ASSESSMENT OF YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS: AN EXPERIENCE FROM MEKELLE, ETHIOPIA, EASTERN AFRICA

The main objective of the study was to assess the level of youth participation in Community Development programs. The cross sectional research design was used for this study. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from the primary and secondary source to meet stated study objectives. The primary data was collected from the sample respondents. The secondary data was collected from related annual reports, progress reports, published and un-published documents, journals, books, internet and other sources. Quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used. The study used simple random sampling technique to select sample respondents. The study results revealed that youths were interested to participate in sports and recreation activities, entrepreneurship and artistic activities. However, all respondents agreed that there were limited sport and recreation centers in the study area so that youths were not enjoyed more according their interest. The study also indicated that majority of youth were not involved in needs assessment level, prioritization stage, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation stage of the community development programs. This implies that youth are not given opportunity to involve in the community development process in the study area. The study further revealed that, youth were motivating to participate in community development programs, to learn new skills, experiences and to achieve personal goals. Therefore, for effective, genuine and active youth participation, government, non-government and other youth concerned organizations priority should be given to designing program activities that meets youth new skills, experiences and personal goals.