By Anna Shilongo WINDHOEK Deputy Minister of Youth, National Service, Sports and Culture, Pohamba Shifeta, says Namibia is struggling with a variety of initiatives as it seeks to address youth unemployment and poverty alleviation. Shifeta said the search for a suitable and sustainable youth initiative was mooted as far back as 1995 when experts visited some African and Asian countries to search for wisdom and an appropriate programme to be implemented. The Deputy Minister made these remarks during the opening of a Commonwealth Youth Credit Initiative (CYCI) review meeting in the capital. The meeting, which started on Monday and is being attended by 21 members from the SADC region, aims at equipping young people with the necessary experience in their efforts to establish SME initiatives as strategies for self-employment, income-generation and improved living standards. “Challenges for the youth do not only affect them alone, but all of us. The youth are the leaders of tomorrow and, to prepare them for this critical role, we need to know the ways of empowering them to be good future leaders of our countries.” Participants are expected to visit some projects in the northern part of the country. Young people under the age of 30 represent over 60 percent of the Commonwealth’s population. There are about 300 million young people aged between 18 and 30 years who are unemployed throughout the globe, while 20 percent of them have the potential to become entrepreneurs and yet less than 5 percent do. In 1992, the Commonwealth Youth ministers were tasked by the Commonwealth Youth Programme to assist national efforts that addressed and tackled the problem of youth unemployment. As a result, an international development agency dedicated to empowering young people in the Commonwealth region was established. In Namibia, the Commonwealth Youth Programme came into existence two years ago, piloted in the northern central part of the country, and so far it has made great progress with 732 youth trained in business management while 669 youths received loans; 984 jobs were also created within that period. Currently, unemployment in Namibia stands at 36 percent, of which 24 percent are youths. Speaking at the same occasion, the Director of CYP Regional Centre for Africa, Valencia Mogegeh, commended the partnership with the Government of Namibia which has facilitated many youth development initiatives. The hosting of these CYC review meetings was living testimony of Namibia’s commitment – at home and abroad – to empowerment of young people by creating and supporting the enabling conditions under which young people could act on their own. Mogegeh said young people needed tools and encouragement to play an active part in reversing marginalization, poverty, literacy, unemployment and diseases.