The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has launched a video contest! Those of you affected by youth employment issues can enter. Although this is aimed at youth, not children, I still thought I would post it here because youth unemployment is a major issue and if solutions are not found, today's children will grow up to face bleak prospects.
Population Explosion!
The global population is growing at a record rate. Today, an article in the Sunday Times News Review gave these statistics on the global population:
It took 250,000 years to reach 1 billion people.
It then took another century to reach 2 billion people.
After that, it took 33 years to reach 3 billion people.
The gap between the birth of the sixth and seventh billionth human was just over a decade. (This milestone was reached in October 2011.)
It is estimated that by 2050, the global population will be greater than 9 billion people.
The Sunday Times article was about a baby, Cai, born in London three days ago and looked at what his future might be like. It was suggested that, depending on his career, he may want to relocate East, as Asia looks set to have the strongest economic growth. Click below to visit the Population Reference Bureau's interactive map showing which countries and regions will have the highest rates of population growth by 2050, and other factors as well, including how infant mortality rates and poverty rates will change.
I wonder what youth unemployment will look like in 2050. I hope that the situation will have improved greatly by then, but this depends on the action we take now.
More Youth and More Youth Unemployment
UNICEF's working paper released in February 2012, When the Global Crisis and Youth Bulge Collide, looks at the impact of the economic downturn alongside the youth bulge. Since the economic crisis, the number of unemployed people has drastically risen globally, although there was already a problem with youth unemployment before the downturn. The youth bulge means that a significantly large percentage of the global population consists of youth, which intensifies the problem.
The report states that approximately every year, 121 million adolescents turn sixteen years old (89 % of which are in developing regions) and can enter the world's labour force. However, many of those who want to work, cannot find jobs. Nearly 1.1 billion new potential workers are expected between 2012 and 2020.
Last month's issue of the Southern Innovator gives some more interesting, and in some cases worrying, figures. 100 million jobs will have to be created in the Middle East and North Africa by 2020 to meet demand. 130 million people between 15 and 24 cannot read or write. One in five African youth without a business would like to start one.
This situation is already greatly affecting the world's youth and will impact every child born today.
A child looking after a baby in Cape Coast, Ghana.
What will their future prospects be?
Speak Out!
I came across the ILO's video contest on Decent Work for Youth and it is a great idea. The contest is for people aged between eighteen and twenty-nine who are affected by the global job crisis - whether by struggling to find a job, or by working under poor conditions. Participants must submit their videos by 10 April 2012 and winners will be able to present their videos at the ILO Youth Employment Forum in Geneva on 23-25 May 2012. Here is their video introduction to the contest:
Click here for further details on the ILO website.
Hopefully the ILO Youth Employment Forum, and also the 101st International Labour Conference, which will include an agenda item on the youth employment crisis, will be fruitful in finding solutions for the problems of the youth of today and tomorrow.
"There is no more important mission for the Twenty-First Century,"said UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, on strengthening the UN's engagement with youth. Youth 21 is a global initiative to support youth leadership. As part of the initiative, UNDP and UN-Habitat hosted a meeting from March 15-18 in Nairobi, with the goal of finding ways to better engage youth as leaders and decision-makers.
Why is there a Focus on this Now?
There is a growing number of young people in the world, with a large percentage of the global population being children and youth. This is known as a youth bulge. Here are some statistics from Ban Ki-Moon's message on Youth 21:
Half of the world's people are under twenty-five years years of age.
Nearly 90 % of these young people live in developing countries.
In the next twenty years, as many as 60 % of all urban dwellers will be under eighteen.
You can watch the whole message here:
In January, Ban Ki-Moon announced that youth will be a focus for the next five years for the UN and that he would appoint a Special Advisor on youth. He says it is important to listen to young people's voices. The Youth 21 meeting was concerned with how this can happen.
Should the Youth Rebel Against Older Generations?
The answer is "Yes!" - according to former South African President, Thabo Mbeki. Whilst addressing the Youth 21 forum, Mbeki highlighted the fact that two thirds of Africa's population consists of youth and said:
"To ensure that [the youth] actually exercises the leadership everybody rhetorically accepts and proclaims is its due, the youth must organise and ready itself to rebel, so to speak!"
Another quote from Mbeki illustrates one of the problems young people have to overcome to take on leadership roles - the attitude of the older generations.
"It would obviously be unnatural that I, a member of the older generation, would easily and willingly accept that younger people, my own children, should, at best, sit side-by-side with me as co-leaders, fully empowered to help determine the future of our people."
Older generations will have to accept the need for change, in a world with 1.2 billion young people, so that youth can be able to participate in making important decisions that affect everyone.
Child and Youth Participation Benefits Everybody
Participation is so important that it is a guiding principle of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. (Participation Works gives a good overview about the right to participation here.) Governance systems across the world, at local, national and international levels, are structured so that young people's participation and leadership are very much constrained. Not only does the rest of the world need to listen to the voices of these young people, but they can benefit from it too. They can gain a deeper insight into the needs of the young and the children and youth can help provide solutions to the world's problems.
I recently found a great quote on the site of an organisation for students, aged 16-19, called Envision. One of their volunteers, Vikki, said:
"The young people really inspired me. It was so refreshing to have discussions with young people who have such strong ideals and convictions. When you listen to them tell you how we can make the world a better place, it makes you think there is still hope."
I can identify with this through my work with young people too. I was asked to speak at high schools in Argentina about the work of my organisation, Children's Helpers Worldwide, and the buzz of energy when I entered the classrooms was great, and so different to how it is entering a typical office! Young people can put their energy towards making the world a better place and solving its problems, if they can just have the opportunity to do this.
Although many probably agree that facilitating youth leadership is important, especially in a world where there are so many children and young people, it is essential that we do not just pay lip service to this idea, but actually take action to change the current systems. The Youth 21 initiative is a positive step in this process.
