By Patience Rashai

Cabinet has approved a new bill which sets to incorporate youths through the establishment of Youth Focal Desks in all Government Ministries and Departments.

According to the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry, the Principles of the Zimbabwe Youth Bill sets to be inclusive of as many youths as possible as the current one only provides for the Zimbabwe Youth Council and  is silent on all the other aspects of the youth.

“The objective of the proposed Bill is to have an all-encompassing legislation that addresses all sectors/areas of the youth, align it to the Constitution, as well as the domestication of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the SADC Declaration on Youth Development and Empowerment,” she said.

Among other things, the Bill will provide for, the empowerment of the youth and their indispensable contributions to sustainable development; the mechanisms for active and meaningful participation of youth in nation building by mainstreaming them in social, economic and political spaces; and the establishment of Youth Focal Desks in all Government Ministries and Departments at all levels.

The Zimbabwe Youth Council (ZYC) said that this move would certainly go a long way in ensuring that youths are cooperated in all sectors of the economy as well as capacitate them in the development of the country.

“The Council had for long coordinated, and supervised activities of youth clubs and facilitated youth participation from the grassroots to key national events, and this move would surely lessen this overwhelming task,” said the ZYC.