Ghana Country Director of the Mastercard Foundation, Rosy Fynn, says for Ghana to fully achieve her development goals, young people need to be given a seat at the decision making table.

According to her, with 57% of Ghana’s demographic being people below the age of 25, it is crucial for young people to be engaged on issues of national development and empowered to express their ideas in contribution to the development agenda.

She noted that young people have proven to have the vitality needed to champion change and solve societal problems and thus must be given the space and the resources to do so.

Speaking as part of JoyNews’ Newsfile’s 3^rd Edition of the ‘Joy Change Speakers’ Series’, Rosy Fynn said, “Young people must be engaged, spaces must be created for them to showcase their agency. They need to be given a seat at the table and encouraged to express their ideas. It shouldn’t just be offering them a passive seat, but we need to empower them to use the seats.

“Young people have potential and collective power and I believe that with the right guidance and so on they can really use that power for good. Being involved also makes them own problems that they see in their community and pushes them to actually make a positive social impact.”

She also called for the provision of support systems for young people to be able to efficiently tackle the development problems that plague their communities and the country as a whole.

She said, “I mentioned a few of these, access to finance, access to market, business development services, all of these are required to expand their enterprises and to create work opportunities for themselves and their peers. This I believe will enable them to realize their potential and contribute meaningfully to the development of the Ghanaian economy.”

And finally, she stressed the need for gender equality at the centre of youth empowerment. According to her, the development of Ghana will not be achieved without the engagement, participation and empowerment of women.

“I also believe more than ever that an intentional and enabling legal environment, changing societal stereotyping, access to equal opportunities and increasing women’s participation at the decision making level is crucial to achieving gender equality and women empowerment,” she said.