LEON, Mexico, August 24, 2010: Amid the deafening chatter of hundreds of kids talking politics, the latest phone apps or their future, against the alternating backdrop of Mexican folk music and reggaeton, the words “opportunities”, “education”, “jobs” are clearly rising above the fray.
As the UN-convened 2010 World Youth Conference swings into full gear in the mammoth Poliforum Auditorium, thousands of youngsters from around the world seem to form a consensus around the need for those three words to become “better and bigger” in a post financial crisis scenario where the world economy is still in recovery mode and offering few prospects for young people looking for work.
– The lack of opportunities for the youth is huge, and if you don’t go to good schools and good universities, it’s impossible to get a job, states Pedro Mendoza, 21, from Monterrey.
This week’s conference is hoping to draw renewed regional attention to the challenges facing some 100 million youth in Latin America and the Caribbean as they strive to find their place in an increasingly competitive global economy.
– The high personal and economic costs arising from some of these issues- poor health, low quality education, lack of marketable skills, and high rates of unemployment- are prompting governments to increasingly look for policy advice on how to tap the enormous potential of the world’s children and youth, said World Bank senior economist Wendy Cunningham.
Governments are beginning to realize that expenditures on children and youth should be seen as public investment that generate returns to society through higher economic growth, reduced social costs, and increased quality of life for all, said Cunningham, noting that risky youth behaviour in Latin America and the Caribbean reduces economic growth by up to 2 per cent annually.
Additional incentive for policy makers to act sooner rather than later is that early investments in a child’s life are more effective than making fixes later on when badly equipped adults turn out to be unskilled, unemployed or unhealthy. Therefore -argues the expert- allocating sufficient public resources to child and youth development, even in times of economic stress and budgetary constraints, is a condition for a country’s development and competitiveness.
Even as the global financial crisis shut the door on better opportunities for the youth, the World Bank stepped up efforts to help address this issue. In Latin America and South Asia alone, the Bank lent more than 550 million US dollar annually in 2009 and 2010. Total Bank funding for youth-related programs in 2010 reached 2,3 billion.
Investing in programs tailored to children and youth advances socio-economic development, by establishing a strong foundation that promotes individual opportunity, social mobility, and good citizenship. This is especially relevant among vulnerable populations, whose living conditions put them at a particular disadvantage in accessing human and social capital.
– Research shows that youth idleness is a main contributor to risky and violent behavior, and school attendance is the single most important factor in reducing violent behavior, notes senior World Bank economist Maria Beatriz Orlando.
– One of the biggest problems facing the young people like us is the lack of government support, including a lack of commitment to fighting crime and drugs, said Keidin, 21, from Costa Rica, while Perla Primavera Gonzalez, 23, from Mexico City complained about the limited access to quality education in Mexico.
– The sad truth is that many young people drop out of school or college to get a job and start making money so they can survive, concluded Eric Zurita, 22, a recent information technology graduate.
Cunningham notes that policy makers and governments are more aware these days of the importance of making “smart investments” on their youth and children.
Leaders increasingly realize that countries that invest in their young people reap the benefits of that investment through greater growth and social well-being for generations to come, she said.
