By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
June 13, 2023
In a move to lessen the inequality gap seen growing among opportunities for youth in employment, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) saw the return of its Youth forum previously known as Vybzing, with its launch on Tuesday in St Lucia rebranded as Youth for Innovation and Resilience (Youth FIRE).
CDB’s Projects Director, Mr Daniel Best in addressing those gathered for the conference says the forum is geared at listening to the needs of the youth as part of its 2020 youth policy and operational strategy, while the bank understands that it will not achieve its “key development goals if our young people are marginalized and excluded. Consequently, the bank’s and investments and strategies, as well as all partnerships continue to evolve to build an enhancing capabilities of our young men and women across the region”.
He added that CDB remained “committed to facilitating this by creating seats at the table for the youth”, reminding those present of words of CDB President, Dr Gene Leon, who often shared that “across history no human right, no fundamental change in our societies has ever been granted graciously therefore in these trying times for us as small Island development States you must take the future into our hands”, with the youth being at the core. He says this meant being “bold to augment or even refashion these solutions to fit our reality, the Caribbean’s reality”.
Best added that “young people have the ingenuity and creativity for this mission for such a time”, and noted that “interventions must be supported by adequate and appropriate resources which aren’t necessarily readily available”. He noted that it was imperative to bring the discussion to this year’s meeting, where mobilization of thoughts and resources were put forward.
Kenson Joel Casimir, Minister of Youth Development and Sports, Government of Saint Lucia urged participants in the Youth FIRE Forum to dig deep and find their passion and spoke to the Youth Economy currently being established by his government.
He highlighted that some 200 applicants had been received in under six months since its establishment, which urged the country’s youth to turn “their hobbies into innovative ideas that can breathe sustainable development for country to take their talents and turn it into entrepreneurship”. To this he called on this demographic to find their USP, Unique selling proposition and think of “what sets your business apart from others? What can you as a young person deliver to your community to your country that perhaps nobody else has thought of?”
But it was Raphael Saul, Motivational Speaker in delivering the Ignite Talk at the Opening Ceremony of the Youth FIRE Forum, who urged participants to be courageous, ignite their passions and capitalise on this “kairos moment”.
In doing so, he says they held the power to catapult the region in entrepreneurial growth, he reminded the youth of their ancestors of which the Caribbean was built upon. He did however note, the current circumstances that were faced, including the coming of the heels of a global pandemic that threatened to be stabilized everything that was done to build nations in the last 50 years, as well as the ravages of a global climate crisis, a situation of our making and to which we made no contribution but of which we, Saul said despite being the victims, the region now has to come up with the “courage to make the kinds of decisions that are required to improve our level of economic and physical resiliency”.
And while he noted that it took courageous “leadership on the part of our political forces, policymakers, and regional development partners to make decisions that drive our development forward even where some of those decisions are met with political despair with the potential to compromise political capital and the interests of regional development”, Saul said it takes courage to also develop “a legal and regulatory framework that makes sense of the world we currently live in as an empowering and enabling environment, and rather than a disabling and invalidating in one, and courage to make those kinds of policy decisions that are required to create the infrastructure needed for our region to grow and develop”.
During the three-day youth forum, its expected that members will undergo personal and professional development and capacity-building training relevant to their roles in the Network. This year has been themed “Youth, Innovation and Inclusive Economic Empowerment.”