Development of youth policies falter

18 Jun 2019

Zeyar Linn (Ngapali) | DMG

18 June, Thandwe

A youth policy for Myanmar was finally initiated in November 2017 after youths across Myanmar tried for many years to inaugurate a policy that specifically safeguards the rights of youths.

However, some challenges are faced when it comes to implementing these policies because they are not completely compatible with the regional situation, said Ko Phyo Thet Paing Oo, chairman of Youth Affairs Committee in Thandwe district in Arakan State.

“The youth policy looks good on paper and in theory. But we face difficulties to put it into practice because the policies were drawn up for the whole country, so some provisos are not congruent regionally,” he said.

Ma Saung Hnin Wei said that youth affairs committees were formed in each district to initiate youth policies and the committees are comprised of officials from different government departments but the cooperation of departmental officials is weak.

“Currently, we face some problems working for the committee because we did not receive cooperation of officials from government departments. In Thandwe district, the situation is worse than other districts. When we want to hold an event and make requests to governmental officials, they say they don’t know where our group can formally register for public events. In one way it appears to be gross negligence aimed at the young generation,” she said.

Ko Zaw Htwe Naing, consultant of Thandwe district Youth Affairs Committee and a representative of the Arakanese youth group for the Youth Policy Drafting Committee, said that he is not satisfied with how youth policies are being developed.

“The execution of some youth policies have some flaws and there are delays getting required results. All Arakanese youths including young people from Thandwe are not pleased with the current situation. We’d like the process to move faster. We did not see any effective activities for health care services, education and war refugees. Although it’s intended for the development of youths, there are no effective activities for youth affairs. So, I’m not happy with it,” he said.

Young people across Myanmar held discussions and forums in their regions and states since 2012 to draw youth policies.

An Arakanese youth forum was held in 2016 in Minbya Township and a paper was presented about the Arakanese youths’ policies. Youths from different regions and states could decree the youth policy on a national level on 8 November in 2017.