Preamble

 The National youth service Corp was set up by decree 24 (and modified by decree 51 of June 1993) to inculcate in ‘Nigerian Youths’ a spirit of selfless service to the community and to promote a spirit of oneness and unity in a nation of diverse cultures, economic and social backgrounds.

 It was one of the tools by which Nigeria hoped to achieve some of her post civil war objectives of a united, strong and self-reliant nation, a dynamic economy, a land full of opportunities for all citizens and a free and democratic economy.

 Stated objectives of the NYSC scheme include

 ·        Instilling a sense of discipline in her youths and  promoting a tradition of industry and patriotic service to the fatherland
·        Raising the moral tone by providing opportunities to acquire ‘higher ideals’
·        Development of attitudes of mind that enable mobilisation in the national interest
·        Encouraging skills development that enable self reliance and promote self employment
·        Contribution to an accelerated growth of the national economy
·        Development of common ties among Nigerian youths that promote national unity and integration
·        Removal of prejudices, elimination of ignorance and confirmation, first hand of similarities among ethnic groups of Nigeria
·        Development of a sense of corporate existence and common destiny for the people of Nigeria .

These objectives would be achieved by ensuring

·        an equitable distribution of corps members and utilisation of their skills in areas of national need

·        as far as possible that corps members serve in states other than that of their origin

·        that there is a diversity representative of the national character in groups of corps members assigned to work together

·        that the Nigerian youth experiences socio-cultural tones of the different parts of Nigeria

·        that the Nigerian youth eschews religious intolerance

·        that corps members are enabled to seek employment opportunities in any part of Nigeria on completion of their service year

·        that employability of corps members are improved as a result of experience gained during their service year

Participants of the scheme would be graduates of Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education who are at the time of graduation less than 30 years old. According to Brig Gen Ogunkoya in a speech delivered at the 5^th Conference of the International Association of National Youth Service in 1998, a move to reduce this upper age limit to 25 “attracted demonstrations”.

Operators of the NYSC Scheme in Nigeria have claimed successes for the programme as

·        Involvement of approximately 100,000 Nigerians in the (compulsory) scheme annually as at 1998. 
        Being the longest running and most well supported inter-state scheme in the country
·        An increase in inter ethnic marriages, with numbers at a level as never before in the history of the nation
·        A change in the attitude of host communities of corps members as a result of the community development projects implemented
·        Increased levels of volunteer participation by corps members as a result of awards provided in recognition of such activities
·        A unification of corps members from various ethnic backgrounds as a result of healthy sporting competition promoted by the scheme
·        A popularity of the scheme in the nation as a result of having produced people who now occupy positions of power in different sectors of society
·        Relocation of many corps members form their original state of origin to live in other parts of Nigeria  
        Swelling the thinned ranks of school teachers and reduction of illiteracy
·        Provision of ‘cheap manpower’

On assumption of duty at the primary posting, corps members register with local government offices that facilitate monitoring and evaluation. Primary employers are also required to issue monthly letters indicative of at least satisfactory performance. In addition to this, Community Development cards are signed as proof of participation in CD projects and activities. A youth corps member is required to spend at least one day a week on community development activities.

The International Association for National Youth Service (IANYS)

Nigeria is a signed up member of the International Association for National Youth Service and has to date, participated actively. The second international conference was hosted by Nigeria in 1994.

The Association has adopted a Charter to which Nigeria along with 20 other nations have affixed their signatures. The emphasis of the charter is service by young people to others and to the environment but it also stresses that National Youth Service should include opportunities for young people to learn from their service experience.

Resolutions from the last conference (5^th in 1998) focussed on service learning and civic responsibility among young people. There was also a consensus that National Youth Service is successful when participants are performing meaningful tasks that meet the need of society.

The IANYS proposed to member countries that the National Youth Service be structured towards becoming a global service where for instance, teams of NYS participants may receive specialist training for emergency response and be available on short notice to help in emergency situations both in their own countries and elsewhere in the world. Multinational teams of corps members could also be recruited to work on specific projects or there could be exchanges of NYS staff members who can benefit from seeing how others do similar jobs etc

The Association takes a pro-active position on national youth service, recommending that every country give serious consideration to national youth service. To this end, the Association and its members are prepared to exchange information and otherwise assist nations wishing to consider the introduction of national youth service

The Nigeria National Youth Service Scheme

With the recent change in management, the Nigeria National Youth Service scheme should be closely examined and evaluated to determine whether it is meeting the objectives for which it was originally set up and if indeed these objectives remain relevant in the current socio-political and economic dispensation. Considerations should also be given to the scheme’s relevance and usefulness particularly with regard to availing ourselves of opportunities provided by the International Association for NYS and to making meaningful contributions to changes and developments in National Youth Service in the international arena.

The benefits that a national youth service scheme could bring to Nigeria cannot be over emphasised. For programs such as this however, outcomes depend on design, what the young person brings to the service and the experiences of the young person in the service. Evaluations of NYS in other countries where the scheme has been deemed to be successful showed that the value of service rendered by participants is equal to or greater than the cost of the program; that participants benefit from work experience and were provided with opportunities for career exploration, increased self-esteem, and increased awareness of the needs of others. Many national youth service participants acquire new skills, good work habits, decision-making ability, social maturity, and a new understanding between races and ages. (1998 Global Conference on NYS report) 

Reports from the operators of National Youth Service in Nigeria state that the scheme has achieved certain successes, those claimed however appear to be based more on rhetoric rather than on statistics or the outcome of a formal evaluation of the scheme. Also it will be noted that the recorded successes deviate somewhat from the stated objectives, indicating that output to purpose reviews may not have been a part of the scheme and that a need for the scheme and its relevance to the needs of the Nigerian society has never really been established. Also the benefits claimed for the scheme, both to the nation and to individual participants have been based largely on assumption rather than on a qualitative baseline study.

Establishing the relevance and benefits of a national youth service scheme for Nigeria should not be done to the exclusion of internationally accepted definitions of terms related to national youth service and features common to successful programs in addition to possible benefits of a well run programme.

1.       What is National Youth Service ? –
·                an organised activity in which young people serve others and the environment in ways that contribute positively to the society (definition by Eberly 2000). 
·                an activity for young people that is constructive in itself and an investment in the future. 

2.       Features common to successful programs

·                involvement of  young people in service to others and to the environment. (Areas of service are more commonly health education, environmental conservation, care for the very old and the very young)
·                Service-learning – process of people learning from their service experiences and utilising their talents and knowledge to serve others
·                Conducted in and meets the need of the community/society
·                Helps to foster civic responsibility and stimulates an awareness of the needs of others
·                Provides structured time for participants to reflect on service experience
·                Participants benefit from the experience (acquisition of new skills, good work habits and decision making abilities. Also increased self-esteem social maturity etc) and there are opportunities for career exploration,
·                Engenders an understanding between cultures, social strata and ages
·                Value of the service rendered by participants is equal to or greater than the cost of the program. ·                More often than not funded from various sources

A Case for a review to the Nigeria National Youth Service Scheme

Successes claimed by NYSC point only to the fostering of national unity (increased inter-ethnic marriages, change of attitude, etc) and where civic responsibility has been indicated no stronger evidence than that there has been increased voluntarism in community development projects based on the introduction of awards has been put forward.

The Nigerian NYSC scheme has few of the features common to successful programs and in more than one instance clearly runs counter to them. For example it is not easily apparent that the NYSC scheme meets needs of the Nigerian society. The need for national unity and social integration on which the aim of the programme is centred, if the reports of achievement are anything to go by have been met. More common activities embarked upon by participants on the scheme and their area of service has little relevance to other needs implied in the objectives. Needs that would be met by the scheme, as it is currently being implemented could be redefined possibly as justification for its continuation. Using the scheme to swell the thinned ranks of teaching staff in the rural areas was not a stated objective nor is there conclusive evidence on which to base the claim even if it can be shown as an area of need relevant to the Nigerian society. It may also not be a desired objective of the scheme unless it is compatible with the core philosophy of National Youth Service and contains some positive features. This particular claim of success also gives little indication of how effective corps members have been in the classroom without prior teacher training and whether they remain voluntarily in the teaching profession on completion of their mandatory service year. And if indeed anything was gained from the experience.

Another ‘success’ claimed is that the Nigeria National Youth Service Corps scheme is used to provide ‘cheap labour’ thus implying that corps members are used to replace paid workers. Apart from being a negation of the philosophy of national youth service, in a country like Nigeria where unemployment figures are high, and many core service areas are under serviced this use for the scheme should be reconsidered, this time working with the Labour Congress to protect the interests of paid workers. (Where governments increasingly use the programme to provide services in areas with acute staffing shortages, care is taken usually to ensure that they do not replace paid workers and that participants are provided with appropriate orientation and training as well as adequate support during the service period to ensure their effectiveness.)

The Nigeria National Youth Service Scheme runs to N9 billion a year in stipends alone. This does not include provision of allowances, uniforms and other kit, nor does it include the cost of administration. The scheme is almost entirely funded by the central government and despite this huge cost value derived from the scheme has not yet been computed. The successes recorded by operators of the scheme may be regarded by some as benefits to the nation and that its value lies there-in. It is however impossible to see the gain to individual participants without the ‘stipend’ which, contrary to the philosophy of the program, is the only other incentive for participation, the first being that participation is compulsory. Participants are generally not known to speak highly of the scheme and many consider it a waste of their time.

If the singular aim of the Nigerian National Youth Service Scheme is to foster national unity all that would be required is a formal evaluation to verify the achievements claimed by its operators. This being done, the scheme can then be marked as highly successful and tendered, as was done at the 5^th national Conference of the International Association of National Youth Service, as evidence for cultural integration. Doubts about this claim will of course be forgiven, given the clamorous calls for a sovereign national conference and an increasing incidence of ethnic and religious clashes.

The more important question however is, in the light of the new social, economic, cultural and political dispensation, should the Nigerian National Youth Service Corps Scheme have more than the singular aim of fostering national unity or could it be used to achieve other objectives that are more in line with societal needs and of greater value to the nation even as individual participants benefit from the experience?

  Nigeria and a Revised National Youth Service Scheme

Nigeria is characterised by poverty, illiteracy, hunger, disease, a lack of infrastructure, corruption, and ignorance and may be on the verge of socio-political disintegration. Even without these evidence of social malaise, there are areas of societal need that are indicative of a need for a properly implemented national youth service programme. A programme that provides service-learning opportunities as a benefit to participants and from which Nigeria as a nation will derive the most value can then be designed to service areas such as

·                emergency and disaster response
·                fire/rescue service
·                security – police/coast line and boarder patrol/forensics
·                road safety
·                road works – maintenance, lighting, beautification, etc
·                health services – paramedics, doctors, nurses
·                community development – education, health, environment
·                post prison rehabilitation

This list is not exhaustive nor does the redesigned programme have to address each and every need identified. The redesigned programme could however be structured to agree with four themes as stated in Don Eberly’s (Honorary President IANYS) essay prepared for the 4^th global conference on National Youth service. These are

Military – The most successful schemes worldwide have either evolved from the military or been strongly influenced by it. This can actually be supported by the Nigeria experience as participants in the scheme find the orientation camp (when they undergo paramilitary training) the most challenging and fulfilling of their service year experience

Useful service – The program should be geared towards providing service that is useful to others (society) and challenging to participants. The programme should however avoid using participants to replace paid workers

Service-learning – The programme should be geared towards enabling participants to learn from their service experience and to grow as individuals

Global service – As contained in resolutions by the IANYS, the program could be structured to provide training in specialised areas to participants so that they serve as a corps of reserves in for example, emergency response both in their own countries and else where in the world.

Other Issues that should be taken into consideration when revising the NYSC program in Nigeria are time, age limits and whether or not the scheme should be voluntary or compulsory.

Military training is recommended as an essential part of NYS because as Don Eberly pointed out in his essay (4^th Global conference on NYS), it will help sustain linkages between the military and civilian sector of society, the discipline will help prepare participants for the actual service period and finally it will serve as a reminder of citizenship responsibilities. The training should last for a minimum of 3 months (ideally 6) during which period participants will in addition to receiving military training also be inducted and trained in preparation for the services they will provide during the actual work period (9 – 12 months) of their service. An additional 1 to 3 months should be allowed on completion of national youth service to enable participants reflect of what was learned and achieved during the service period. This should be considered as a disengagement period and should be done in a military camp with the coordination of both military and civilian supervisors

Age limit for participants – NYSC should be seen as a way of aiding the psychological development of participants and should ideally take place at the end adolescence and beginning of the early adulthood. This according to experts is the stage when the exposures and experiences of the scheme will have the strongest impact. For us in Nigeria , this would be between the ages of 18 and 25

Whether NYSC scheme should be voluntary or compulsory in Nigeria should be looked at in the light of the cost of the scheme compared with the value derived from it. The (compulsory) scheme has been said to be increasingly popular because of the increase in number of participants since its inception 29 years ago, its can also not be denied that administrative structures in place have become inadequate to service this increased number of participants, that avenues of waste have been multiplied and that the scheme has become increasing poorly regarded among would be participants. The popularity of the scheme will easily be put to test should the scheme be made voluntary. This should also prove to be beneficial in the long run as successes of a well-administered voluntary scheme (with smaller numbers of more dedicated young people) will serve to attract more participants for subsequent years. If the scheme must remain compulsory however, some flexibility (in timing and nature) may be introduced to enable participants give it their best effort.

Addendum

The philosophies and principles of the Nigerian NYS scheme should be redefined along with its aim and objectives. The rationale for a national youth service differs from one country to the next and this is no different for Nigeria .  What we need to do is articulate our needs, both real and perceived, and structure our national youth service programme to meet these needs while using the right quality of staff. Only then can participants be motivated.

The NYSC can be used as an avenue for involving more young people in the Nigerian democratic process. As part of the prescribed military orientation, participants should be helped to understand their social rights and responsibilities. Information on social principles, citizenship responsibilities and the political process should be routinely provided and arrangements made to involve young people in the decision-making structures of government.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Preamble ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 11.08.2006 15:56

agbonizuanghwe  Villager

# 2 Graduates and the NYSC Programme Guardian Editorial of Thursday August 31, 2006 The national Youth Service Corps Scheme (NYSC) is in crisis. In the last five years or so, fresh graduates have been routinely kept at home for upwards of six months to one year owing to a backlog of corps men and women who are yet to get invited to camp. In other words after graduation a potential corps man or woman is left idle for a year owing to the inefficiency of the nation’s social and educational system. Parents and guardians sometimes quaver in fear when their wards are posted to certain states. A significant percentage of corps men and women are not retained in the states or organisations where they served. Powerful people lobby for their wards to be posted to certain organisations, institutions and States. These problems raise fundamental questions about the corps scheme that was introduced in 1973. Ideally the NYSC Scheme was designed to cement the bonds of national unity. Corps men and their female counterparts were sent to states other than their home states. Such interchange provided a platform for travelling outside one’s immediate geographic environment. In the spirit of unity, two corps members from different states who got married won a prize. The NYSC also provided cheap manpower for schools, companies, particularly fledgling ones, and their government parastatals. In particular, schools in the north, in distant areas of some states and in the riverine areas benefitted immensely from the scheme. However, it would seem that the benefits which were derived from the scheme have somewhat been reduced. Some organisations are in the habit of recruiting corps men every year without any attempt at retaining them as permanent staff. Besides, certain states in the country are considered trouble spots and parents are wary about sending their wards to such places. The NYSC’s image crisis has been aggravated by the irregular and epileptic calendar which tertiary institutions run. There is no uniformity whatsoever in the calendar of universities. While some universities have concluded the second semester, others are still giving lectures for the first semester. Most Nigerian universities are still very inefficient in producing students’ results. They are yet to embrace the computer as a tool for processing enormous data. Examination rssults for over five or ten thousand students are processed manually. As a result, most graduating students are unable to meet the NYSC camp deadline. They stay at home creating time for the idle mind to get distracted. What we are faced with therefore is a systemic problem. Once there is an interruption of the academic programme of any university, graduation date is delayed. Indeed some universities are notorious for their extended semesters and sessions. Also some universities have had to skip a session because of the delay in concluding a previous session. For example last year, some of the universities had to combine undergraduate admissions for two years. As with most pubic institutions in Nigeria, there is an abuse of the NYSC scheme. Some graduates simply report at the camp in obedience to the call up letter, make fraudulent arrangements with officials and then disappear. At the end of every month the allowance of the corps man is shared between him and his host at the primary assignment post. At the end of the service year a discharge certificate is issued. This unhealthy and fraudulent practice is common in schools and local government secretariats. The NYSC and the National universities Commission (NUC) should be able to work together with the Vice Chancellors to streamline the session calendar. In other societies, it is possible to predict with some exactitude when a student will graduate from first day of registration. But in Nigeria, there is so much confusion. The time has come for decisive action to be taken. There should be a deliberate plan by government to harmonise the academic calendar in the next five years. The Obasanjo administration attempted to do this a few years ago but failed. Strikes should be avoided. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in particular should be carried along in this plan. Government should honour its commitments to the universities. The governments, unions and stakeholders in tertiary institutions should be able to work out a deliberate and concise plan that could stabilise the system. With the necessary vision and will, this should be possible. Enough funding should be provided for the universities. The universities should adopt a more efficient means of getting results ready. If a university cannot use its resources to produce examination results as at when due, it should re-examine its internal processes. The absorptive capacity of the NYSC should be expanded to accommodate the increased number of graduates from public and private universities. The two year call up system should be reinvigorated. An Editorial on the State on the NYSC Scheme Posted by agbonizuanghwe| 01.09.2006 09:54

agbonizuanghwe  Villager

# 3 Still on the NYSC SIR: Your editorial comment on the NYSC is excellent (The Guardian, August 31, 2006). It is quite comprehensive, incisive, clear, precise and quite informative. Do accept my humble commendation. One wonders whether all the important and relevant stakeholders, namely, the Ministry of Education, National Universities Commission (NUC), University Management oficials, Vice-Chancellors, lecturers, politicians, parents, graduands, students, etc read the editorial. With the widespread poor reading attitude in our country,today, one wonders if they did. The NYSC is one of the few positive legacies that may be sieved out from the sand in memoriam of the negative and unwanted political ingress of the military into our lives. It has been a good nation-building exercise. I did my NYSC in Kano and enjoyed my life then such that even up till today, Kano continues to be my second town next to Alanso-Uchu. I met some Canadian Hydrogeologists in Kano from where I got the golden chance to travel to Waterloo for my postgraduate studies. We moved around to many communities in the then Kano State, building dams and sinking boreholes for rural and urban water supplies. I got to know the people of Kano areas and loved them. After the programme in 1975, two of us from the south were given immediate and non-discriminatory employments by WRECA. The NYSC enabled me to know Nigeria better and love her more despite my sordid experiences with the Hausas during the Nigeria-Biafra war. The editorial has aptly summarised the problems of the NYSC and proffered practicable solutions. It is, now, left to the stakeholders to count their teeth with their tongues and chase the black goat while it is still daylight. A speech is made or advice is given once to the wise. The Ministry of Education through the NUC should force all universities to realise the directive on maintaining a normal University Calendar as obtained worldwide to enable the NYSC scheme be properly-realigned. The staff and students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, have achieved this feat and are, now, on long vacation and intellectual rest. All the Nigerian Universities have no credible reasons, today, not to follow suit to this widely convenient academic tradition,. Students, university and NYSC officials who are found fraudulent or corrupt in NYSC duties must be found out and be punished. Let this country bravely come out from her unemployment sad performance and provide job opportunities to our children after graduation to stem the tide of scandalous cankerwormic cancer of severe unemployment monsters pervading the entire nation. The Federal, states and local governments, government corporations, agencies, companies and private business concerns should be forced by Law to employ graduate corpers who performed creditably well in their institutions during their service years. The NYSC programme is a good one and should be empowered more to be and excel. Boniface Egboka, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra state Some like it their experience from Youth Service obviously, but I think it is time that we should start asking for some real benefits. Posted by agbonizuanghwe| 01.09.2006 11:01

agbonizuanghwe  Villager

# 4 When I read the editorial in the Guardian yesterday I remembered that something had been published about NYSC on NVS but was quite sure what. then i saw the letter from 'a satisfied customer' and came hunting hoping that I will be able to revive the topic for discussion. That is why I posted both the editoorial and the letter in response to it. For people who 'served' many years ago, NYSC as it is now does not make a lot of sense (if it ever did) and I believe that some pressure should be brought to bear on government to either do away with the scheme or make it voluntary. Many people get away with not the partaking in the mandatory year of service anyway so what would it matter? I stand to be corrected this scheme is funded by Government. that mens that a colosal amount of money is going to waste each year without the commesurate benefits. The benefits we are looking for being beyond the oficials of NYSC who feed fat on the spoils of the scheme. - By the way what happened to Kila, is he out of jail yet? The NYSC is both an opportunity for young people and an asset to the nation, if only it would be well designed and well managed. At present though it is little better than a drain pipe for scarce resources and to think it gets very little public attention so EFCC will not even be tempted to probe. And this notion of calling people who are in the late 20s to early 30s (the new graduation age from Nigerian Universities) is a bit tall. the 'fresh' graduates are nothing but senior youths. That is why it is so laughable that they still have 'guardians' that intervene in postings. Posted by agbonizuanghwe| 01.09.2006 11:26

No Smoking  Villager

# 5 NYSC at its conception was a good idea, especially in the Nigeria of 12 states with post-war reconstruction projects and copious supply of petro-dollars. The only obstacle in those days was the refusal of certain Northern states to offer permanent jobs to Southerners. That job-obstacle worsened in the Nigeria of 19-30-36 states. Couples who inter-married across state lines soon found that both man and wife could not expect to work in the same state, at least in the Civil Service, even amond adjoining Southern states that used to be together, e.g. Edo & Delta, Enugu & Anambra. The other anti-Federal obstacle to disrupt Federal set-ups like the NYSC was the hydra-headed "Sharia" and other religious unrests from the North. The Nigerian nation has those problems to sort out, before projects like the NYSC can become meaningful in the lives of the citizenry. Posted by No Smoking| 01.09.2006 19:16

Mutti  Villager

# 6 I tend not to agree with you that NYSC Can wait. Most of the problems we have in Nigeria stem more from the incompetence and inefectiveness of full time career administrators who do not recognise their role as the protectors of the systems but leave everthing to the whims and vageries of politicians. Whether we like it or not politicians are transient. It is my thinking that NYSC still has many uses in Nigeria and will provide plenty of opportunity to introduce young people to the world of work and ground them in the spirit of Nigeria - when we eventually articulate what the country stands for and what Nigeria means to each one of us and for our future generations. Should reincarnation be possible, what would we like to come back to see? It is easy to see that a sense of nationalism is lacking and that that very fact is a key contributor to crippling the country and hastening it in its journey to disintegration. We as a people are so determined to blind ourselves to the good of the collective that we fail to see that we are hurting our individual selves in our failure to act or in our persistence in actions that provide immediate gratification to the self. I don't agree with the editorial that the NYSC calendar has to be synchronised with academic calendars, yes one builds on the product of the other but the truth is that the proposed participants are either not interested or are only interested because the scheme provides a temporary means of income. The editorial identifies the scheme as a source of cheap labour. This surely must be a negation of the purpose of NYSC which could not have been designed to deprive qualified workers of work. If the NYSC does that then NLC, TUC and their affiliates should be looking into it to protect the rights of their workers otherwise their very membership base will be eroded in no time having been replaced by cheap labour. Of primary concern to me is the benefit to participants in the scheme and benefit to society, neither of which has been given enough attention in my opinion. With the dearth of management/leadership and other skills in the country, the year of service affords an opportunity to consolidate learning acquired at the tertiary level and to refocus participants by providing training and opportunity to explore new occupations and professions, especially as these imapct on social development. There are areas of need in society - emergency response, certain types of policing, community development (in its real sense not the parody that is staged right now as part of the scheme) and a host of other things that I cannot think about off-hand. A properly designed scheme will address these needs if only in part and if packaged properly the young graduates will be the ones angling to participate. They would be willing to go wherever whenever in the certain knowledge there are real benefits to themselves by way of acquisition of new and relevant skills not just a temporary income. This is one reason why the scheme should be voluntary. So that only those who are truly interested will participate and it will reduce wastage and corruption. There are so many 'graduating' anyway that the whole thing has become unwieldy and impossible to manage effectively no matter what the chief executive says. Why else would a Youth Corper go missing from their primary posting and the NYSC is unable to say how what why or when? Or even provide needed support to find the missing corper? There are a host of other suggestions that one could make but it is all futile as the powers that be are not remotely interested in what anyone not in government has to say. So we may as well bray at the moon. Still one talks about these things in the hope that someone somewhere somehow will pick on the idea and make it work within their sphere of influence. For instance a diversified funding base should also be explored. Government alone cannot do it and should not be doing it alone. Different stakeholders should be involved to ensure a broad range of experience for participants and to ensure that adequate and appropriate benefits accrue to both society and participants as the primary beneficiaries. Posted by Mutti| 03.09.2006 14:53