Country Support Mission: Zambia

The last destination on the country support missions was Zambia. This visit was, as well as the others, a learning experience also for us as visitors. The first thing that struck us, was how well TPT Zambia have been working on their branding. They have produced leaflets and banners that speaks a clear message on who they are and what they want.

We had some bad luck with some of the appointments that were cancelled by the stakeholders in the last minute. On the other hand we had an excellent meeting with Sida. The meeting was done in a form of a seminar and we had fruitful discussions with several Sida officers and country director for more than 2 hours. It was clear that Sida have more work to do on involving youth and applying a youth perspective and more so - it was concluded that TPT can be a resource in strengthening their youth component. We hope and think that this can be the first step for TPT Zambia to not only get support, but also to contribute to a more clear cut youth perspective in Sida's work in Zambia.

Keep up the great spirit team Zambia!

Lena, Chris

Country Support Mission: Liberia

The country support mission to Liberia was the first regional TPT activity. Being one of the latest established country teams, team Liberia have made great strides in a short time. The choice of simplifying the PRS appeared as a strategic decision made by the team as the PRS is widely unknown to young people in Liberia. Next steps are being planned as the Vision 2030 is developed.

The interest shown by the stakeholders met, especially the ministries there seems to be many opportunities to build on, for example, a representative at the Ministry of State committed herself to communicate with the Ministry of Planning to try and involve TPT in the process of developing the new Vision 2030. The Ag. Minister of Youth showed genuine commitment to youth participation though the challenge has been to convince other ministries on the importance of youth participation.

It's commendable work! All the best with continued efforts!!

Chris, Lena

Country Support Mission: Ghana

The seventh country support mission took us to Ghana. We had discussions with several stakeholders in Ghana, Meeting with UNFPA, Swedish Embassy, WHO, UNICEF and Action Aid. Just like in the other countries, stakeholders showed explicit interest in work with and support the team. Not least, UNFPA, was forthcoming in expressing some long term opportunities for support.

Team Ghana developed a toolkit for young people to monitor the poverty reduction strategies. The launch of the toolkit developed by team Ghana coincided with the launch of the National Youth Policy. The Youth Policy describes young people not only as a target group but as change agents, however, the team is still pushing for the implementation plan and budget allocations for the policy.

We commend team Ghana for their success in reaching out geographically! They have representation from most regions of Ghana.

Great Work team Ghana!!

Lena, Chris