Conakry, Guinea, 8 October 2018 – The Ministry of City and Territorial Development in Guinea has partnered with UN-Habitat to train one hundred youth on Prevention of urban insecurity through the manufacture, assembly, installation and maintenance of photovoltaic solar street lights. The training will empower young people by equipping them with marketable and through photovoltaic skills while strengthening the culture of civic duty by inculcating values of good citizenship and a moral code that will lead to a change in behavior and attitudes for sustainable peace in Guinea.

Secretary General of the Ministry of the City and Territorial Development Mr. Mohamed Mamaa Camara welcomed the initiative and encouraged the partners to continue working closely together for the benefit of Guinean youth and to ensure sustainable urbanization in Guinea. "Reducing urban insecurity by creating job opportunities is a big challenge for our ministry. Together, we must ensure training of young people with the goal of improving their living conditions. This initiative will improve public lighting and help to avoid many crimes and many young people will have access to very important know-how which is a lifetime asset," he said.

UN-Habitat representative Mr. Claude Mentchehé Ngomsi said the training will equip youth with skills to identify the physical factors and the individual attitudes that lead to youth delinquency. They will be trained as peer educators in crime prevention and equipped to contribute actively to reducing incidences of physical assault and theft by participating in installation and stewardship of the photovoltaic street lighting panels.

 “This project was initiated by UNDP, UNIDO and UN-Habitat and submitted to the Peacebuilding Fund which supported the initiative. This is the culmination of numerous consultations and two studies on delinquency and the prevention of insecurity. We also undertook field visits to identify black spots in the living environment to determine where exactly we need to place the solar street lights. We have also consulted community leaders and youth groups to draw up the list of 70 young people from Conakry and 30 from N'Zérékoré who will be trained,” said Mr. Ngomsi.