LISBON, 12 August -- Youth ministers and representatives of States today committed their governments to placing national youth policy formulation, implementation, follow-up processes and funding at the highest political levels.
Closing the first-ever World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth in Lisbon, delegations adopted, by acclamation as orally amended, the "Lisbon Declaration on Youth Policies and Programmes", which committed nations and the international community to taking actions in such areas as youth participation, development, peace, education, employment, health, and drug and substance abuse.
The adoption of the Lisbon Declaration is a capping event of more than a decade-long effort to raise youth policy to a level of prominence on both the national and international agendas and, in so doing, strengthened national and global actions in support of young people. By adopting the Lisbon Declaration, governments agreed to develop national youth policies and operational programmes, at the appropriate levels, and to implement international commitments and youth policy goals.
In addition, they committed to introducing measurable time-bound goals and indicators to allow a common basis for national evaluation of the implementation of the agreed policies.
Among such initiatives, governments agreed to recognize the importance of general health care, including reproductive health care. They pledged to establish a dependable database on youth reproductive health and to provide access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable legal methods of family planning of their choice. Also, recognizing that the consumption of tobacco and the abuse of alcohol by young people posed a major threat to their health, each country would develop comprehensive programmes to reduce the consumption of tobacco, exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, and the abuse of alcohol.
