By Antoinette Abbah.
Ghana’s Senior Presidential Advisor, Yaw Osafo-Marfo has said that unemployment and poverty continue to make African youth vulnerable to conflicts.
He expressed the need for African leaders to put in place mechanisms to ensure that the youth do not take to violence and guns as a means to demand what is due them.
Mr. Osafo Marfo said this at the opening of an Inter-Ministerial Consultation and Implantation of Violence Mitigation Strategy Workshop in Accra. He challenged African leaders to address issues such as socio-economic development, governance, security and youth inclusiveness to prevent conflict and unrest on the Continent.
The Country Structured Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment, CSURA, and its resultant Mitigation strategy, seek to empower AU Member States to identify the structural socio-economic and political factors that must be addressed to prevent violence in the future. The Inter-Ministerial Consultation workshop is to provide guidance on modalities for the implementation of the mitigation strategy Report.
The Senior Presidential Advisor, Yaw Osafo- Marfo, said poverty and youth unemployment are the major causes of violence on the Continent. He, therefore, charged the Consultative Committee to tackle weaknesses that make the continent susceptible to violent conflicts. Mr. Osafo -Marfo also urged the committee members to come out with actionable and implementable recommendations to help AU Member States to deal with violence.
A Representative of the AU Commission, Keh Kamara, said there is the need to redouble efforts to prevent conflicts by addressing deep-rooted issues such as poverty, poor governance and environmental and resource-related challenges.
The 25-Member Inter-Ministerial Committee is expected to among other things identify and endorse priority areas and an estimated budget for the implementation of Ghana’s Structural Vulnerability Mitigation Strategy by relevant Ministries, Department and Agencies.
