Youth co-ordination

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) jointly with the Youth Employment Network (YEN) has assigned the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament (SLYP) to coordinate the Youth Consultation Process on the National Action Plan on youth employment.

The Programme Co-ordinator of SLYP Kumaravadivel Guruparan said This is in order to provide an opportunity for young people from different constituencies in Sri Lanka to give feedback on the recommendations of the National Action Plan for Youth Employment.

The SLYP has identified four constituencies towards this effort, namely rural youth, urban youth, youth in the plantation sector, and youth affected by conflict. Guruparan said that more than 15 amendments have been effected to the draft National Action Plan on Youth Employment as an outcome of the recent youth consultation process by the SLYP.

Several workshops were conducted by the SLYP in Hambantota, Puttalam, Matale, Batticaloa and Colombo recently and the reports from the workshops will be analysed by the Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre (SPARC) a research arm of the Department of Sociology of the Colombo University.

The facilitators for these workshops were mostly action partners of SLYP. Guruparan said that the SLYP would do its best in monitoring the proper implementation of the action plan.

The SLYP was also invited to send its delegation to a National Youth Consultation Process on the National Health Policy of the Ministry of Health and the United Nations Fund for population activities also has invited SLYP to set up a Youth Advisory Panel to review its programmes according to Guruparan.

(R.K.)