Abuja, 28^th July, 2017. Beneficiaries of the pilot APIA Project on the Development of National Youth Employment Action Plans in five ECOWAS Member States on Friday, 28^th July, 2017 presented their project proposals for evaluation by the Regional Steering Committee of the Project.

Following the request of the Regional Committee at its inaugural meeting in April, 2017, four of the pilot States, Cape Verde, Mali, Niger, Nigeria except Senegal, carried out situation analysis to ascertain the state of their respective national Youth Unemployment and consequently drafted activities and interventions needed to address the multifaceted phenomenon.

Despite the challenges reportedly encountered by most of the countries in generating the draft proposals, the 2^nd Meeting of the Committee commended the efforts of participants towards the anticipated result based document.

The Committee urged Beneficiary States to review and finalize their proposals based on the Project Proposal Template reflecting among others, clear implementation strategies and Gender mainstreaming plan of the project.

Mr. Kennedy Barsisa, Head of Division, Youth Employment and Sports, read the opening remarks of the ECOWAS Director, Gender and Youths, Dr. Sintiki Ugbe who urged participants to ensure that the 2^nd Regional Committee meeting decisions include necessary measures to ensure the effective implementation of the Project.

The meeting had in attendance Mr. Javier Nievas Bullejos, a representative of the Spanish Cooperation for International Cooperation and Development, Cape Verde, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and officials of the ECOWAS Commission.

APIA Project is a Spanish development cooperation initiative, created to accompany the process of providing African countries with assistance in drawing up, implementing and monitoring inclusive public policies.