Trust: Essential for Participation of Youth

United Nations ESCAP
HRD Section

Trust: Essential for Participation of Youth

The progress of a society depends, to a considerable extent, on its capacity to incorporate the contribution and responsibility of youth in the building and designing of its future. In addition to mobilizing the capacity of youth for supporting today's development policies, their unique perspectives of the immediate future need to be taken into account in the formulation of long-term policies.

The economic, social and political participation of youth largely conditions the effectiveness of actions proposed in the World Programme of Action for Youth. As the Jakarta Plan of Action on Human Resources Development advocates, both the means and the results of development should be people-centred, and young people should be given an appropriate position in society to allow them to express their views on the improvement of the social, economic and cultural aspects of society. Policies should be geared toward creating an atmosphere among young people that provides possibilities for bringing about improvements in their own lives and for the future of society as a whole.

In order to fully develop the aspirations of youth for people-centred development of society, policy makers need to first understand the problems and needs of youth. Policy and programme formulation need to start with appropriate decision- taking by youth at all levels, including communities, schools and universities at the provincial and national levels, through such means as voting and the provision of appropriate status to youth organizations and leaders.

The World Programme of Action for Youth stresses that youth organizations are important vehicles for development of participation by youth in leadership, promotion of tolerance, and increasing cooperation and exchanges between youth organizations. Youth organizations can provide an effective means and opportunities for youth to participate in the mainstream of society. Youth organizations that are closely linked with the communities can bring about the melding of distinctly different issues and concerns of rural and urban youth. While a number of Governments in the region involve youth organizations in the formulation and implementation of youth policies, existing collaborative structures between the government and non-government sectors need to be reexamined and improved.

Bias exists among many adults that young people are the cause of social problems, not the solution; they believe that providing youth with information and knowledge poses a threat to social stability. But the promotion of the health and education of adolescents actually offers tremendous benefits for the public good while also helping youth to fulfil their own potential. The nature of the relationship between adults and adolescents is at the heart of the matter. A positive outlook by an adult is more likely to elicit a positive reaction in an adolescent. For this to happen, there are at least two prerequisites; the basic needs of young people must be met and the opportunity to use their capacities must be provided.

Governments need to improve themselves in a broad selection of areas. They need to formulate a curriculum of formal education that incorporates survival skills in the context of current socio-economic realities. They need to recognize and appreciate youth initiative. They need to give youth greater access to information. They also need to educate and provide skills training for youth empowerment. And last but not least they need to grant greater priority to youth programmes.

Taken from the publication: “Review of the Youth Situation, Policies and Programmes in Asia and the Pacific”, ESCAP, 1997