Addressing the needs of young people by deepening the focus on youth employment, entrepreneurship and education programmes, including access to reproductive health information and services, is an ‘agenda’ that is advanced by United Nations member states including Lesotho. The National Youth Policy reflects the need for a consolidated effort on youth empowerment including meaningful participation in decision making platforms and engagement in design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes.The Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) aims at providing strategic guidance to the UN system as a whole in its work with and for young people. The youth constitutes is 39.6% of the overall population. This is a large cohort which could significantly contribute to the country’s economy and social growth if an intensive and meaningful investment to high quality education, health care, skills development in young people is implemented. At the same time, youth development continues to be constrained by persistent obstacles at all levels. As a social group, young people face major challenges that are increasing in complexity and magnitude. The minimal engagement limits inclusive development programmes and leads to programmes that are not responsive to youth needs. The Youth Advisory Panel builds on existing programmes and relies on reporting mechanisms for data collection which are already in place. The YAP provides an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen inter-agency co-operation and joint programming for and with young people.
