‘Youth Civic Engagement’ - the important role that young people can play as agents of change and drivers of development.
It is 15 years since August 12 was designated as International Youth Day, and it has now become a widely observed annual celebration of young people as partners in development. It also provides an excellent opportunity to raise international awareness of the challenges and opportunities facing young women and young men around the globe.
This year’s theme of ‘Youth Civic Engagement’ is apt, and highly relevant in a world that is increasingly coming to appreciate the important role that young people can play as agents of change and drivers of development.
Youth participation in civic life can have a profound impact on sustainable development and overall youth wellbeing. Young people have a proven ability to lead change, and are often the trailblazers of development, not simply its beneficiaries.
The Commonwealth has long recognised and emphasised this, and is a pioneering advocate for investment in young people as vital assets to national development. With more than 60% of the population of our 53 member countries being under 30 years old, no other approach would make sense. We live in ‘A Young Commonwealth’.
When the Commonwealth developed the first global Youth Development Index (YDI) in 2013, the expert advisory committee was unanimous and clear in its view that ‘civic participation’ should be one of the five domains tracked to provide a comprehensive assessment of youth development. The others are health, education, employment and political participation.
In that first compilation of the Index, the Commonwealth member state that achieved the highest rating for civic participation was Sierra Leone. For many this was an unexpected result, yet it has been amply borne during the past year as that country has faced an unprecedented crisis with the Ebola epidemic. Young people mobilised as health workers, community educators, contact tracers, and in many other roles where their lives were at risk every day. On this International Youth Day we commend the bravery and commitment of the young people of Sierra Leone, and recognise their immense contribution towards helping to overcome the crisis. We look forward to continuing impact as their capabilities and skills are utilised in national efforts for recovery, rebuilding, and long term development.
While such impact is extraordinarily impressive, this is far from being an isolated case. Every year our Commonwealth Youth Awards recognise and showcase young people who are doing outstanding work in development. The Asia region winner for 2015 was a young woman from Pakistan, Gulalai Ismael, who founded an organisation that works within the communities of north-west Pakistan to empower and mobilise young women around issues such as voting rights and prevention of HIV/AIDS. The Pacific region winner, Brianna Frueann from Samoa, who is only 16 years old, mobilised her school and community from the age of 11 to take action to combat climate change.
Commonwealth youth development work has a strong focus on creating environments that allow young people to step up and engage as civic actors, through volunteering, through social action, and as leaders in their communities. We seek to encourage this by providing technical assistance to youth ministries, and by supporting youth networks which connect young people across the Commonwealth to give a united voice and mobilise collective practical action on key issues such as education, climate change, entrepreneurship and human rights.
We also engage in continual advocacy to shift the mind-sets of those who have not yet understood sufficiently the energy, creativity and unique perspectives that young people bring, or who might tend towards negative perceptions, seeing them only as a problem to be fixed or a threat to be mitigated.
Involving young people in their societies, and with decision makers, can itself be a preventative measure against crime, alienation, and extremism. It helps to channel in more positive directions young people’s passion, energy and need for a sense of belonging. Youth development workers can play an essential role in achieving this, which is why the Commonwealth has for many years invested in promoting recognition of youth work as a profession, and developing youth work education and training mechanisms.
The Commonwealth theme for 2015, ‘A Young Commonwealth’, celebrates the capacity, contribution and potential of young people, who play a vital role at the heart of sustainable development and democracy. In acknowledgement of this and to carry it forward we are pleased to announce today the launch of a new initiative: ‘Bright Ideas from a Young Commonwealth’. We are providing toolkits to governments and youth development organisations to create opportunities to showcase young people speaking about the great work they are doing in development. The videos will be displayed on the yourcommonwealth.org website, and our intention is to inspire decision makers and other young people. The best entry submitted by the end of September will be invited, as our guest, to join the Commonwealth Youth Forum taking place in Malta in November this year alongside the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
The engagement and civic participation of young people is essential to achieving sustainable human development. We must never underestimate the transformative potential of young people and their key role in driving forward equitable social progress and economic growth in which all can share. The Commonwealth will continue to work for the inclusion of young people at the centre of development, so that their voice is heard, their views respected, and their contribution more fully recognised.
