The initiative is part of a broader strategy to streamline and coordinate the efforts of these groups, aligning them with the objectives of youth development in the region.

The workshop brought to­gether various youth volunteering organisations, including Youth Parliament, Divine Mother and Child Group, Teen Up Foundation, Red Cross, and Bebia Be Ye Fine (BBF), among others.

Speaking at the workshop, the Eastern Regional Director of the NYA, Ms Evelyn Enyonam Lotsu, explained that the region was a home for numerous youth volunteering organisations, many of whom operated independently without a cohesive strategy, leading to fragmentation within the youth volunteering ecosystem.
    

She highlighted the need to bring these fragmented groups under one umbrella, emphasizing the benefits of registering with the NYA.

“This fragmentation has prompted the NYA to take steps to bring these groups together and ensure that their activities contrib­ute meaningfully to the imple­mentation of the National Youth Policy,” she stated.

Ms Lotsu pointed out that many of these groups were unaware of the National Youth Policy and lacked a unified implementation plan.

“These groups are running youth programmes within the youth ecosystem, yet they are not fully aware of the policy guiding youth development. We want to educate them about the policy, its thematic areas, and our objectives,” she added.

A critical component of this initiative is the collaboration with France Volontaires, an organisation dedicated to promoting volunteer­ism, she revealed, adding that the partnership has been instrumental in bringing the volunteer groups together, facilitating coordination, and fostering partnerships.

Ms Lotsu emphasised that the collaboration would enable the NYA to effectively monitor and guide the activities of the volun­teering organisations.

“One of the key issues identi­fied during the workshop was that many of the volunteer groups had not yet registered with the NYA, which hindered effective coordina­tion,” Ms Lotsu revealed.

She stated that the NYA plans to encourage these groups to register to enable the Authority to maintain a comprehensive database and ensure that volunteer efforts were aligned with national objec­tives.

In his remarks, Fofogan Doku, a Volunteering Development Officer at France Volontaires, highlighted the significance of the collaboration with the NYA.

He explained that their part­nership was formalised through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on February 6, 2024, with the aim of promoting volunteerism at national and inter­national levels.

He emphasized the need to identify all stakeholders in the vol­unteering space and find common ground for collaboration to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The NYA is optimistic that through these coordinated efforts, the objectives of the National Youth Policy can be achieved more effectively, with volunteer groups playing a crucial role in the collec­tive mission of youth empower­ment in the region and across the country.