Pacific Youth Strategy 2010 - Youth Empowerment for a Secure, Prosperous and Sustainable Future

At their 2004 meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, Pacific leaders agreed that we need to ‘listen to the needs and aspirations of the burgeoning population of young people in the region, and recognise the impact of bigger and more youthful populations on the resources required for education and vocational training, health care, and job opportunities’. In support of this vision, the 4th Meeting of the Conference of the Pacific Community convened in Koror, Palau on 18 November 2005 adopted the ‘Koror Statement on Youth Empowerment for a Secure, Prosperous and Sustainable Future’. The Koror Statement set the tone for the deliberations of the 2nd Conference of Youth Ministers of the Pacific Community convened in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea from 5 to 7 December 2005, which resulted in the adoption of the Pacific Youth Strategy 2010 (PYS2010) as the regional framework for youth development in the Pacific region to the year 2010 and beyond. PYS2010 represents an important milestone for the Pacific region. With the vision of a secure and prosperous Pacific Community, whose young people are healthy and manage their resources in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable way, PYS2010 is a genuine commitment to putting young people first by recognising their needs and concerns and providing a comprehensive roadmap for realising and unleashing their development potential and thereby addressing their needs. At the heart of this strategy is a set of clearly articulated components designed to produce positive outcomes for young people towards 2010 and beyond. In summary, the strategy provides exciting prospects for young people to be able to access integrated educational opportunities, nurture sustainable livelihoods, lead healthier lifestyles, build stronger communities, benefit from effective national and community mechanisms for addressing youth issues, and strengthen their cultural identities. To achieve its purpose, PYS2010 also includes a system of information gathering and analysis to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of planning and delivery of youth services in the region as well as measuring the impact these services have on young people.