RENOWNED sociologist Ndangwa Noyoo could not have been more apt when he described the youth as a critical component of Zambia's human development.

In his book on the social policy and human development in Zambia, Dr Noyoo said the youth needed to be nurtured because they were an important generation that would lead the country into the future.

Undoubtedly, Zambia is not short of future leaders because out of a population of over 12 million, the youth comprise the majority at 7.8 million representing 66 per cent.

Unfortunately, this group is among the worst-hit by socio-economic hardships such as unemployment, HIV/AIDS and drug and alcohol abuse. According to the 2000 Census report, youths aged between 15 and 25 years constitute three million of the total unemployed people in the country.

Realising the difficulties that the youth face and the social impact on the overall economy, a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are already working with several communities to empower the youth with life skills, to harness and develop them into productive citizens and future leaders.

For instance, the Child Fund Zambia recently constructed and handed over a K160 million modern youth resource centre to Chief Bundabunda of the Soli people in Chongwe.

The centre in Chitemalesa area covers a catchment area of more than 5,000 residents and is among many aimed at helping the youth jump-start self-employment activities. On its part, the current Government has launched National Plan of Action (NPA) to economically empower the youths through monitoring and evaluation of all programmes, projects and activities in the country.

The NPA was born from the first consultative meeting in Kabwe held from December 2-7 2007, where youths from all nine provinces were invited to make an input into the draft document designed to cover the period from 2009 to 2015.

The plan is a component of the 2006 NYP, which drew together stakeholders from the ministries of Education, Community Development and Social sevices, Science, Technology and Vocational Training and Labour and social security.

Others are the Office of the Vice-President (Land Resettlement), Zambia National Service (ZNS), Barclays Bank PLC, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The NYP was formulated in order to guide implementation of youth programmes and mitigate the deteriorating and prevailing national socio-economic conditions.

It targets all categories of youths- the vulnerable, those in rural areas, out of school, on the street, girl child, school dropouts, orphans, the disabled and those in prisons and reformatories. The NYP was also designed to promote equal access to socio-economic and employment opportunities commensurate with ability, potential and needs of all vulnerable youth.

According to the NYP booklet, the Ministry of Sports, Youth and Child Development shall promote equity of access for youth who are at risk and those who are most vulnerable.

It says the key driving force for the equitable provision of services to the youth will be the promotion of appropriate and modern technology. The ministry will improve the bridging of the technological gap that perpetuate imbalances of the rural or urban, rich or poor, abled or disable.

"The NYP policy underscores the need to promote a gender inclusive approach to development of youth in public, private sectors and civil society. "It seeks to promote gender equity including working to eliminate all forms of gender discrimination and violence," the booklet reads.

It is against this background that the NPA was launched by the Government. The plan is a national strategy, which aims to serve as a guide for the implementation of the country's youth policy in order to realise the expected outputs.

The policy is driven by the need to attain the goals in the NYP, the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Other instruments are the Copenhagen Commitments on Social Development, the Commonwealth Youth Programme Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment (CYP), Global commitments on Youths Rights, Convention for Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

And the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the Africa Youth Charter, the National Constitution of Zambia and the World Plan of Action for Youth (WAPYA).

Sport, Youth and Child Development Minister, Kenneth Chipungu said the plan was a significant tool to assist the Government to track how far youth programmes and resources allocated are serving the intended objectives. "Its implementation will help the Government to effectively measure performance of the youth development programmes towards meeting the global, national and international commitments," he said in a speech read for him by his deputy minister, Angela Cifire.

Mr Chipungu says the Government has developed NPA to operationalise the 2006 NYP, taking into account issues arising from the national documents such as FNDP, the Vision 2030.

Others include the National HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), sexual transmitted infections (STIs) strategic plans, MDGs, Africa Youth Charter and the World Action Plan on Youth.

Other than empowering youths with skills, the Government also provides them with capital, land and equipment. The Government is also working on character building, behavioural change and intergration into society for the youths' sustainable livelihood.

"This NPA which is being launched is expected to help alleviate some of the challenges being faced by our youth today," Mr Chipungu said.

And some youth organisations have welcomed what they termed as the long awaited NPA adding that it would transform the livelihood of many youths. "The youth plan is a milestone in the promotion of the youth programmes in the country," said Operation Young Vote (OYV) president, Guess Nyirenda.

Mr Nyirenda appealed to all stakeholders to access the NPA and identify roles that they could play in realising sustainable youth development in Zambia.

He also appealed to the Government to find ways of reducing bureaucracy and red tape that would impede implementation of the NPA.

New Generation Party (NGP) president Humphrey Siulapwa said his party was pleased with the policy because it was an essential tool to improve the standard of living among the youth.

Mr Siulapwa said the youth document was important as it gives direction on how the Government intended to improve the livelihood of the youth within the stipulated time.

"As NGP, we are happy with the Government move to launch this youth NPA and we shall support especially that its focus on us the youths who are future leaders of this country, " Mr Siulapwa says.

After the youths have spoken, it remains to be seen how the NPA will be implemented.