PM Hails Youth Council Programme

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has commended the Local Government and Community Development Ministry and municipal corporations for their engagement and exposure of young people to the local governance framework through the Youth Council programme.

“It is an important part of leadership to identify, to groom and give exposure to the leadership that is to come. It is not a challenge to your position; it is a means of ensuring that there is continuity of good policy.

“Good leaders realise from early that… the policies of the office can only continue when you have a succession of good leaders,” he said.

The Prime Minister was addressing local authority representatives, youth mayors and members of the junior councils from the 14 municipalities, during a courtesy call at Jamaica House in St. Andrew on Wednesday (November 27).

The youth council, now in its 24th year, was implemented as a means of sensitising Jamaican youth about the operations of local government, and provides an avenue for them to play their part in the transformation of their communities.

Since 2001, as part of Local Government and Community Development Month, the sitting youth councillors have been making courtesy calls on the Governor-General, the Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition.

“I am very pleased, very happy, when I see this initiative coming out of the Ministry of Local Government and the municipal corporations,” the Prime Minister said. “It means that you will have in the years to come, indeed in the not too distant future, the human resources to continue your work,” he said.

The Prime Minister further commended the municipal authorities for their continued efforts to address the immediate needs of citizens, particularly in the areas of township development, market management and rural water supply.

Local Government and Community Development Month is being observed in November under the theme ‘Building Resilient Communities through Local Governance’.

SOURCE: JIS