jb speech during meeting with malawi human rights youth network

Speech By

Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda

President of the Republic of Malawi

During

The Meeting with Malawi Human

Rights Youth Network

at

Kamuzu Palace

on

Monday, 7th April, 2014.

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His Excellency Chief Justice

Richard Banda, SC (Retired);

Rt. Hon. Sosten Gwengwe,

Peoples Party Presidential

Running mate and Minister of

Industry and Trade;

Hon. Clara Mary Makungwa,

Minister of Gender, Women

and Children Affairs;

Hon. Enock Chihana, MP,

Minister of Youth and Sports;

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Mrs. Hawa Ndilowe, Chief

Secretary to the Government;

Dr. Kingdom Kwapata,

President, Malawi Human

Rights Youth Network;

Mahimbo Mdoe, UNICEF

Resident Representative;

Senior Government Officials

here present;

Representatives of Youth

Organisations represented

here;

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Distinguished Ladies and

Gentlemen.

I welcome you all to Kamuzu Palace

this morning.

It is with great pleasure that I

interface with youth representatives

in my capacity as Head of State and

Presidential Candidate of the mighty

Peoples Party in the May 20

Tripartite Elections.

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Let me congratulate the organisers

of this function because it will afford

young people an opportunity to

interact with Presidential aspirants

on their plans as regards young

persons in our country.

Young people remain the focus of

my government because we realise

that the youth are in majority,

energetic, adventurous and they

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need support for them to actively

participate in nation building.

Education is an instrument for

empowering the poor, the weak and

the voiceless as it provides them

with equal opportunity to participate

in local and national development.

Education helps to develop the

youth of a nation.

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Children and youth in general have

been at the heart of my work. This

has influenced my policy perspective

in developing programmes and

strategies in empowering young

people.

Against this background, that the

Peoples Party embraces education

as a tool for the creation and

expansion of human capacities and

abilities.

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Distinguished Ladies and

Gentlemen,

The youth—those aged between 15

and 35 years—represent a

significant proportion of our

country’s population. Many of them

are unemployed. Many more have

not completed their education. And

indeed those who have gone to

school still lack appropriate training

and skills to help them obtain a

decent job.

8

My Government recognizes that if

we have to realise our vision to

eradicate poverty and create wealth,

we need to harness the potential of

our youth and provide them with the

means and opportunities to fulfill that

potential. Our future rests on their

success. Their future is our

success.

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Distinguished Ladies and

Gentlemen,

Creating full and productive

employment for our young people is

key to promoting sustained

economic growth and alleviating

poverty.

The most recent Welfare Monitoring

Survey (2011) estimates that youth

unemployment is around 96 percent,

with females slightly higher than

males.

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Of those that are employed, the

majority, about 81 percent are

engaged in farming where they do

not receive regular salary.

Youth unemployment has dire and

far reaching effects on our economy

as it has negative impact on

productivity and economic growth.

Unemployed youth are more

susceptible to negative influences,

to perpetrate or fall victim to crime

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and indulge in risky behaviours. It is

no coincidence that the HIV/AIDS

rate among young people is high,

given the strong links between HIV

and AIDS, youth and poverty.

Distinguished Ladies and

Gentlemen

Our country, therefore, needs

innovative strategies and programs

to spur economic growth and

generate enough jobs for our

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growing youthful population. As

government we realize that

education, both academic and

vocational, forms the hub of any

development process and agenda.

Education occupies a central place

in the development of an individual

and is a key investment for society

as a whole. It is an instrument for

economic transformation. It is an

instrument for empowering the poor,

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the weak and the voiceless as it

provides them with equal opportunity

to participate in local and national

development. Education helps to

develop the youth of a nation.

Against this backdrop, my

government embraced education as

a tool for the creation and expansion

of human capacities and abilities.

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Distinguished Ladies and

Gentlemen

However, before I turn to the many

youth programmes and initiatives

that my government has put in place

in the past two years let me share

with some of the many initiatives

that I have undertaken in my

personal capacity in the area of

children and youth empowerment.

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Distinguished Ladies and

Gentlemen

Children and youth in general have

been at the heart of my work. This is

a journey that started more than 30

years ago.

In the area of education, I founded

the Joyce Banda Foundation

schools in Blantyre.

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Regarded as one of the centres of

academic excellence, the schools

provide high quality education to

children from middle income earning

families. In the area of orphan

education, I established the Joyce

Banda Foundation secondary school

for orphans at Domasi in Zomba.

The school is free and currently has

a total of 200 children.

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In order to reach out to more needy

students, I established the Edith

Mtila Scholarship Programme that

provides scholarships to deserving

youth. Currently, I am supporting

over 3,000 students at secondary

school level; 200 university students

in all the constituency colleges of the

University of Malawi. I also have

three girls who are pursuing

university education in the United

States of America.

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This year I am sending a total of 20

students to pursue various university

programmes abroad. Out of these,

10 will be going to Russia to study

medicine; 8 will pursue civil and

mechanic engineering at the

American University in the United

Arab Emirates. 2 will be going to the

United States. The students are with

us this morning and may I ask them

all to stand.

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You may also wish to know that I run

36 orphan Care Centres across the

currently.

The Centres support well over 3,600

orphans with elementary education.

In the area of youth empowerment, I

established Youth Movement for

Development (YOMODE). This is a

whole programme under the Joyce

Banda Foundation which targets out

of school youth with various

economic programmes.

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These include the Kabaza Initiative.

Under this programme, we are

providing motor cycles to our youth

both in urban and rural areas. This is

an on-going programme and we

hope to reach out to over 500,000

youth in the next 5 years.

In the area of sports development,

through YOMODE, we have

introduced the K100 million inter-

constituency trophy.

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This is a sports initiative that is

under way and targets youth both in

rural and urban areas.

Turning to government programmes,

my government fast tracked the

review of the 1996 Youth Policy. I

am pleased to report that the

National Youth Policy was approved

by Cabinet on 8th August, 2013 and

eventually launched by myself on

12th August, 2013.

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National Youth Policy commenced

without delay and so far a number of

activities have taken place that

includes:

1) Launch of the National Youth

Service Programme on 2nd

November, 2013 in Neno.

The programme promotes

skills development and

agriculture. It seeks to

empower the youth so that

they are economically active.

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Already, Neno Integrated Youth

Development Centre was

founded on zero waste

concept where products from

one agricultural side is used on

the other. Pilot centres for this

programme were already

identified and include; Neno

integrated Youth Development

Centre, Mikuyu in Zomba,

Mbelwa Farm Institute in

Mzimba, Ntonda in Ntcheu and

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Hewe in Rumphi. The

programme is expected to

spread out to the remaining

defunct Malawi Young

Pioneers bases.

2) National Youth Policy

dissemination has taken shape

as already the media, District

and town Assemblies have

been made aware of the policy

and their role in the

implementation process.

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Plans are underway to

disseminate the Youth Policy to

various stakeholders that

include, youth NGOs, Private

sector and faith based

organisations.

3) Youth Enterprise Development

Fund (YEDEF) still remains an

engine for youth's self

employment. Assorted

equipments are provided to the

youth on loan to enable them

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contribute to the manufacturing

industry. Soft loans are also

provided as this is the key bank

for the youth. My Government

is considering recapitalising the

fund in the next financial year

to enable more youth access

the loan and intensify loan

repayment.

4) In the area of youth

participation and leadership,

my government endeavoured

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to include young people in

various decision making bodies

that include; High Level

Development Council,

Parastatal Boards; Civil

Service; Cabinet and to sum it

all the appointment of

Honourable Sosten Gwengwe

as my running mate in the May

20 polls. I pledge to consider

more young people in positions

of influence.

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5) Job experience is vital for our

youth who often times are

denied opportunity of

employment because of lack of

experience. It is for this reason

that my government is working

on National Internship

Programme within the civil

service and after the

completion of vacancy

assessment, we shall be

expanding this programme to

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target private sector, civil

society organizations and

development partners.

6) Youth health as a right requires

government to take appropriate

steps to ensure the safety of

lives of young people. It is for

this reason that my government

is promoting: sexual

reproductive health;

programmes dealing with the

fight against HIV and Aids,

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child labour and early

marriages among young

people.

7) In the area of talent

identification and development,

programmes such as

Presidential Initiative on Sports

help to unveil raw talent in

sports which is good for the

development of our junior and

senior national teams.

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Distinguished Ladies and

Gentlemen

I have moved away from podium

rhetoric to action on the ground. I

regard the youth as leaders today

and tomorrow. It is therefore

important that you get involved in

the development of this country

through your active participation in

all sectors.

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I am committed to see to it that the

youth of Malawi are the engine for

development. In this regard, I will

endeavour to allocate more

resources to the youth sector. I

would also like to urge all young

people to be proactive.

Distinguished Ladies and

Gentlemen, I thank you all for your

attention!

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