Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba
The Commonwealth has been pioneering in its approach to youth development and the social, political and economic empowerment of young people. We have long attached the greatest importance to programmes for youth and the professionalisation of youth work. The current demographic profile of the Commonwealth, with a significant youth bulge in most member states, makes it more vital than ever that we engage in practical action that matches the sense of urgency and impatience for change being expressed by younger generations.
By combining efforts, and working in mutual support, Commonwealth member countries seek to make progress towards shared goals of democracy, development, and respect for diversity. In order to assess the value of such collaboration it is important to be able to measure progress, in particular to gauge the impact of our common endeavours on the lives and life prospects of our younger citizens. It was with this in mind that the Commonwealth Plan of Action for Youth Empowerment 2007-2015, and the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group in its Report issued in 2011, recommended the development of a tool for monitoring progress on youth development in the Commonwealth. In fact, the concept of a global Youth Development Index (YDI) has been under discussion between the Commonwealth, the UN and other stakeholders for nearly a decade, but the complex challenges in creating such an index have prevented its fruition until now.
In 2011, I commissioned a Technical Advisory Committee which worked with the Commonwealth Secretariat Youth Affairs Division for over a year to develop the framework for the YDI. In April this year, the YDI draft report was presented at the 8th Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting in Papua New Guinea for feedback from member countries. Today, I am pleased to be welcoming you to the global launch of this important tool.
The Commonwealth Youth Development Index is the first attempt to aggregate global youth-specific data, and I commend the technical committee for its excellent work in devising a tool that is capable of being used to practical affect within the diverse global context of The Commonwealth. The YDI as it stands now establishes a valuable monitoring framework, and we expect it to also to ignite some important conversations and act as an incentive for member countries to increase their collection of youth-specific data as they see their achievements and needs ranked globally and regionally. The YDI sets a baseline, and is sufficiently flexible and adaptable to allow continuing development of the framework with the addition of new metrics as data becomes available.
Guided by our Commonwealth priorities, the YDI examines youth development under five indicator headings: health, education, employment, civic participation and political participation. Taken collectively these broad themes allow overall progress to be assessed. Individually they bring focus to specific areas that can be addressed by governments and local authorities, by officials and policy-makers, by civil society and by young people themselves.
I commend the YDI to you as a major contribution towards strengthening the overall framework within which youth empowerment is advanced throughout The Commonwealth, and as a compass for developing innovative and effective initiatives for young people to serve the needs and aspirations of rising generations of Commonwealth citizens.
