Morung Express News
Dimapur | March 15
A 3-day ‘Xchange Northeast Youth NGO Summit’ organized by Dimapur based NGO Community Avenue Network (CAN), commenced Tuesday at Hotel Acacia with more than 15 participant NGOs drawn from five NE states.
The purpose of the summit is to create a forum for young NGO leaders to discuss current challenges in the society, to strengthen the network and promote emerging excellence NGOs and introduce the channel of recognition, platform to redress long-standing challenges among NGOs in the North East.
The summit also aims to connect major youth leadership development organizations in a substantive “open space” conversation; to collaborate with other youth-service professionals in order to mobilize youth with positive leadership training; exchange ideas, connection with other people and organizations and alignment of resources and projects, and to develop/explore emerging ways to introduce youth to servant leadership.
The focus areas of the summit are good governance and social entrepreneurship as a tool to enhance youth employment.
Deputy commissioner Dimapur, Kesonyu Yhome, one of the panelists and resource persons of the summit in his keynote address in the inaugural function said the North East Region with a 45 crore population, faces a big challenge in terms of providing basic education, healthcare and subsequent employment for the people after over six decades of India’s independence.
“Wide disparities are seen in the level of development among the NE States. The rich economic resources of the region have not been potentially tapped owing to lack of proper infrastructure…The region’s mass agitations and other form of arm conflicts have also added contributed to the neglect of the region to a large extent,” the DC said.
Yhome said unemployment is not because of dearth in availability of opportunities, but due to the fact that the population seeking these jobs either do not have the required competencies or are over-qualified to fit the job opportunity available.
He said in the NE region, Tripura reported the highest unemployment rate of 25.2% in urban areas followed by Nagaland with 23.8%. “Responding to this dire need will be one of the paramount challenges both for the state governments as well as agencies outside the government,” he said.
The DC further said NE Region with a land area of 2,62,320 Sq Km and blessed with rich bio-diversity, possesses a huge potential to revolutionize the agri and allied sector in order to enhance the socio-economic standards of the people.
“There is vast scope for developing Eco-tourism and creating a commercial hub for organic food that can drastically change the socio-economic profile of the Region,” Yhome said.
He also dwelled on marketing, bridging the digital divide, entrepreneurship.
“It is true that the eight north-eastern states are growing fast, educating their people at a rate much faster than the rest of India; but the growth is not creating enough livelihood opportunities. Entrepreneurial venture will be the way forward,” he said.
The DC said a focused deliberation on the core problems facing the NE region in a platform such as the summit comprising of young visionaries of the Region would certainly help in bringing out a blue print for the Region to follow.
Director, YouthNet, Hekani Jakhalu, in her “motivational speech” shared tips based on personal experiences on how to run a successful organization/NGO.
Earlier, Chief Functionary of CAN Youth, Jenpu Rongmei, delivered the welcome address. The afternoon session included inter NGO presentations, networking and bonding and connection of the different NGOs.
