Prime Minister Trudeau’s International Development Policy Advisor Meets with IRYD co-Presidents
Ottawa, Canada | Last Updated: May 24, 2017 11:34 AM EDT
On Tuesday 23 May 2017, co-presidents of the International Rwanda Youth for Development (IRYD) Jaurès Habineza and Moses Gashirabake were received in a meeting at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office in the Langevin Block. Jaurès and Moses met with Julie Savard-Shaw who currently serves as policy advisor on international development to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Meeting discussions covered a future partnership with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), topics on minority youth development, women youth empowerment and the upcoming G7 Summit which will be hosted by Canada.

On youth, a future collaboration partnership would involve the PMO in upcoming IRYD initiatives such as the Symposium on Business and Diversity and the Rwanda Global Youth Convention (RGYC). These initiatives were deemed to be in line with the PMO’s focus on engaging all Canadians, supporting young entrepreneurs and reducing youth unemployment. Furthermore, the collaboration would increase participation of Rwandan-Canadians and their friends in Rwanda’s and Canada’s socio-economic development.
On women youth empowerment, the PMO took the prerogative to state it would involve IRYD in reaching out to stakeholders. This will be in line with PM Trudeau’s announcement on International Women’s Day that the federal government plans to spend $650 million over three years for international sexual and reproductive health projects. Our next initiatives on youth women empowerment will involve close collaboration by the PMO and our IRYD Vice President and Director of Public Relations, Miss Doriane Kundwa.
As a youth organization focused on involving Canada in empowering youth from a developing nation, IRYD will be invited to participate in consultations for the upcoming G7 Summit which will be hosted by Canada in 2018. The May-June 2018 G7 Summit will see issues relating to youth civic participation and jobs growth discussed. IRYD will be presenting a white paper highlighting policy positions on issues affecting minority young Canadians to the PMO in the coming few months.
The meeting resolved IRYD will be liaised with Prime Minister’s Policy Advisor on Youth to begin the process of a formal partnership. Please stay tuned for upcoming announcements relating to this partnership and future collaborations.
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IRYD Communiqué