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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
SADC ministers responsible for youths yesterday deferred formation of a Sadc Youth Union after member states failed to make a quorum at a meeting held in Victoria Falls.

The meeting kicked off on Tuesday and ended yesterday with chair and host Minister Francis Nhema calling on the youth to prepare for another meeting at which he would brief his counterparts in the Southern African bloc.

After the meeting, the youth were supposed to debrief the minister on their deliberations after which he would table the decision of formation of the Sadc Youth Union.

“We wanted more youths to be here because they recommended the need for support and inclusion in food production and formation of a youth forum but some didn’t come. Maybe it’s because of the issue of funding and until another meeting is held we won’t have a decision made on the issue,” said Minister Nhema.

He said policy makers needed input from youths to make decisions about them.

“We need to balance their expectations with what we believe is good for them,” he said.

Ministers from Angola, Namibia, Malawi, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe attended while other countries were represented by high ranking officials from different government departments.

However, conspicuous by their absence were Botswana, Tanzania, Madagascar, Lesotho and Mozambique.

It is in the youth representation that the meeting could not make a quorum.

They could not discuss the issue of establishing the union, which would be mandated with coordinating issues of the youths and acting as a platform for empowerment programmes following recommendations at the Malawi meeting in April this year.

Zimbabwe Youth Council chair Admore Jokwiro lamented lack of cooperation among member states.  He implored member states to fund youth programmes.

“We couldn’t make a quorum of 10 countries. Each country was supposed to bring at least one representative and we suspect they could’ve failed because of lack of funding. The idea of such a meeting was arrived at in 2011 when it was said ministerial meetings should be preceded by youth meetings. This means we can’t pass a decision,” said Jokwiro.

He said they would reconvene as youths before the Heads of State meeting next year.

Earlier, Pan African Youth Union president Yershen Pillay from South Africa had expressed concern over the high level of unemployment which he said seriously affected youths.

“The majority of youths face a lot of challenges compounded by high levels of poverty but the positive thing about them is that they’re an asset to our developmental programmes. Let’s pull in the same direction and invite our partners to work with government,” said Minister Nhema while urging member states to support youth.

He said in the case of Zimbabwe, Zim-Asset was crafted with youth in mind where they are roped in to start projects to generate income using locally available resources.

The meeting was being held under the theme “Youth Empowerment and Participation for Sustainable Development”.