The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) Board Chairperson Andile Lungisa will embark on countrywide provincial road shows from 22 October to 12 November 2009 starting from the Eastern Cape on 22 October and finishing in the Western Cape.
The road shows are part of the processes of popularising the NYDA and outlining its eight key performance areas namely economic participation, education and skills development, effective and efficient resources management, information services and communication, national youth service, policy, lobby and advocacy, research, monitoring and evaluation and social cohesion.
During the road shows Lungisa will meet with strategic stakeholders in the youth development sector including Premiers, government and municipality officials, traditional leaders and civil society organisations. He will take this time to outline to the different stakeholders the process towards the establishment of the NYDA provincial chapters. "It is fundamentally important that we go to provinces to sell the vision of the NYDA, outline our strategic direction and receive inputs from different key role players, where necessary as the success of our work will depend on their support," says Lungisa.
He says since the merger of the National Youth Commission and Umsobomvu Youth Fund to form the NYDA, a number of provinces has moved to repeal the acts that established the Provincial Youth Commission (PYCs). "It will not be an ideal situation to create a vacuum at that level, provinces are an important tier of the structure of government, so we also want to move with speed in closing that gap," says Lungisa.
Further to that, the NYDA is planning to establish local NYDA offices in all the 283 municipalities in the country to ensure accessibility to young people. Lungisa says unlike in the past, the NYDA will ensure that young people do not walk more than 50 kilometres to access NYDA services. "We will also have mobile offices to reach even the most remote rural areas. During our provincial visits we will outline all these processes to our provincial and local counterparts," concludes Lungisa.
During the road shows Lungisa will be accompanied by other NYDA Board members; they will also visit projects run by young people including National Youth Service (NYS) projects. This forms part of the first phase of the NYDA’s provincial visits and will be followed by izimbizo where the NYDA will meet young people.
Details of the visits are as follows:
Date: 22 to 23 October 2009
Province: Eastern Cape
Date: 26 to 27 October 2009
Province: Northern Cape
Date: 28 to 29 October 2009
Province: Free State
Date: 30 to 31 October 2009
Province: North West
Date: 2 to 3 October 2009
Province: Limpopo
Date: 4 to 5 November 2009
Province: Mpumalanga
Date: 6 to 7 November 2009
Province: Gauteng
Date: 9 to 10 November 2009
Province: KwaZulu Natal
Date 11 to 12 November 2009
Province: Western Cape
For more information contact:
Siyabonga Magadla
Cell: 083 686 9016
E-mail: smagadla@nyda.gov.za
Refilwe Mphane
Cell: 084 308 5860
E-mail: rmphane@nyda.gov.za
Issued by: National Youth Development Agency
20 October 2009
