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STUDENTS and young people will be the winners with a new Ministry of Youth Development, which has been created out of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and youth policy functions of the Ministry of Social Development.
The establishment of a Ministry of Youth Development was recommended by a recent review as the best option for improving the government's work in the area of youth development and ensuring a special focus is kept on young people.
The review focused on how the Ministry of Youth Affairs could most effectively deliver on its role and purpose, and contribute to improved outcomes for young people.
"By combining the youth work at both ministries into a new, bigger youth development agency, there are opportunities for even more progress," the Government has claimed.
Benefits of this merger identified by the review include:
* opportunities to better use the Ministry of Social Development's wider regional networks;
* better co-ordination of youth development programmes, family support and employment programmes;
* savings of about $300,000 which will be reinvested in youth development;
* access to the Ministry of Social Development's policy research and evaluation capability.
The merger will take effect from 1 October 2003.
The government also announced that the Ministry of Women's Affairs would be internally strengthened and retained as a separate stand-alone ministry.