UNDP Youth Strategy: Empowering and Engaging Youth as a Positive

Force for Transformational Change

Presented at the Third Session, Youth at the Forefront of Community Development

through Volunteerism

2014 ASEAN-Korea Youth ForumASEAN & Korean Young People: Building a Shared Future

03 December 2014Ms. Anne Marie Sloth Carlsen

Director UNDP Seoul Policy Centre

The UNDP Seoul Policy Centre for Global Development Partnerships

• One of six UNDP Global Policy Centres• Established 2011 to represent UNDP in Korea and to work with Korea

in international issues and share experience with other countries• Hosted by Korea University • Website: www.undp.org/uspc• Facebook: www.facebook.com/undpspc

Why youth for development?• More than 1.2 billion youth, aged 15-24: largest

generation of young people the world has ever known• More than 60 percent of the population in many UNDP

programme countries are youth

• Their opportunities for communicating, acting and influencing are unprecedented.

• Also, the challenges they face are unprecedented, from climate change to unemployment to multiple forms of inequalities and exclusion, in particular for youth belonging to vulnerable or marginalized groups.• Institutional public space is scarce for young men and women;

if war was a tragedy for all, peace is difficult for them and jobs are hard to get and tough to keep.

• Youth participation is crucial to achieving sustainable human development

• Young people as agents of positive change in society.• They can call for institutions to

national or global concerns.• They can provide the energy,

creative ideas and determination to drive reform. • They can increasingly develop

their own solutions to global challenges.

“Youth are often the first to stand against injustice…Young people are a force for transformation.”

- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Photo: Malala Yousafzai, born in 1997, is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest winner of Nobel Peace Prize in history. She is known for human rights advocacy for education and for women in northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. She was shot for her activism by a gunman, but survived the assassination attempt. Yousafzai's advocacy has since grown into an international movement.

Youth and the Post-2015 Development Agenda

• The youth have made their voices heard about the future they want, during the post-2015 UN consultations, aimed at identifying the new agenda for development. • Unprecedented open process through which inputs have been sought on the design of the

post-2015 agenda • 63% of the 5.2 million MY World votes come from the 16-30 age category• Another 14% from are under the age of 14

• Young people have demanded education, jobs, honest and responsive governments, and greater and meaningful participation in decision-making.• Their voices matter because key development challenges today (such as economic

injustice, climate change, environment degradation) are intergenerational issues for which the young generation today will become the future custodians • Young people need to become part of the implementation mechanisms and

accountability fabric around the new development agenda.

UNDP Youth Strategy (2014-2017)• UNDP’s first-ever corporate Youth Strategy, “Empowered Youth, Sustainable

Future”, is about resilience, sustainable and human development, and effective and democratic governance. • It calls on the young generations to become even more committed agents of

change in development processes.• Together with the United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, UNDP is

also increasing its engagement with young women and men, their organizations, and other stakeholders that matter.• Uses a flexible definition of ‘youth’

While the focus is on young women and men aged 15−24, the range may extend to 30 and even up to 35 depending on national context, and will remain flexible to ensure that programming related to the implementation of the strategy is responsive to the diverse needs of youth in different country contexts.

• In order to have the youth at the forefront of community developing through volunteerism, the topic of this session, we need to empower and engage these young people to expand their capabilities and opportunities in ways that are sustainable from the economic, social and environmental standpoints

ways and means to achieve UNDP’s Vision for “Sustainable Human Development” as in the UNDP Strategic Plan (2014-2017)

“UNDP supports policy and programming aiming toensure that youth are informed, engaged and empowered

to contribute to sustainable human development andresilience of their communities. The combination of youth

and innovation has the potential to create solutions todevelopment challenges and to transform societies.”

Helen Clark, Administrator, UNDP

Helen Clark visitsVientiane YouthCenter in Lao PDR

UNDP Youth Strategy: Main Expected Outcomes

1. Youth are economically empowered

• Decent work and livelihood creation are chief determinants in the socio-economic empowerment of youth; they also contribute to sustainable human development overall.

• Success means increasing the quantity of jobs for young people. It also requires enhancing the quality of jobs by improving their productivity, facilitating movements of young people to more productive sectors, and increasing access to social protection.

• Access to finance and markets is one area for action—with skill building for young entrepreneurs, in particular young women, support for social enterprises, and public-private employment opportunities.

• Non-formal education will build skills for employability, internships and apprenticeships, and better access to job market data and job centres.

• Fostering a policy environment conducive to job creation for young people.

UNDP Youth Strategy: Main Expected Outcomes

2. Youth are engaged in public life and participate in political processes and institutions• When young men and women understand their rights, they can become

empowered to engage in civil society, public service and political processes, at all levels.

• They need to know the channels through which they may exercise their civil and political rights and contribute to decision-making processes that impact their lives.

Channels for engagement include formal political processes such as youth advisory boards at local level, youth parliaments or shadow councils at national level, and engagement with United Nations processes at the global level, for example.

Other entry points include volunteerism, access to civil service positions and decision-making processes in the public administration, initiatives for transparency and accountability, promotion of human rights, legal reform, support for youth organizations, policy review and use of media, including social media, to increase access to information and collect and report on relevant data.

UNDP Youth Strategy: Main Expected Outcomes

3. Youth are agents for community resilience Youth can be positive agents of change in their communities in time of conflict and disaster.

Early action to stabilize their livelihoods builds resilience and supports social cohesion; it also provides alternatives as conflict prevention for at-risk youth.

Strategic entry points focus on mobilizing and empowering youth as positive agents of change in their communities, including emergency employment and entrepreneurship and recovery of critical livelihoods assets such as skills development and access to finance.

Youth also can be mobilized in disaster preparedness, education and post-disaster efforts—e.g. managing natural resources, mobilizing communities via new technologies, acquiring peace-building skills, or supporting efforts to reduce gender-based violence.

Contribution of Youth to Development through Volunteerism

Volunteerism:• Provides opportunities for young people to

become active leaders and citizens in their diversity• Fosters their inclusion in global peace and

sustainable human development processes.

Youth bring direct benefits to their communities by • Identifying problems • Finding solutions• Bringing valuable insights and inspiration from the

youth perspective often providing new technological skills

Photo: UNV Youth Volunteer Giulia Giannuzzi took part in the “Orange the Journey Campaign to End Violence against Women and Girls” in 2013.

UNDP Project, “Making Timor-Leste Beautiful”

• Approximately 60 % of the country’s 1.2 million people are under the age of 25.

• The UNDP youth initiative supported by Korea raises awareness about environmental issues and creates job opportunities for young people at the same time

• Since December 2013, the launch of the project, more than 3 million plastic bottles were collected for recycling.

Photo: Timorese students clean up the streets of Dill, the capital city.

Example of UNDP Engagement with Youth Volunteerism

Thank you