This page provides presentations and supplementary materials related to a 2008 conference marking the conclusion of a project on ‘Youth Exclusion and Political Violence’ co-funded by the World Bank ‘Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development’ (TFESSD) and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project sought to identify ways to break the adverse relationship between youth bulges (large youth cohorts), marginalization, and political violence, and to engage large youth cohorts positively in development.

The aim of the conference was to discuss advances in the research on youth and political violence in relation to developmental policies targeted towards youth inclusion, such as education reform, social protection, employment programs, urban development strategies, micro credit schemes and reintegration programs for displaced youth or former combatants. At-risk youth in Sub-Saharan Africa were a particular focus.

The conference was co-organized by the Africa Fragile States, Conflict and Social Development Unit of the World Bank and the Centre for the Study of Civil War (CSCW) at the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO).

The Education Development Center has produced a cross-sectoral assessment of the Youth of Yemen, as part of a EQUIP3 USAID-funded initiative. The Yemen Stability Initiative (YSI) endeavors to address alienation among disaffected, disenfranchised, vulnerable youth ages 15–24. It addresses their difficulties through an array of activities and programs to increase their civic participation, life skills competence, health, violent extremism management and mitigation capabilities, and livelihood opportunities.

The study focused on key youth issues:

• Stability
• Unstable Economy
• Population Pressures and Growing Youth Bulge
• Rising Rates of Youth Unemployment
• Illiteracy and Educational Attainment
• A Wide Range of Health Concerns

This report highlights how service providers can be more effective in delivering market-led programs to young people. The information comes from a set of in-depth interviews and focus groups with 142 youth alumni (youth who have exited Employment, Entrepreneurship, and Training Programs). The report intends to fill a research gap by compiling information and insights about employment, enterprise and training programs from the perspective of the youth alumni themselves.

The report is written to prioritize the voices of young people in Jordan and Rwanda, and offers much to consider for the development community. If programs are to start working effectively for youth, then listening to what they want, what they want to change, what they like and dislike will ensure that trainings are more effective and better prepare youth for the marketplace.

Download the full report using the link below.

This Report, prepared by the World Bank, examines five pivotal phases of life that can help unleash the development of young people’s potential with the right government policies: learning, working, staying healthy, forming families, and exercising citizenship. Within each of these transitions, governments need not only to increase investments directly but also to cultivate an environment for young people and their families to invest in themselves. The Report identifies three policy directions for helping youth develop themselves and contribute to society: expanding opportunities, enhancing capabilities, and providing second chances.

Download the full report in English, using the link below. Overviews are available in multiple other languages. These overviews can be found here.

The RTP (Rural Technology Program) will make grants available for technology development, applied research, and/or training, with a focus on rural communities, to aid in the development of a workforce for bioenergy, pulp and paper manufacturing, or agriculture-based renewable energy.

The RTP addresses the following goals:

• To increase the number of students encouraged to pursue and complete a 2-year postsecondary degree, or a certificate of completion, within an occupational focus of this grant program;
• To assist rural communities by helping students achieve their career goals to develop a viable workforce for bioenergy, pulp and paper manufacturing, or agriculture-based renewable energy.

This is a United States Department of Agriculture grant for domestic programs implemented by educational and training organizations in the United States. See link below for details.

In this report, the Middle East Youth Initiative cautions that a new jobs crisis may damage future prospects for the region’s young people. For Middle Eastern economies, the global downturn coincides with a historically high share of 15- to 29-year-olds in the total population. This report shows that, even during the “boom” years of 2002 to 2008, young people in the Middle East did not benefit from high-quality education and struggled to find decent jobs. Now, with labor markets already under pressure to generate employment for record numbers of graduates, the region faces a new set of challenges due to the global downturn and its affects on oil prices, exports, remittances, and foreign investment. For Middle Eastern economies to emerge stronger, policies forged during the downturn must be consistent with long-term goals of cultivating a skilled workforce, expanding the role of the private sector, and reducing the appeal of government employment.

According to the African Development Indicators (ADI) 2008/09, a job-seeking African youth (age 15-24) — typically a poor, out–of–school female living in a rural area — will likely face increasingly greater challenges in securing employment on the continent. Arguing for a multi-sectoral approach, this report suggests several key areas to begin tackling the employment issue, including expanding job and education alternatives in the rural areas; encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship; improving the access and quality of skills formation; and addressing demographic issues.

Citing examples of interventions designed to integrate young people in the labor market, the study reinforces the point that comprehensive and integrated approaches tend to do better than fragmented ones. Given the challenges faced by the youth in labor markets, success in pursuing employment for young people will require long term, concerted actions, spanning a wide range of policies and programs.

Due to an increase in youth population, as well as the still very high fertility rate that characterizes the region, African countries will likely face an increase in job creation pressure for the youth over the coming decades. However, the report also highlights the valuable resource that young people are to their countries, and points out that helping them gain access to employment is a critical precondition for poverty eradication and sustainable development.

An initiative of the Youth Employment Network, the Databank offers information on over 300 organizations and 450 projects in 16 West African countries, including organizational profiles, contact information, and project overviews. The resource is intended to:

• Give organizations an online presence that enhances their networking opportunities and facilitates information sharing.
• Provide a useful starting point for stakeholders looking to design or support youth employment projects by providing information on activities already implemented in West Africa and the challenges faced by each organization.
• Facilitate efforts to bring together complementary stakeholders and the create synergies.

This paper explores the costs associated with youth exclusion in the Middle East by providing estimates of the economic costs to society related to youth unemployment, youth joblessness, school dropouts, adolescent pregnancy, and youth migration. The paper provides country-specific estimates of the costs of youth exclusion by using the human capital approach to valuing economic costs. In addition, the paper develops a new empirical methodology that benchmarks the costs of youth exclusion in Middle Eastern countries against a common hypothetical international “best-practice frontier” in which the overall costs of youth exclusion are comparable across countries. Results show that youth exclusion poses major economic costs to Middle Eastern societies, reaching in 2006 as high as US$53 billion in Egypt and about US$1.5 billion in Jordan. Moreover, Middle Eastern countries are among the group furthest away from the best practice frontier as it relates to reducing youth exclusion, and their performance has deteriorated in recent years. Middle Eastern countries could decrease youth exclusion by at least 60 percent if they were to use their available resources more efficiently.

This report seeks to capture some of the key learnings that have emerged from one particular life skills initiative that is being implemented by IYF partner organizations in four countries, and in a range of different settings and economic conditions. By highlighting some of the shared lessons, challenges and achievements of these varied programs, this report aims to contribute to the ongoing global dialogue around this critical youth development issue, and provide some specific suggestions for how to successfully adapt a life skills program to a wide range of locations and cultures.