11/08/1998
Mr President
His / Her Excellencies
Distinguished guests
Please allow me to express my sincere gratitude and pleasure for the great honour and priviledge afforded me to address this conference.
Please allow me to share the Lesotho's status of youth. In Lesotho culture, people are considered to be young and therefore, under strong behavioural norms to obey their parents until they are married and until their parents have died. Because of this custom, young people have requested that youth is defined as being between the ages of 10 and '35 years. Under this definition, based on 1992 census in 1996, the number of male youth is hampered by their minors legal and social status, lack of access to land, livestock and capital, and inappropriate skills training. Youth's main resource is their labour. Most young people live in rural area and that Agriculture is the sector most able to provide the jobs that young people need.
The government of Lesotho has established the Department of youth to uplift the social and economic status of youth and integrate them into the mainstream of development through:
The existing activities is mainly emphasis in the programme of outreach to youth as being the building of grassroots institutions, increased support of income generating activities particularly for rural youth and more hands on vocational training in villages.
The Department consults extensively with Umbrella youth organizations, youth oriented stakeholders, non government organizations, government ministries to decide on programme priorities and implementations arragements.
Lesotho has formulated a National Youth Policy and is to be approved by the cabinet. For your information even before its approval the government, is already implementing its recommendations by the youth. The youth had recommended that the government should consider establishing a ministry of youth small enough to be able to address their issues. The government has established a new ministry of environment, youth and gender, as opposed to the Ministry of Agriculture in which the Department was placed.
Secondly, to involve the youth to fully participate in decision - making at national government for the first time in the ffistory of Lesotho a youth is nominated into the SENATE to represent the youths. The disable youths are also represented in their own status in the SENATE.
The Lesotho government has also reviewed the voting age from twenty one (21) years of age to eighteen ( 18) years of age.
The government has passed a pension act for the teachers. The voluntary age of retirement is forty-five (45) years when compulsory retirement age is fifty-five (55) years of age. This is great for it means the mature age will retire and be replaced by the energetic youth creating opportunity for the employment opportunities for the youth.
Lesotho in general is faced with a downward spiral of resource depletion, expanding poverty, increasing unemployment and environmental degradation. The government of Lesotho has initiated a National Environment youth corps project to focus only on specific problems nomely youth unemployment and environmental degradation of both the rural and urban environment, this will create employment opportunities for youth through training on environmental management and rehabilitation, training of the youth, future leaders, on proper environmental use and management rehabilitation of degraded environment and proper management of the environment. The project focuses on youth as a way of empowering them and recognizing them as a special group in the community. The national unemployment figure for Lesotho is 35% - 40% and that of youth is 65% - 70%. Taking the youth off the streets and away from drugs and crime is gwing them a future by gwing them skills for life and for self employment. This project goes hand in hand with the government strategy of alleviation of poverty specially for the youth provision of environmental education and awareness, the empowerment of youth, women and local communities.
Mr. President the gathering, taking place here in Lisbon goes hand in hand with the 1995 Trinidad and Tabago and may 1998 kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Youth Ministers meetings on the same plan of action for youth empowerment (PAYF-) in the new millennium. Today's conference is reinforcing the initiatives already in place. Lesotho like other member countries is supporting the ideas in the Lisbon declaration on youth.
In conclusion may I take this opportunity on behalf of Lesoptho government, to thank U.N. and the government of Portugal for the excellent efforts they made to prepare and organize this conference.
I thank you all.