Youths participating in budget discussions have influenced state decisions in Brazil and free uniforms have upped school attendance in Kenya, reducing teenage child bearing, according to a World Bank report.
The future could look brighter for the world’s youth — now numbering 1,3-billion — with the implementation of such interventions, which are highlighted in the World Bank’s first report of the year.
The report — ”Development and the Next Generation” — was launched in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
It looks at youth opportunities, the need to make sure young people make wise choices and the need to offer second chances to those who slip.
World Bank senior director for the East Asia and Pacific Region, Emmanuel Jimenez, said the population of 12- to 24-year-olds is healthier and more educated than ever before.
However, as the ”youth bulge” works its way up the age pyramid, the world’s job markets will have to accommodate them.
While the next generation of workers will likely have fewer dependants than those before them, populations will eventually have more elderly, dependent people.
On youth opportunities, Jimenez said the report notedsthat schooling, while boasting quantity in terms of numbers in classrooms, often lacks in quality.
”After six years in primary schools in Ghana and Zambia, many can only read a simple sentence in their own language,” he said.
South Africa also scored poorly in this regard, compared with middle-income countries, he said.
The report further notes that inflexible labour laws in many countries are to the disadvantage of the youth.
”High severance payments for laid-off workers in Indonesia inhibit employers from taking the chance of giving jobs to young, inexperienced people,” he said.
Today’s record youth population is unlikely to grow much more with dropping fertility rates, Jimenez said.
The report journeys through five phases of youth transition.
They are when children are studying beyond primary school; when they make the transition to being part of the economy; when they face health risks during their experimental phases but can also be creative; and when they start their own families.
Jimenez said countries need new agendas and to overcome their lack of coordination, channelling policies through sector ministries.
”Finance ministers need more examples,” he said.
”The international community needs to ensure that good experiments are not just anecdotes but can speak the language of the financial ministers.” — Sapa