IN's commitment to youth leadership

In a guest article for International Inspiration, Beatrice Owusu Dumaah from the BILD programme in Ghana, has written a report of her experience and lessons learnt from the 4th Commonwealth Sports Development Conference held in Glasgow, Scotland.

The 4^th Commonwealth Sports Development Conference discussed among other themes, the need to put the youth at the centre stage of sports. The Youth Sport Charter was a key focus at the conference, which was the first step geared towards achieving this aim.

The key points taken from this conference are:

1. The life changing impact of sports on young people. Listening to Dr. Permi Jhooti and  Chantal Petitclerc opened my mind to immense achievement and self actualisation gained through sports participation. This highlighted sports as a hope and a place where young people all over, can aspire to greater heights while improving their personal capabilities.
2. The organisations of sports for development across the different nations face similar barriers in terms of cultural influence, parental consent, governmental involvement and resources. However, for sustainability of every programme, I gathered from Lombe Mwambwa that it had to be tied to an existing governmental or non-governmental institution.
3. Finally a noteworthy point is that of the Youngscot initiative which has involved young people in sports decision making across at a very high level. This is very important since it actually is youth centred.