Political and Civic Participation Trending Downward in Global Youth Development Index
The Youth Development Index (YDI) tracks progress made on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) associated with youth development. It measures progress along 6 domains of youth development in 181 countries over the period 2010-2018. These domains are Health and Wellbeing, Education, Employment and Opportunity, Political and Civic Participation, Equality and Inclusion and Peace and Security.
The YDI does not speak to any particular country’s policies or programs but, rather, serves as an indication of collective progress (or in some cases, decline) towards ensuring that young people are left behind in pursuit of the SDGs. In this regard, the report finds that, globally, there have been steady improvements to youth development, albeit at a slow pace. The average score across all countries has improved by 3.1%, with most gains driven by indicators in the Health and Wellbeing domain. The regional ranking for domain scores show that Europe had the highest average YDI score among the nine world regions in 2018 while Sub-Saharan Africa saw the lowest ranking region, on average. More detailed information on regional distributions can be found here.
The Health and Wellbeing domain recorded the most notable improvements, driven by a 12.1% improvement in the world’s average mortality rate. Improvements were also made in the Education domain, marked by higher literacy rates and secondary school completion rates. The Employment and Opportunities domain was driven up by a global decrease in early pregnancies and increased access to the financial system. In the Equality and Inclusion domain, the report found that more youth are being pulled out of extreme poverty and that gains were made towards gender equality. Finally, in the Peace and Security domain, the report found that fewer young people around the world are dying from armed conflict, though deteriorations in the internal peace indicator suggest that youth are nonetheless experiencing more violent environments.
In each of the above areas, there remains a strong correlation between the YDI and SDGs which suggests that youth participation is critical to the achievement of Agenda 2030. There is, however, one domain in which performance has been universally poor. The average global score in the Political and Civic Participation domain has decreased, with country-level deterioration measured In 102 out of the 181 surveyed. Further, no country scored more than 0.50 (on a scale between 0 and 1, with 1 representing the highest possible level of youth development attainable across all indicators and 0 reflects little to no youth development.) These decreases reflect low rates of interaction with officials and minimal volunteer activities.
Implications for the YDI and youth development policy
Supporting young people #TakingCharge of the future:
The YDI’s low levels of participatory youth development should be juxtaposed with observable trends of continued youth engagement—particularly against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic and global resistance against racism, oppression and corruption. This tension reveals the limitations of the YDI’s capacity to measure participation and suggests the need for deeper analysis.
Promote recognition of the contributions of young people through their own small initiatives. This is policy priority in the context of young people’s declining participation in formal governance institutions.
Deepen research of participation at local, national, regional, and international levels. This is necessary for a comprehensive picture of youth engagement in political and civic life, and may lead to more progress in this area
Reimagine the following key areas of participation:
Broaden spaces online and offline. Youth participation through new media is essential to modern political activism. Traditional spaces reserved for youth participation no longer provide a litmus test for enhanced or reduced participation.(63)
Apply intersectionality. Youth are a heterogeneous group composed of individuals. Just like any other social group, their challenges and successes cannot be measured or reflected in binaries or reduced to conventional sub-divisions. (63)
Promote localization. Free and open spaces for young people at local governance levels are considered a key pathway towards building sustainable holistic solutions and enhancing overall youth participation at the national and sub-national levels. (63)
Invest in Mainstreaming. Mainstreaming youth voices within institutional, policy and development planning forms the core of meaningful participation (63). Regularly consult and engage with youth in the decision making process. Invest in the capacity-building of youth workers, civil society, political parties, decision-makers, bureaucrats, youth leaders and youth themselves.
Promoting Health and Wellbeing
Update of mental health legislation and policy, using rights-based framework. Updated legislation should introduce provisions to promote people taking their own decisions about their care with help from others (supported decision-making), the protection of youth rights, community-based services and the involvement of service users and care-givers in the reform process.
Opportunities for equality and inclusion
Adapt Data Collection Methodologies for the measurement of differential impact. Promote the “creation and tracking of national youth development indices that can more sensitively capture indicators required for equality and inclusion across racial, ethnic, religious and other groups, relevant to each country context” (xxviii) Ensure, for instance, that high quality data is available on youth with disabilities.
Opportunities for human capital development:
“There is a need to prioritise policy action in areas that specifically affect young people. These will include policy reform on access to mental health, reducing road traffic fatalities, promoting sport and physical activity and investing in capacity building for young people to take advantage of decent work and entrepreneurship opportunities in an increasingly digital economy”
Opportunities for security
Increased participatory monitoring and evaluation of the social and economic value created by youth-led initiatives to build social cohesion, peace and security will provide better evidence for policymaking and investment in effective programming.