Youth Mainstreaming Training MODULE 1 Building a Common Vision on Youth

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Youth Mainstreaming TrainingMODULE
1Building a Common Vision on Youth

• Section for Youth (Bureau of Strategic Planning)
• Cairo, 12 May 2006
• ucj_at_unesco.org

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MODULE 1Building a Common Vision on Youth

• Definition of Youth
• Young people today and in 2015 a global
  perspective
• Youth development key concerns
• Youth development in the Arab States Region
• From a negative image towards a positive approach
• Key points to remember
• Key Issues for Discussion

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1. Defining Youth

• UN statistical definition of youth 15 to 24
  years of age
• Youth as a phase of transition where key life
  events and decisions qualifying a move from
  dependence (childhood) to independence
  (adulthood) occur (Cf. R. Curtain 2003)
• - Leaving the parental home and establishing
  new living arrangements
• - Completing full-time education
• - Forming close, stable personal relationships
  outside of the family, often resulting in
  marriage and children
• - Testing the labor market, finding work and
  possibly settling into a career, and achieving
  a more or less sustainable livelihood
• Need for operational flexibility owing to
  different socio-cultural contexts - Young people
  are not a homogeneous group
• Adolescents (10 to 19 years of age) Youth (15
  to 24 years of age) Young people (10 to 24
  years of age)

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2. Young people today and in 2015

• Almost 1.2 billion young people living in the
  world today, gt 18 of the worlds population
  the largest youth generation in history
• Next generation of young people (below 15 years
  of age today) will amount to 1.8 billion people
• How do youth fit in?
• Children (lt15) 1.8 billion 30
• Youth (15-24) 1.1 billion 18
• Adults (25-64) 2.8 billion 46
• Elderly (65gt) 0.4 billion 7
• Total 6.1 billion 100
• 85 of young people live in the developing world
  (nearly half in low-income countries)

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2. Young people today and in 2015 (II)

• Regional distribution of youth (2000, in millions)

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2. Young people today and in 2015 (III)

• Just by the sheer size of this age cohort, young
  people are
• An opportunity
• Youth are a dividend to build long-term social
  capital to reach the MDGs and economic and social
  development
• A challenge
• (Worldwide)
• 209 million youth live in extreme poverty (on
  less than US 1 per day)
• up to 160 million youth are undernourished
• 88 million youth are unemployed
• 133 million young people are illiterate
• 11.8 million youth are HIV positive
• Youth are a tremendous resource that needs to be
  unleashed

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3. Youth development key concerns
Ten priorities of the United Nations for youth
agreed in 1995
Education Employment Hunger and poverty Health
issues The environment
Drug abuse Delinquency Leisure Girls and young
women Participation in decision-making
UN World Programme of Action for Youth to the
Year 2000 and Beyond, General Assembly Resolution
50/81

• Five new priorities added in 2005
• Youth and Globalization / HIV/AIDS / ICTs / Youth
  and conflict prevention /
• Intergenerational relations

Policies and Programmes involving Youth, General
Assembly Resolution 60/2
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3. Youth development key concerns (II)

• Education
• The best-educated generation ever more
  children than ever complete primary school, four
  out of five eligible youth are enrolled in
  secondary education, 100 million youth currently
  in tertiary education
• Challenges 133 million youth illiterate and 130
  million children currently not in school, large
  gender differences, large differences between
  groups of countries, retention in secondary
  education is a problem, quality of education as a
  prerequisite for school-to-work transition
• Poverty
• 209 million, i.e. 18 of all youth in extreme
  poverty, 515 million on less than US 2 per day
  (almost half of all youth)
• Unemployment as a major factor contributing to
  poverty hits 88 million youth, i.e. almost half
  of all unemployed are young people

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3. Youth development key concerns (II)

• HIV/AIDS
• One in four of all people living with HIV is a
  young person (11. 8 million) and 6,000 young
  people become newly infected every day
• Girls and young women are hit particularly hard
  1.6 times higher risk of infection than young men
  
• Violence
• Young people are offenders and victims more
  than any other group!
• 2 million children and young people dead and 5
  million disabled due to armed conflict over the
  past decade
• Hardest hit by urban violence and homicides

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4. Youth Development in the Arab States Region
Population Dynamics
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4. Youth Development in the Arab States Region
Population Dynamics (II)

• In terms of numbers seen in a global
  perspective, the youth population in the Arab
  world is not that significant
• However, young people represent the fastest
  growing segment of Arab populations making these
  societies extremely youthful ones
• Median age is 22 years, 34 of the regions
  population is below the age of 15
• Relatively high growth rate (2) and huge youth
  population will result in enormous growth in the
  coming years
• 372 million people by 2020 (UN projection)
  Arab World will continue to be composed of young
  societies

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4. Youth Development in the Arab States Region
Population Dynamics (III)
The weight of young people in the Arab States
Region
Source U.S. Bureau of the Census International
Database (2004)
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4. Youth Development in the Arab States Region
-Challenges and Opportunities

• Education
• Progress made on closing the gender gap in early
  education and regional increase in literary rate
  by 13 (since 1990)
• But women account for nearly two-thirds of the
  regions illiterates and high gender disparities
  persist in schooling / UPE an unachieved
  challenge
• Unemployment
• Highest (and increasing) unemployment rates in
  the world, especially for youth
• Around 12.5 youth million unemployed, coupled
  with high underemployment
• 2.5 million new youth entrants to the labour
  market annually, expected to rise to 3 million
  during 2000- 2010 need to create jobs for these
  new entrants just to maintain current
  unemployment levels
• Youth unemployment rates are much higher than
  adult unemployment rates, averaging 25.6 in
  2003 (cf. 21.0 in Sub-Saharan Africa), young
  womens situation even more acute

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4. Youth Development in the Arab States Region
-Challenges and Opportunities (II)

• HIV/AIDS
• relatively low HIV prevalence
• Lack of reliable data and integrated policy
  responses
• At present an opportune time for public awareness
  campaigns and addressing HIV prevention among
  young people
• Gender inequality
• Remains a major challenge and concern in the
  region
• But Womens participation in economic and
  political life is slowly increasing and there is
  a growing acknowledgment of gender equality in
  constitutions, legislations and policies

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4. Youth Development in the Arab States Region
-Challenges and Opportunities (III)

• Governance and citizenship
• Enhancing young peoples participation in
  decision-making and fostering their contribution
  to society is a major challenge in the region
• (Cf. Arab HDR 2002 51 of youth interviewed
  expressed the wish to migrate to Western
  countries)
• Negative image and bias in the media young
  people are considered not mature enough and lack
  in skills to participate
• Lack of solidified youth programmes and
  structures, which include young people as
  planners, implementers and evaluators
• But
• Increase in activities of youth-led or
  youth-servicing civil-society organisations aimed
  at empowering youth and building their capacities
  

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5. From a negative image..Towards a positive
approach

• Young people are both the present and the future
  of the Arab States Region
• Young people can and want to participate in all
  aspects of society
• Young people are creative and committed to
  promoting new ideas for positive social change
• Youth have a right to participate and make their
  voices heard
• Young people need to be enabled with the kinds of
  opportunities and skills which will support their
  empowerment and allow them to become full and
  equal partners
• Scaling up investments in youth and promoting the
  replication of youth-led initiatives in concert
  with the MDGs pledged by many countries around
  the world, is key to achieving the goals

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6. Key points to remember

• Young people have specific needs and aspirations
  and constitute an enormous potential for social
  development
• 2. We need to promote a more positive image of
  youth
• 3. Young people do want to participate. Their
  involvement is key to all development efforts and
  to the creation of just and democratic societies.
  

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7. Key Issues for Discussion