CTPD CALLS FOR YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN THE ECONOMY

By Lumbiwe Mwanza

IT is unfortunate that prior to the national budget presentation, financial experts and other economists were engaged to provide analysis and expectations yet young people’s views continue to be left out, Centre for Trade policy and Development (CTPD) has said.

CTPD Executive Director Isaac Mwaipopo said that it is for this reason that an initiative called “The People’s Budget competition” was implemented with the aim to provide a platform for young people to participate in economic issues, build their capacity on public speaking and ensuring that many young people took a leading role in addressing the various existing socio-economic challenges.

Mr. Mwaipopo said that this initiative focused on creating networking platforms between the Government and the young people taking into account that the many economic challenges experienced in the country called for concerted effort.

“Every time the budget is presented, we have seen many financial experts and other economic players providing their expectations and analysis but we continue seeing many young people being left out. It is for this reason that as CTPD, we thought of coming up with an initiative that would provide a platform for young people to interact with the Government officials themselves to build their capacity in public speaking, and make them become more familiar with economic issues.

“With this initiative, the concept is to ensure that young people have a broader understanding of economic issues especially with regard to budget presentation and tracking,” Mr. Mwaipopo said.

He emphasized on the need to address the existing economic challenges that range from high cost of living to unemployment in Zambia adding that these needed young people’s involvement.

Meanwhile, a participant in the CTPD People’s Budget season 3, Kapaipai Lyongasanta said that youth engagement in economic issues could lead to social transformation and engagement in a range of ways.

Mr. Lyongasanta noted that there was a gap in terms of youth engagement by the Government and that this is why more stakeholders should come on board and emulate CTPD in closing up the bridge.

He said that the Government, in collaboration with the private sector, should explore mechanisms and modalities aimed at effectively engaging young people from across the country on matters of the economy as fostering national development was not a responsibility of the Government alone.

And winner of the season 3 People’s Budget Enock Lupikisa expressed gratitude to CTPD for championing young people’s involvement in critical national matters.

He said that attainment of development in the country was the responsibility of all, hence the need for young people to develop interest in key national matters.