PIOJ Director General Says Youth Must Have an Active Voice in Country’s Development

Director General at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Dr. Wayne Henry, has emphasised the importance of youth having an active voice in the country’s development and the economic and social choices made by policymakers.

“Young people dare not simply be passive observers of development. Indeed, your rich and diverse views should join the conversation and influence positive trajectories,” Dr. Henry declared.

He was speaking at the PIOJ’s Dialogue for Development 2026 Youth Debate Competition, which critically examined pressing national issues.

The University of Technology (UTech) Knights and the Wolmer’s Warriors emerged winners of the competition.

Held at the PIOJ’s office in Kingston on Thursday (October 22), the competition saw the students tackling issues related to migration, Jamaica’s declining birth rate and how Jamaica’s shifting population trends can be best positioned to drive sustainable development.

The high-school showdown between the Wolmer’s Boys’ School and Immaculate Conception High considered the motion: ‘This house regrets the normalisation of migration as the preferred path to success for young Jamaicans’, whereas the tertiary segment between the UTech and the University of the West Indies (UWI) examined the motion: ‘This house believes that the increasing trend towards child-free living is detrimental to Jamaica’s development’.

The PIOJ Director General noted that part of the mandate of the PIOJ is to utilise available data and information to inform proactive and inclusive planning for national development, thereby creating forecasts and projections that will inform the reality in which young people will live tomorrow.

He noted that the PIO, therefore, encourages youth participation in the process and continues to facilitate this through its Vision 2030 Jamaica youth thematic working group, which engages and consults with the youth on sustainable development issues.

With regard to the debates on topical issues emanating from Jamaica’s population dynamics, he noted that the data establishes clearly that departures, the departure of skills from Jamaica is continuing, even while the cohort of children and youth has gotten proportionately smaller.

Dr. Henry said informed debate, critical thinking, and rigorous research are exactly what is needed to give shape and form to policy and programmatic responses to address these issues.

The PIOJ’s 2026 Dialogue for Development series is being held under the theme ‘Harnessing the Shift, Reimagining a Sustainable Future’.