The International Youth Fellowship (IYF) on Thursday launched IYF Ghana World Camp 2010 with a pledge to pursue a new paradigm of change for the Ghanaian youth.
Mr Ato Edwin, Deputy General Secretary of IYF Ghana, who made the pledge, called on stakeholders to foster peace, prosperity and development for the youth as well as to create conducive environment for national development
Ghana is hosting the Camp for the third time under the theme: "Youth and Conflict", between July 18-25 and would attract youth groups world-wide.
Mr Edwin said the youth were more exposed to conflict situations than ever before, due to the pressure of rapid innovation and development of the 21st century.
He said owing largely to inexperience of the youth; they tended to be most susceptible to making wrong choices in their responses to conflict situations and these opened them up to be misused as pawns in the fueling of conflicts.
"The youth are the future and our most valuable national asset in our drive for development in peace and harmony. A country that does not place emphasis on the development of its youth, bequeaths to itself a gloomy future," he said.
Mr Edwin noted that conflicts always arose in situations where there were competing needs, differing values and interests, therefore dialogue, communication, and an understanding of how each other perceived an issue could facilitate conflict resolution.
"Singing, playing, learning, worshiping and eating together, could create a happy and congenial atmosphere for global understanding and peace", he added.
Mr Edwin noted that bringing the youth from different backgrounds together to engage in numerous activities would go a long way to harmonize most differences among them.
Mr Joseph S. Annan, Deputy Minister of Education, said conflicts among the youth had become common in the world, which occurred in various ways an individual might not be aware of.
He said it was easy for the youth to fall into violence due to the quest to make it economically in life.
Mr Annan said the idea of IYF to promote ideas, innovations and practices would help largely in the prevention of conflicts.
He said through the youth and the Camp, the world could be changed to a more conducive place.
"Development is about change of attitudes, behaviours, the values and norms that govern a particular community", he added.
Mr Sekou Nkrumah, National Coordinator of National Youth Council (NYC), said the youth had not been given the opportunity in life to develop, therefore most of them could be found engaging in such unwelcome behaviours.
He said although Ghana had over the years failed to invest in the youth, frequent political changes had also affected development.
Mr Nkrumah noted that the NYC intended to restructure some of the youth centres to keep most of the youth out of such unlawful practices.
This, he said, would give them the opportunity to give back to society what they had gained to promote a better and conducive environment for all.