Being young means living in a world full of opportunities where nothing seems to be impossible. Youth plays a crucial role in helping nations to move towards progress and also bringing social reforms to a country. According to the United Nations, the global youth population, defined by the UN as those between the ages of 15 and 24 years, is expected to total 1.29 billion in 2030 and almost 1.34 billion in 2050, representing a gradually declining share of the overall population. On 12th of August, we mark International Youth Day which focuses on recognizing the efforts of the world’s youth to improve global society. We discussed with several professionals currently or previously involved in promoting youth development work to share their experience with the entire international aid community.
How important is global youth work to international development?
“The role of youth workers is at the core of international development simply because we can’t strive for international development if young people are not leading social change. Youth workers are on the front line providing the resources and mentorship needed for young people to develop and complete their work. Most importantly, youth workers provide the encouragement many young people need to find the courage to become changemakers in the first place and get involved/lead development initiatives. Young people find youth workers to be a supportive community that is open and happy to share power, trust their decisions and understand youth’s unique potential to create movements like no other group in society.”
“Youth work” and for that matter “global youth work” is important because young people form the majority in Sierra Leone, where I currently work, and across West Africa and Africa in general. The population of youth in the region is estimated at around 200 million, accounting for half the total population. Thus, any actions that prioritise this population are a big kick in moving things along – things such as reductions in youth unemployment and youth poverty, youth in business, youth in agriculture, etc, etc. For me then, the value of “global youth work” is seen in how we contribute to removing barriers that exclude and building bridges that connect young people to become useful and make the lot of the most populous and significant segment of our populations less vulnerable, more prepared and supported to lift the present and future out of poverty. Youth cuts across all of the SDGs, so the more younger people we can bring UP, the better our scores in making the world better will be. In the COVID-19 world, the more of the youth populations we can show have stepped over the barriers imposed by COVID-19 (limited or closed schools, closed spaces, etc), the better youth workers can feel about their work.”
“Most countries or nations experience the ‘youth bulge’ with more young people at the base of the population profile. These countries are developing countries. Other countries have fixed this, removing the burden off youth to carry their nations. Global youth work is successful once there is a specific ‘convention on youth’ such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). There is a specific need for a convention focusing on youth so that nations ratify it globally and tackle the issues affecting young people at the global level before they are domesticated.”
What are the biggest challenges for youth workers in international development?
“One of the biggest challenges youth workers experience are the difficulties in providing opportunities beyond our organizations’ programming. This is a challenge because we want young people to achieve their fullest potential, but the services our organizations offer are limited, as well as the organizations we work closely with. Young people are constantly asking us for more professional development/job opportunities, funding, connections, and many times we are unable to offer any of this. Another challenge has to do with recruitment. Young people are the most digitally connected age group worldwide; this is why many recruitment strategies and even programming depend on digital means. Unfortunately, the digital gap/disparity global youth face is rarely considered, and many young people are left out because we are unable to reach them.”
“Too many youth organisations competing for ever-smaller grants. Youth workers, especially those in grant management, have to constantly struggle to find the “best” organisations to work with because of the limited funds and the ever-increasing youth groups and organizations and their demands. For youth workers outside the grant-making network, they consistently have to work to make youth work and youth problems “sexy”. But youth issues cannot be reduced to “sexiness” because when we do, we reduce the reality of many young people to and for optics. Young people’s problems are real and must be seen as such and not coated in development.”
Most youth workers do not focus much on youth, they are involved in other work that is not youth-specific simply because they do not want to work in silos. At times, married youth are left out from development agendas because the mindset is that youth are those who are not in civil unions. Youth may marry young but can still benefit from interventions targeting youth. Mainstreaming youth in development agendas is good but eventually, the focus on youth is lost. Youth do not have a standalone Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Donors, development strategies/agendas or NGOs consider youth as an ‘additional’ target group yet they are the main and energetic drivers of every set development agenda. It is frustrating, therefore, for youth workers to take youth as a priority. They cannot redirect the funding from donors to NGOs to bring into focus a nation towards youth if the Country Strategy Paper (CSP) for such does not state youth as a priority. Academia must formulate courses that focus on youth and credentialing programs for professionalism in youth work just like it is in Early Childhood Development (ECD). The UK Commonwealth has such programs and initiatives including a whole Centre for youth, but it should be replicated, emulated, and globalized. The Demographic Dividend Reports (at least for Malawi) have tried to look at interventions specific for youth all the way. This can be borrowed for international development purposes.”
What needs to be changed/improved in the youth sector in international development?
“Many institutions that focus on youth are not youth-led per se. In this sense, many young people are tokenized (a type of decoration) to make the case that institutions abide by their mission, but they are not part of the decision-making processes whatsoever. If a whole system of services, theories, and curriculum do not have the input of youth themselves, how can these ever be effective and welcoming to the group we serve? What I believe is at the root of this issue is that we still experience a culture of adultism, even in the youth sector in international development, in which the adult is seen as more knowledgeable, experienced, and capable. The new global challenges, and even those that are not new, require disrupting paradigms of what has been tried in the past, and those new perspectives can only be provided by youth. Therefore, it is essential to defy the culture of adultism in every sector and welcome young people to take a seat at the table, the seat they rightfully deserve.”
“Youth programming needs to move from rigid fixed parameters to a fluid state with and for young people. In Africa, south of the Sahara, we need to redefine youth and get young people to prioritize what they want and when for themselves. By not clearly defining who a youth is (15-35 years), we risk planning for the wrong people. So, make youth development “open”; second, let youth prioritise what they want and three, redefine youth.”
“This can be improved once there is a ‘UN for Youth’, solely meant for youth. Youth issues, successes, and challenges may vary from world to world, region to region, or country to country, but they are common. The development denominator determining youth development is one and the same. Since a child is stated to be aged between 0 and 18, then a deliberate UN office for Youth should be set up for programs targeting ages 18 above. UNICEF has its focus on children, then why not have a ‘UN for Youth’? Only then will youth become a specific target group globally and then the efforts to overcome the challenges faced by youth will be concrete and appreciated by the youth themselves and the globe. Youth are not delinquents, troublesome, warriors, or dysfunctional on purpose. They can be all of the above if the attention supposedly to be accorded to them is shifted. The Arab spring is one perfect example. Having charters, communiques, policies or strategies on youth will not work 100 percent for now, what is needed is a recognized umbrella or a convention such as a whole ‘UN for Youth’ to subscribe to and to link up development agendas so as to impact on youth work by credentialed youth workers. How about a ‘Global Fund for Youth’ like there has been for HIV and AIDS? A UN ‘Youth’ Volunteer Scheme mandatorily adopted by nations, specifically for youth, will allow youth to apply their skills and competencies for the work experience needed in the workforce as they grapple with high unemployment rates. The suggested areas of intervention above must be monitored and measured by the proposed ‘UN for Youth’ to check how international development is being achieved. Youth should not continue to be a petty development topic or a passive discussion agenda, this should be a sector that requires global attention for real international development.”
Check out more than 120 job opportunities in the youth sector here.
