The Year of Youth: a success?

For twelve months, the United Nations commemorated the 2010-2011 International Year of Youth: Dialogue and Mutual Understanding. It had been declared by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 64/134 (pdf) and commenced on 12 August 2010 with a global launch event with the aim of “generating much needed attention for youth participation and youth development at local, national and global levels.”

The International Year of Youth—proclaimed against the backdrop of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1985 International Youth Year: Participation, Development, Peace—was framed by three key objectives:

1. Create Awareness: increase commitment and investment in youth

Increase recognition of youth development as a smart investment by the public and private sectors;
Advocate for the recognition of young people’s contributions to national and community development and to achieving the Millennium Development Goals;
Promote understanding of inequalities amongst youth and how to effectively address the needs of the most disadvantaged;
Foster research and knowledge building on youth to better inform youth policies and programmes.

2. Mobilize and Engage: increase youth participation and partnerships

Institutionalize mechanisms for youth participation in decision-making processes;
Support youth-led organizations and initiatives to enhance their contribution to society;
Strengthen networks and partnerships among governments, youth-led organizations, academia, civil society organizations, the private sector, the media and the UN system, to enhance commitment and support for holistic youth development.

3. Connect and Build Bridges: increase intercultural understanding among youth

Promote youth interactions, networks and partnerships across cultures;
Empower and support youth as agents of social inclusion and peace.

At United Nations level, the activities of the year were coordinated by the UN Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development, with the UN Programme on Youth leading the collective effort. Mirroring the cross-sectoral approach of youth policy, the Inter-Agency Network brings together the various parts of the UN system that support youth development through a diverse range of programs and activities. The Network developed the UN Framework Approach for the International Year of Youth as a concrete and tangible reference system for the Year (including the three key objectives outlined above) and, on the occasion of the UN High-Level Meeting on Youth in July 2011, pledged in a joint statement to increase the effectiveness of the United Nations in advocating for and supporting the implementation of international agreements and development goals on youth (source, pdf).

In the report on the implementation of the International Year of Youth (pdf), the UN Secretariat highlights key activities and initiatives and puts forward recommendations to sustain the momentum generated during the Year. As key activities of the year, the report mentions, inter alia

the World Youth Congress from 21 July to 12 August 2010, the Global Launch Event on 12 August 2010, the World Youth Conference from 24 to 27 August 2010^[1], the High Level Meeting on Youth on 25 and 26 July 2011 and the Culmination Celebration on 11 August 2011;
numerous civil society initiatives on global scale—most prominently by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) in combination with their commemoration of 100 years of international girl guiding and girl scouting—and in 85 countries: the report speaks of ‘countless’ events and doesn’t quantify the numbers of initiatives, whereas the official calendar of events lists 426 events throughout the year, supported by an activities kit (pdf) to celebrate the year;
the launch of the Global Employment Trends for Youth Report by ILO, the International Labour Organization, and the Inaugural Global Youth Employment Agenda Meeting on 2 and 3 December 2010;
the PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival and the Convention of the Global Youth Movement by the Alliance of Civilizations Youth Section;
visits of UN Youth Champion Monique Coleman to more than 25 countries during the year;
a wide range of thematic briefing sessions, leading to a series of fact sheets and regional overviews.

In conclusion, the UN Report on the International Year of Youth observes that

“… the International Year of Youth successfully underscored the role of youth in the achievement of the global development agenda, in particular the Millennium Development Goals. The activities of governments, civil society and United Nations entities related to the year brought the youth agenda to prominence. Further efforts are needed, however, to maintain and capitalize upon the momentum generated during the year.”

and recommends that

“… the General Assembly may wish to consider the following recommendations, calling upon Member States:

To further strengthen partnerships with and among young people, youth organizations, academia, civil society organizations, the private sector, the media and the United Nations system in order to develop partnerships with youth;

To continue promoting a culture of dialogue and mutual understanding among and with youth, as agents of development, social inclusion, tolerance and peace;

To undertake measures in partnership with relevant stakeholders to develop a youth-centred global development agenda.”

The report, in focusing on listing the various events, activities, initiatives and meetings and resorting to very general recommendations, does not make, and does not allow for, a judgment of the Year in relation to its three key objectives.

Youth activist and blogger Michael Boampong speaks of the “absence of a concrete notion that something substantial has been done for young people” and demands to move past tokenism.^[2]

Some of the unanswered questions are:

Key objective 1. Create Awareness: increase commitment and investment in youth

Has the recognition of youth development as a smart investment by the public and private sectors increased?
Has the recognition of young people’s contributions to national and community development and to achieving the Millennium Development Goals increased?
Has the understanding of inequalities amongst youth and how to effectively address the needs of the most disadvantaged increased?
Has research and knowledge building on youth to better inform youth policies and programmes been fostered beyond the 14 fact sheets?

Key objective 2. Mobilize and Engage: increase youth participation and partnerships

Which mechanisms for youth participation in decision-making processes have been Institutionalized?
Was the support to youth-led organizations and initiatives to enhance their contribution to society effective?
Are networks and partnerships to enhance commitment and support for holistic youth development now stronger?

Key objective 3. Connect and Build Bridges: increase intercultural understanding among youth

Have youth interactions, networks and partnerships across cultures been promoted beyond the stakeholders already active at UN level in the youth field before the start of the year?
How was youth empowered and supported as agents of social inclusion and peace?

The UNESCO evaluation matrix—developed through the assessment of 50 global and regional youth events and leaning on the fifteen thematic areas of the World Programme of Action on Youth—to be presented at the UNESCO Youth Forum in October 2011 might prove to be a useful tool to thoroughly assess the impact of the International Year of Youth; otherwise an alternative approach will be needed for an in-depth evaluation.

Already in 2007, Ban Ki-Moon called for governments to consider the contributions of young persons on all policies affecting them and argued:

“It is high time that we stopped viewing our young people as part of the problem and started cultivating their promise and potential.” ^[3]

Has the International Year of Youth brought us any closer to this ‘cultivation’ of young people’s promise and potential? Or was it little more but navel-gazing of the sector to gain and maintain some motivation?

Footnotes

[1] – BACK TO TEXT The domain of the year [www.youth2010.org] expired in August 2011, the website is no longer reachable.

[2] – BACK TO TEXT Read the full article of Michael here: Happy International Youth Day: It is time to Reflect on the International Year of Youth!

[3] – BACK TO TEXT Source: Youth Participation in Development (pdf), p. 4.

“The one element of Institutional Framework we would like the UN to consider is a better representation of Youth within its systems. Young people will be the builders and beneficiaries of the Green Economy. They will also be the victims if society fails to build it in the first half of the 21st Century.

So – the UN should develop its capacity to advise governments on successful youth policy, training, empowerment and motivation. The current 3-4 person Youth Dept. within DESA is woefully inadequate – and, though some excellent work has been done in pushing the Inter-agency Committee on Youth and Development to weave together the activities of the different UN agencies that focus upon youth, I would like to see the UN do for Youth what it has already done for Women: draw together the different youth programmes of the different agencies under the leadership of a new U-S-G who would champion effective youth policies to member states and other UN agencies.

In this way, the massive demographic youth bulge currently passing through the world’s least-developed countries can be exploited to economic advantage, not wasted – or, as we have seen in North Africa, become a security risk.

The abject failure of the UN and its member states properly to manage and exploit the opportunity of the UN International Year of Youth is just the latest example of the low priority afforded to youth by most governments:

Rio 2012 – and its institutional reform programme – offers another opportunity for Member States to fill this massive institutional vacuum at the heart of the UN – and draw in the energy, talent and idealism of that 51% of the world’s population who are under 25.”

[Emphasis by Youthpolicy Team for clarification of connection to the article.]

3 thoughts on “The Year of Youth: a success?”

Solo Rob on Facebook on September 6, 2011 at 10:24 pm said:

Solo Rob made these two comments on Facebook:

“Noble that the world body observed the year. The question remains that the year was not known by the majority of young people. Why for obvious reasons access to info especially in developing countries is limited and expensive…”

and

“There is an information gap. MDGs,high level meetings and conferences on youth are attended by people who are no longer youths. The UN should help us address this so that we meet and discuss youth issues only.”
From DW Rio 2012 Blog on September 25, 2011 at 4:59 pm said:

“The one element of Institutional Framework we would like the UN to consider is a better representation of Youth within its systems. Young people will be the builders and beneficiaries of the Green Economy. They will also be the victims if society fails to build it in the first half of the 21st Century.

So – the UN should develop its capacity to advise governments on successful youth policy, training, empowerment and motivation. The current 3-4 person Youth Dept. within DESA is woefully inadequate – and, though some excellent work has been done in pushing the Inter-agency Committee on Youth and Development to weave together the activities of the different UN agencies that focus upon youth, I would like to see the UN do for Youth what it has already done for Women: draw together the different youth programmes of the different agencies under the leadership of a new U-S-G who would champion effective youth policies to member states and other UN agencies.

In this way, the massive demographic youth bulge currently passing through the world’s least-developed countries can be exploited to economic advantage, not wasted – or, as we have seen in North Africa, become a security risk.

The abject failure of the UN and its member states properly to manage and exploit the opportunity of the UN International Year of Youth is just the latest example of the low priority afforded to youth by most governments:

Rio 2012 – and its institutional reform programme – offers another opportunity for Member States to fill this massive institutional vacuum at the heart of the UN – and draw in the energy, talent and idealism of that 51% of the world’s population who are under 25.”

[Emphasis by Youthpolicy Team for clarification of connection to the article.]
dr prem raj pushpakaran on November 4, 2011 at 4:51 am said:

educating and welfare of the youth should be the prime policy of every nation for its sustained development. United Nations has made it a point that it will devote 2011 for the betterment of youth across the globe.

dr prem raj pushpakaran
http://www.incredb.org/investigator.php?incredb_id=373&prev=prev

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The Year of Youth: a success?

3 thoughts on “The Year of Youth: a success?”