Inadequate funding and limited awareness on the Nation Youth Policy have been attributed to factors that are contributing to the poor implementation of some key areas in the youth policy.

The observation has been made at a validation workshop for the development of the new national youth policy held in Lilongwe on Tuesday.

According to various stakeholders, a lot of flagship programs for youth development outlines in the 2013 – 2018 policy have failed to be attained due to, among others, limited funding, and lack of coordination among stakeholders.

Youth and Society (YAS) Executive Director, Charles Kajoloweka, who is leading the review of the youth policy, said there is need for government and key partners to work on the challenges in the new policy to ensure meaningful youth development.

Kajoloweka said: “As a matter of advocacy, as Youth and Society, we are very much interested in assessing how much we have implemented in that policy in terms of gains and lessons that will assist in contributing to the review of new policy.”

During the workshop, YAS shared a preliminary report to allow inputs from the stakeholders before it is consolidated.

“Once this report is consolidated, we will share with the government because the idea is to ensure that the new policy must benefit from the evaluation that we are doing,” said Kajoloweka.

He said key issues that were highlighted and agreed by stakeholders from the findings of the study include under-funding towards strategic institutions, weak coordination among different stakeholders, failure in implementation of the policy and lack of awareness among the youth and stakeholders about the policy itself.