The United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, Ahmad Alhendawi, has pledged UN support to youth initiatives in the country.Alhendawi was addressing journalists yesterday after meeting Prime Minister, Anastase Murekezi, at his office in Kigali.

Briefing journalists, Alhendawi, said the discussions centred on issues of collaboration between the UN and Rwanda, national youth policy and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)."We discussed ways of better collaboration between the UN and the government of Rwanda in advancing the development of this country. We also looked at the youth policy progress. The youth constitute the majority of the population of this country and this is probably the biggest asset that the country has today,” he said.Alhendawi, was accompanied to the premier’s office by Lamin M. Manneh, the UN Resident Coordinator in Rwanda, Minister for Youth and ICT, Jean Philbert Nsengimana and other officials from the One UN.He said he had earlier discussed with Minister Nsengimana on a joint action to uplift the youths. "I have discussed with Minister for Youth and ICT how we can work closely to build a broader youth policy that we hope will be endorsed later this year. And to scale up the projects we have jointly started, particularly one of the One-Stop Youth Centres across the country and other UN-supported projects in the country,” he said.

Alhendawi noted that Rwandans’ commitment to development is a promising sign that the country’s future is brighter."I am very impressed with the progress that this country has made so far despite the challenges. With the commitment we see here and energy of many people, I can say the future is promising. This is the very strong message on behalf of the UN to the people of Rwanda that the UN is together with you to take the development of this country to a new level,” he said.Nsengimana said in their discussions, they agreed to consider revision of the youth policy to match Rwanda’s Vision 2020 and SDGs 2030."That will make Rwanda the first country to issue youth policy in line with SDGs. He has appreciated our youth systems and requested us to share them with the rest of the world,” he said.

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