Young people in the Arab States

1
Young people in the Arab States

• Some reflections based on the UNs
• World Programme of Action for Youth
• Joop Theunissen
• Focal Point on Youth
• UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs

2
What is youth?

• A statistical definition 15-24 years
• A period of transition from protection in
  childhood to self-determination in adulthood
• Why does the concept change?
• Changes in historical age
• Changes in social age

3
How do youth fit in globally?
Children (lt15) 1.8 billion 30
Youth (15-24) 1.1 billion 18
Adults (25-64) 2.8 billion 46
Elderly (65gt) 0.4 billion 7

Total 6.1 billion 100
4
Over 1.1 billion youth 85 per cent in the South
Asia and the Pacific 659 million
Africa 161 million
Latin America and the Caribbean 101 million
Middle East and North Africa 34 million

North America 42 million
Europe 100 million
5
Ten priorities of the United Nations for youth
agreed in 1995

1. Education
2. Employment
3. Hunger and poverty
4. Health issues
5. The environment

1. Drug abuse
2. Delinquency
3. Leisure
4. Girls and young women
5. Participation in decision-making

UN World Programme of Action for Youth to the
Year 2000 and Beyond, General Assembly resolution
50/81
6
Hunger and Poverty

• How many young people live in poverty?
• Undernourished up to 160 million
• On lt1 per day 206 million
• On lt2 per day 515 million almost half of all
  youth!
• World Youth Report 2005, Table 1, page 5

7
How many in poverty Middle East and Northern
Africa region

• 2 million under 1 per day
• 12 million under 2 per day
• 7 million on poor nutrition

8
Coping with poverty

• Labour forced entrepreneurship and
  self-employment in the informal sector
• Migration of young workers
• Domestic rural-urban migration(50-50 point
  rural/urban population was reached in 2002)
• International migration(175 million migrants in
  2002)

9
Education The Good News

• The best-educated generation ever
• Since 1995, more children than ever complete
  primary school
• Four out of five eligible youth are in secondary
  education
• Some 100 million youth currently in tertiary
  education

10
Education The Bad News

• Large differences globally
• 130 million children currently not in school
• 133 million youth are illiterate
• Large gender differences
• Large differences between groups of countries

11
Employment

• 88 million young people were out of work in 2004
  (up from 58 million in 1995)
• Youth are almost half of the worlds unemployed
• Globalization forces young people to become
  increasingly competitive internationally

12
Participation in decision-making

• Youth participation promotes social integration
  and cohesion in society
• 2 trends
• New forms of participatory structures away from
  membership-based organizations towards looser,
  network-based structures
• Yet, still very active spontaneous student
  movements that can bring about social change

13
Young people and health

• Reproductive health risks
• Maternal health
• Behavioral risks
• 1 million deaths worldwide on accidents,
  violence, alcohol, tobacco and drugs
• Risk of poverty-related disease
• Pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, HIV/AIDS
• HIV 2.5 mln deaths per year 39 mln infected so
  far worldwide, 20 mln died so far 10 mln youth
  infected
• Malaria 1 million deaths per year
• TB 1.7 million deaths per year

14
Girls and young women

• Gender-based stereotyping, including
  discrimination
• Unequal treatment in the worlds of education and
  work

• Access to reproductive health services to prevent
  STDs and pregnancy
• Violence against women female infanticide,
  genital mutilation sexual abuse and exploitation

15
Five New Youth Issues since 1995

• World Youth Report 2003
• Youth and Globalization
• Youth and ICT
• HIV/AIDS
• Youth and conflict prevention
• Intergenerational relations

16
Youth and Globalization

• Economic globalization two views
• Benefits young people they are quick adapters
• Hurts young people they are being exploited
• Social aspects of globalization
• young people come closer together local issues
  become global issues vice versa glocalization
• it has created a more uniform youth culture -gt
  see next topic.

17
Information and communication technology

• Traditional forms of socialization of young
  people are being challenged
• New technology brings a uniform culture of
• Information
• Pleasure
• Autonomy
• ?A new global youth culture, increasingly
  media-driven

18
Young people and conflict

• Young people are offenders and victims - they
  kill and are being killed, more than any other
  group.
• They play a disproportionate large role!

19
Youth and the MDGs

• An opportunity
• Youth are a dividend to build long-term social
  capital to reach the MDGs and economic and social
  development.
• A challenge
• Worldwide 200 million youth in poverty, 88
  million unemployed, 10 million with HIV/AIDS
• Youth are a tremendous resource that needs to be
  unleashed.

20
Thank you!

• More information
• www.un.org/youth
• youth_at_un.org