Reviewing how the post- Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) framework would help to focus more on local attention as well as improving the lives of the most vulnerable in the country, the National Coordinator, United Nations Millennium Campaign (UNMC), Mr. Hilary Ogbonna has called on the three tiers of Governments, the Federal, States and Local Governments to target investment in skills development of the youth population as the best option to enhance their productivity in the labour market.
Ogbonna made the call while reviewing the report of United Nations High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
He said: “With the United Nations MDGs Acceleration Framework (MAF) focusing on decent work and reducing maternal mortality, targeting investment in skills development of the youth population will enhance their productivity in the labour market..
“There is urgent need of capturing youth education and skills training within a Post-2015 agenda to take a youth unemployment target informed by indicators such as participation rates in youth vocational training and tertiary education enrolment.” According to the Ogbonna, considering the Post-2015 development agenda, and the broad consensus that the current MDGs must not be sidelined, issues of poverty eradication should remain in focus.
“It is more important to target improvements in secondary and tertiary education whilst incorporating practical and vocational skills,” he stated.
According to Ogbonna, smart social policies such as programmes that help the unemployed find jobs or systems that provide social security to vulnerable members of our society, cannot just be considered a cost. They are an investment in our future.
“We must not be lulled into the notion that the crisis is over, that no further action is required. For the youths in Nigeria in the jobs queue, the crisis is very much with us and the queue is getting longer because on the surface, the Nigerian economy may appear to have regained some stability but the real economy is still in troubled waters,” he further said.
Source : Independent