How can countries navigate fiscal pressures while still nurturing the potential of their young people? How can we design economic frameworks that are both responsive today and transformative for tomorrow? This publication draws on the latest findings from the Commonwealth Youth Development Index to offer a clear, data-driven picture of where progress is being made – and where it is at risk.
This publication, produced by the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Debt Management Unit, arrives at a critical moment. As we approach the end of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, many of the goals we set for ourselves are stalling. The aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, including mounting debt vulnerabilities and a challenging development co-operation environment, have made it even harder for governments to protect essential investments in education, health, employment and the wider wellbeing of their citizens.
This creates a profound policy challenge: how can countries navigate fiscal pressures while still nurturing the potential of their young people? How can we design economic frameworks that are both responsive today and transformative for tomorrow? This publication aims to illuminate that path.
Young people have gained increasing prominence as key drivers of change and development in both advanced and developing countries. Accordingly, the topic of ‘youth development’ has taken centre stage in international and national policy dialogues and has shaped governments’ social policies on education, skills development, employment and health in recent years. Though several initiatives have been rolled out to support youth development, the success of these policy interventions largely depends on a government’s economic policy stance, while the role of public debt financing cannot be overemphasised.
Public debt financing or government borrowing plays an important role in helping a government to raise money to meet its budget deficit requirements and to successfully execute its budget, including priority social investments. However, public debt levels have increased considerably, globally, raising public debt sustainability concerns in most countries, especially low and middle income countries. The rise in debt vulnerabilities represents considerable risks to a country’s development path and to the global economy as a whole. For many economies, the onerous public debt that exploded with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact economic and social growth targets and governments’ commitments to meeting the Sustainability Development Goals .
Young people and other vulnerable groups face a higher risk of bearing the brunt of the looming debt and climate crisis, as witnessed during previous economic crises. For instance, after the global financial crisis in 2008, youth unemployment rose rapidly in both developed and developing nations. Furthermore, governments that found themselves over-indebted were unable to pay for essential public services such as education and healthcare, resulting in adverse impacts on human development outcomes in general, and on the youth in particular.
