Group)

It concludes that meeting youths’ needs requires close collaboration among stakeholders, with financial assistance from development agencies helping bring together local, national and regional actors.

Youths’ role in development and security is shaped by the state’s capacity to harness their potential and meet their needs on a range of issues. Youths are also the product of internationally-sponsored development experiments, particularly the Structural Adjustment Programmes, good governance and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Youth should be formally recognised as a thematic priority for most sectors of the economy in developing countries, particularly education, health, poverty alleviation and employment. International efforts to meet the specific demands of youths should cease being ambitious wish lists and instead become coherent and sustained policy programmes.

The vulnerability of youths to socio-economic shocks and their demographic dynamic place youths at the heart of development processes. Virtually all of the MDGs have components that address youth concerns. Youths are also central to security in developing countries in both positive and negative ways. A number of key themes and challenges link youth, development and security:

The political volatility of youth. This is a key feature of youth that is exacerbated by the youth bulge and underlies some of the most serious challenges to security and development in Africa.
The strategic positioning of youth in developing societies. Traditionally considered as future leaders, youths are increasingly become actors in the present, although in less desirable ways, for example as members of armed groups.
The connections between youth poverty, illiteracy, employment and unemployment and human insecurity. Youth illiteracy undermines development, while literacy without opportunities can lead to negative employment, undermining security.
Interpretations of youth. The orthodox interpretation of youth as a negative, irrational and manipulated phenomenon is a challenge to development and security. Reinterpreting the role of youth in a more nuanced way is central to future planning.
The vulnerability of youth to socio-economic and political shocks. Socio-economic reversals in developing states are often rooted in global processes. Development and security planning are connected through such socio-economic processes.
In the development and implementation of youth-related policies, development agencies should:

assist in pursuing an agenda with a coherent policy framework on the linkage between youths, violent conflict and development, especially at the United Nations level. Most existing initiatives appear more ambitious than coherent;
assist in encouraging collaborations among different stakeholders, including regional organisations, national governments and NGOs. While paying lip service to youth issues, very few organisations have specific youth-targeted initiatives;
encourage developing countries to establish a youth sector to facilitate planning and coordination of youth-related policies and improve the delivery of youth-related welfare services;
recognise the dangers of adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach to assistance to war-torn countries, particularly with regard to disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration;
undertake a comprehensive review of the impact of Western states’ highly-skilled migrant programmes on the security and development of developing countries.