By Yunus S Saliu
The Youth Empowerment in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, and National Centre for Arts and Culture is set to launch the Youth and Trade Roadmap for The Gambia’s Creative Industries.
The launching of the much awaited Roadmap is slated for Tuesday, 3rd December at the Paradise Suite Hotel, Kololi.
The completed roadmap for the creative industries is meant to support innovation and improve on the productive capacity of SMEs, strengthen institutional support, increase economic value and market access to foster economic growth, employment creation, entrepreneurial ventures and skills development.
The roadmap, among other things, outlines a plan of action to activate economic opportunities related to skills development, entrepreneurship, market-led value chain development and sector coordination.
In addition, this final document of the roadmap has mapped out all key crosscutting industry themes for youth empowerment and employment, namely MSME competitiveness, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) effectiveness, policies’ relevance and implementation, and institutional capacities.
It also outlines strategic objectives to activate economic opportunities related to skills development, entrepreneurship, market-led value chain development and sector coordination. The results are consolidated into one Plan of Action at the end of the Roadmap document.
This Roadmap which will be launched by the Honorable Minister of Tourism and Culture, Hamat NK Bah was developed under the guidance of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, National Centre for Arts and Culture, with technical assistance from the International Trade Centre (ITC) as part of the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP).
Meanwhile, the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) supports youth employment and entrepreneurship in the country in order to address the economic root causes of irregular migration, and it is funded by the European Union (EU) under the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa.