About

Title: YGL Youth Task Force
Location: Global
Categories: Education
Globalization
Peace & Conflict

Status: In Progress
Timeline: August 1 09 to March 1 10

Description:
The Youth Task Force, an effort of the Young Global Leaders, involves a campaign to solicit feedback from young people around the globe. The focus will be to engage voices of children and youth under the age of 25 in order to provide input to the Global Redesign Initiative of the World Economic Forum. This feedback will take two forms: (a) town hall meetings in partnership with select universities and community partners around the globe with attendance open to young people who submit meaningful comments online (b) online through social media including video, live chats and discussion forums.

Background:
We believe young people should play a valuable and useful role in the Global Redesign Initiative.

Why?

Young people will inherit the world we create today and need to be part of the process of envisioning and shaping the future. It is only when youth are seen as part of the solution, rather than part of the problem, that long-term change can occur. There are huge costs associated with disengaged youth. The risks include a rise in unemployment, violence, depression and extensive social problems.

Creativity is critical for the next stage of the economy. Young people have a unique, innovative and fresh perspective on issues and can provide valuable insight into thinking about the problems of the world and how to solve them in new ways. As Albert Einstein once said, we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created our problems.

This generation of young people have grown up in the digital age with unprecedented access to information and opportunities for influence. Youth are among the most socially conscious and active segments of the population. They are highly affected by and concerned about social and environmental issues.

As stated in the World Bank Development Report 2007, youth need to have more opportunities to express their voice in public dialogue: “Parents do not represent the views and aspirations of young adults as they do those of younger children. Yet youth may still lack the opportunities or self-confidence to represent themselves in public fora. Young people need to be encouraged to participate more fully in public life. And governments and other agencies need to learn to communicate with young people, make their programs attractive to them, and deploy the immense talents of youths as partners in service delivery.”

As stated in The United Nations World Youth Report 2005, new technologies have had a growing impact on influencing youth participation: there are emerging forms of youth structures that tend to be based on networks of collaboration and common interests. One example that seems to reverse the decline in traditional participation and civic engagement by youth is Internet-based activities in youth civic and political engagement. Through cross-boundary web sites, tele- and video-conferencing, chat boards and webcams, information and communication technologies are creating new forms of cyber participation that provide young people with creative, open and non-hierarchical channels of participation. Insight can be obtained when these activities are subsequently submitted to policy-making channels. More youth are gradually becoming aware of resources outside their communities and of opportunities to share and reinforce each others work.

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