers.
Let’s also welcome visitors into our country and provide them the type of hospitality that will make them return as tourists even after the Soccer World Cup is long gone,” concludes Ngubeni.
Issued by: National Youth Development Agency
3 June 2010
Source: National Youth Development Agency (http://www.nyda.gov.za)
