Abdou Jatta, president of Young People in the Media (YPM), recently returned to the Gambia after attending a conference on Nepad. The Round-table meeting on NEPAD and Children was held at the United Nations conference center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and it lasted for seven days - from the 11-17 March 2008.

Accordingly, the meeting was aimed at creating a platform for dialogue among young people, child media expert, the civil society, UN Agencies, and political leaders, to recognize the young as important partners in the NEPAD processes and programmes.

Mr Jatta represented the Gambian children and young people at the Round-table Meeting, which discussed how NEPAD addresses issues related to children, different methods and experiences of child participation. It also deliberated on how children can be involved in the implementation of NEPAD's programmes.

The Gambian young delegate maked two powerful presentations at the Meeting, Children and Youth "What is our role?" In his presentation, Jatta highlighted the numerous initiatives taken by young people in the continent in the area of skilled labour, Agriculture, engineering and mechanization. He however raised concern on the challenges hindering the development of young people in the continent such as conflict, youth unemployment, and illegal migrations.

In his presentation on child media in Africa, were he shared the panel with eminent child media experts from South Africa, Nigeria and Plan International, the YPM president expounded on the numerous activities undertaken by YPM Gambia and cited the best practices the Gambia offers when it comes to the particitpation of its young citizens in the media, such as the international children's day of broadcasting, were young people take the airwaves for entire hours of transmission. Through these, according to him, the Gambia has emerged winner of the UNICEF ICDB Award for two consecutive years in West and Central Africa.

The young Gambian delegates also raised concern and frowned on the way the African continent and its young citizens are portraid at times on the western media.

He added that the misrepresentation of issues related to children and young people by the media can greatly influence decisions taken on behalf of them.

The round-table meeting on NEPAD and children was a joint initiative of the African child policy forum and plan international. It brought together representatives from UN Agencies, NEPAD Secretariat, regional child focused oranizations, experts in child participation as well as child media representatives.