SPARKLE advocates support systems for youths in critical areas

• Launches Nigeria National Youth Index to drive youth development
• Youths are active participants in shaping nation’s future, says UNIMED VC

The Strengthening Programming for Adolescents and Youths through Resource and Knowledge Generation and Link to Evidence (SPARKLE) Project has launched the Nigeria National Youth Index (NNYI) designed to address the critical gap in monitoring youth development parameters in the country.

In a statement, yesterday, the Project Coordinator, Dr Olorunfemi Ogundele, who led the SPARKLE Team of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo State, to Port-Harcourt, Rivers State capital, stressed that the NNYI is a policy-driven, practical, and cost-effective approach to measuring and monitoring various dimensions of youth development in Nigeria using available secondary data sets.

Ogundele said: “The NNYI offers an analysis of youth development in some of the critical areas specified in Nigeria’s national youth policy, including education, employment, among others.”

Meanwhile, the Project Director and Vice Chancellor of UNIMED, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi, while explaining the significance of the National Youth Index, said that “our nation’s young people are not just beneficiaries of development, but active participants in shaping the future.

The event also witnessed the unveiling of the logo for the fourth Nigeria Conference on Adolescent and Young People’s Health and Development tagged “Garden City 2025,” being organised by the Society for Adolescent and Young People’s Health in Nigeria (SAYPHIN) and scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt in August 2025.

Chairman, Local Organising Committee of the conference, Prof. OmosivieMaduka, who is also the Director, Centre for Health and Development, University of Port Harcourt, revealed the theme of the conference to be “The Evolving Adolescent and Youth in a Digital Age: Building Resilient Young People in a Changing World.”