National Youth Development Agency

The country is ushering in a new era in youth development with the launch of the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), a South African youth development agency resulting from the merger of the National Youth Commission (NYC) and Umsobomvu Youth Fund (UYF). NYDA was established for two primary reasons. Firstly, it is aimed at consolidating various youth government structures into one entity. Therefore, the NYDA will be operational at National, Provincial and Local government level and thus improve coordination.

Secondly, the NYDA Act provides a regulated mechanism that can be used to implement youth development programmes based on agreed policy. UYF existed outside an act of Parliament and therefore had no regulated mandate. This made access to resources unpredictable. With the Act, the NYDA will be able to access resources on a sustainable basis and therefore take programmes to scale.