Hear the youth!

President of the Guild of Students at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus Osazé Moraldo-Bowen is accusing public and private sector leaders in Barbados and the rest of the region of taking a “tokenism” approach when it comes to youth involvement in decision-making processes.

He suggested that there was a lack of respect for the youth, and he called for their greater involvement in the decisions being taken to solve challenges.

Moraldo-Bowen suggested that issues relating to the perception of corruption and the climate crisis were among those that could be better addressed if youth were given a seat at the table of decision-making.

He also pointed to the high cost of travel within the region and lack of business opportunities, jobs and other economic opportunities for the youth, as some of the major challenges that needed to be dealt with urgently with greater involvement from young people.

“The first step in dealing with these issues and these challenges, in my opinion, is respect – respect for young persons, respect for their opinions, respect for their perspectives and respect for their ideas. Once this respect is an axiom, it will promote meaningful youth participation and give us a real voice in shaping the solutions that can impact our futures,” he said.

According to Moraldo-Bowen, the high cost of intra-regional travel was hindering the movement of young people within the region.

“This, if alleviated, could help make labour markets more fluid, provide persons with opportunities for employment within the Caribbean and provide us [with] access to other economic opportunities that you may not have in your local economy.”

The guild president said there are other issues including corruption which leaves the youth with a general apathy towards political affairs.

“Tokenism, rather than meaningful inclusion and participation in decision-making – this particularly disarms the young persons who really believe or want to make a difference, and of course, the impending climate catastrophe that threatens our region rather inequitably,” he said.

Moraldo-Bowen’s comments came as he was addressing the European Union (EU), UWI Caribbean Youth Leaders Roundtable, which was held at the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management on Tuesday.

He stated that one of the perennial issues facing the youth was limited access to economic opportunities. He argued that while they were making every effort to educate, train and upskill, they were simply not being presented with sufficient economic opportunity to put their abilities to use.

“In the region, we have so many brilliant minds and our literacy rates are going up but we have also arrived at a point where there needs to be an evolution in the way private and public enterprises scout, hire and retain their talent,” he recommended.

“It is increasingly important to remove that bottleneck stifling us from flowing out of education and from skilling ourselves into the world and into the workforce. When I say access to economic opportunities, I don’t simply mean opportunities for employment. There are many other challenges faced by the youth of the region that tie into this and solving some of these other issues will put us in a stronger position to deal with this issue,” he explained.

Vice-Chancellor of the UWI Professor Sir Hilary Beckles identified a lack of access to higher education as one of the major concerns facing young people in the region, saying he believed this was hindering the Caribbean’s development.

“It is very disturbing to us that from Alaska to Argentina, the Caribbean has the lowest enrollment in post-secondary education, and we believe that this is precisely what is holding back the advancement of this region,” he said.

“We have not sufficiently empowered our young people with academic skills, technical skills, and the skills for innovation so they could participate in the transformation of this region. This is a roadblock that is facing us,” said Sir Hilary.

He pointed to the UWI’s decision to require new students to participate in foreign language training, saying this was one of the ways the learning institution was seeking to “empower and liberate” young people and provide them with opportunities to become “effective global citizens”.

Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner for International Partnerships with the European Commission pointed to the need for greater investment in youth development in the region..

“I believe the single greatest investment the world can make today is in young people. You are the largest generation of young people in history; a generation that faces many global challenges from climate change to conflict and from pandemic disease to inequality. You need to be part of shaping a fair, greener and more peaceful future,” she said, as she pledged the European Commission’s continued support for regional youth development. (MM)