Youth Participation In Programmes Intended To Benefit Them: The Case Of Ghanaas National Youth Employment Programme

Abstract

The essence of governance and representative democracy is for elected leaders to formulate and implement appropriate policies on behalf of the people to deal with the quagmires of poverty and under-development among them In doing this sometimes it becomes necessary to consult the people especially the particular group that a policy is targeted at to ensure that first-hand and adequate information is gathered to facilitate the design and implementation of appropriate policies to deal with that group s problems In Ghana since 1992 development plans have been formulated and implemented with little or no participation of the youth even though they constitute the bulk of the nation s labour force and voting population The youth were also marginalized in the formulation and implementation of the National Youth Employment Programme a programme intended to benefit them and to deal with unemploymnt among them