Young People We Care: Young people in Development

August 12th has been declared by the United Nations and is thus recognised by the international community as International Youth Day. Its purpose is to pay tribute to the contributions of young people in the development of their countries and also the world at large. It also serves to create a forum for discussion about issues surrounding both youth and development.

The theme for the International Youth Day 2009 was: “SUSTAINABILITY: Our Challenge. Our Future.”

Youth development issues continue to be one of the most significant and pressing issues of our era. Among the many issues that confront the youth of today are those such as high risk of HIV/AIDS, unemployment and underemployment, lack of education and skills, social exclusion, limited infrastructure to meet youth interests, civil war, unstable political environments and the struggle for identity.

The World Program of Action for Youth (WPAY) lists ten areas to be considered as of pressing priority. These areas cover a wide range of issues relevant to the youth of today, including: education; employment; hunger and poverty; health; environment; drug abuse; juvenile delinquency; leisure-time activities; girls and young women; participation; globalization; Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); HIV/AIDS; youth and conflict; and intergenerational relations. For the governments of developing countries, bringing these priority areas into their decision-making and policy development in order to promote youth development has proven to be little more than lip service. Countries such as Ghana can do little more than wait whilst the implementation of policies such as Ghana's National Youth Policy continue to be postponed

Young people form a major proportion of population segments in developing countries. This has major implications for policy formulation, resource allocation and the development of youth programs. Unfortunately, more often than not in the development arena, young people are perceived as a 'problem in development', rather than a 'resource for development' that can act as catalysts for the development of their countries. Thankfully, despite this prevailing attitude in some forums, the positive contributions of young people continue to illustrate the fact that if young people are given the required platform and resources they can “be the change” that we want to see.

Youth Led Development (YLD) initiatives are community service projects planned and implemented by young people under the age of 25 (although some African countries tend to define the age category to which ‘youth’ applies in a very broad sense, for example from 10 to 35). Such initiatives are generally grass-roots, small in size, and carried out mostly, but not exclusively, by youth volunteers. Resources are more often than not limited but YLD initiatives make important impacts in promoting human and/or community development.

Ghana is just one country that benefits greatly from YLD initiatives. It is important that this volunteerism is promoted, recognised and sustained, through initiatives such as the National Award scheme and events such as International Youth Day, and the annual Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) held in America. Nevertheless, further incentives are necessary to ensure that young people are motivated to offer their youthful exuberance for the purpose of development.

In his victory message after the United States elections, President Barack Obama remarked that “[Change] can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other.” The Obama campaign highlighted its belief in youth by promising a US$4,000 education credit to students engaging in 100 hours of community service a year. This shows a practical approach towards promoting social entrepreneurship and aiming to reduce blame placed on the state for the all societies woes.

By investing in YLD, unemployment and underemployment among young people can be reduced. In an era where most employers want to see relevant working experience as part of their recruitment policy, volunteerism can be a stepping-stone towards meeting some of these demands. The youths involved in YLD learn invaluable project management, fund-raising and leadership skills, build self-esteem and self-confidence, all of which hugely boost their future employment chances. Additionally, promoting YLD can be seen as a cost effective approach toward promoting sustainable development as most young people value experience and knowledge rather than hard cash salaries, which many employers may not be ready to offer. Moreover YLD is a means of promoting human security towards sustainable development. Young people, who may otherwise fall into activities such as armed robbery and prostitution, find themselves doing something worthwhile that promotes their personal and community’s development.

Operational challenges facing youth structures and organisations are numerous, such as a lack of independence in terms of decision-making, lack of recognition coupled with the challenge of being seen as a credible organization, and lack of resources (both human and financial). One way of mitigating these limitations would be through the support of youth focused organisations by corporate institutions and governments. Similarly, there is a need for fellowship programmes that build the capacity of young people from regions like Africa as well as mentoring programmes that promote adult (experts)-youth engagement. Developments such as these would serve as a great step towards building the capacity of young people for them to make outstanding performances in their entrepreneurial activities.

Most operational challenges that confront young social entrepreneurs can be overcome by well-planned pilot processes, public-private partnerships and an enabling YLD and volunteering policy framework. The invaluable resource of youth needs to be recognized and invested in, in the same way in which other resources are. For development to be sustainable, we need to ensure that the next generation is enabled to participate in every step of the development process. However, rather than relying solely on top-down development and implementation of policy, we as youth can prove our worth by acting, caring, and making a stand.

Michael Boampong,YPWC

Last year i visited Manila in the Philippines as a youth delegate for the Global Forum on Migration and Development.

During my one week stay it was obvious to see young adolescents engaged in prostitution. I began to question some of Philippinos whether prostitution has been legalized in the Philippines and the feedback was "no!"

I think the Philippines government will need to do more to tackle the youth unemployment situation to solve this crises and also empower young females. As some people told me when i asked them the reason why there is so much prostitution in Manila, they mentioned that there are less job opportunities for young people.

I think mere negligence of responsibilities like this has a wild rippling effect as in cases of high rate of HIV/AIDS cases and increase gender inequality just to mention a few. In this case no amount of migrant remittances can solve or cure diseases like HIV/AIDS if the government does not take pragmatic steps to solve this issue despite the fact that the Philippines is one of the world's leading recipient of migrant remittances.

In Ghana we have a saying that if you empower a woman you empower the nation but if you empower a man then you have just empowered an individual. This analogy connects with the fact that adolescents who will grow into womanhood sometime to come will be the likely people to stay for longer hours with children at home as compared to men. Thus they are likely to agents of change for both male children and females children.

Young People We Care

Pages

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Youth-Led Development and Volunteerism: Making a Case for Sustainable Development

Monday, April 20, 2009

Pragramatic Youth Unemployment Solutions needed in Philippines

Saturday, February 28, 2009

A brief Introduction