Sixty-three per cent of CARICOM’s population is young people under thirty years. Their education, entrepreneurship development, safety and security, health and wellbeing; identity and citizenship among others rights and benefits are of utmost concern. More importantly, their full participation as architects and enablers of the Region’s development is a goal that CARICOM continues to strive for.
The CARICOM Secretariat, particularly its Youth Programme has been working with Member States, Youth Ambassadors, Community Institutions and other regional and international stakeholders to design, implement and execute programmes and projects to facilitate CARICOM Member States in meeting this goal. Currently, the CARICOM Youth Development Action Plan (CYDAP), is the principal strategy that guides the CARICOM Secretariat’s work programme for this area.
The goal of this plan is to improve access to the quality and quantity of opportunities available to adolescents and youth between the ages of 10-29, and in and out-of-school. This plan takes forward the 2010 Declaration of Paramaribo on the future of Youth in the Caribbean
The CARICOM Youth Ambassador Programme was launched in Saint Lucia in 1993 by the Heads of Government to mark the Twentieth Anniversary of CARICOM and was formally instituted in 1994.
Since its inception, the Youth Ambassador Programme has contributed to increased youth knowledge and awareness of CARICOM issues and priorities; has raised the profile of young people at the national and regional levels; and has assisted in integrating the views and perspectives of young people from across the Region into national, regional and international policy and programmes. (CARICOM)
Here are some of those CARICOM Youth Ambassadors:
