State of the Urban Youth 2010 - 2011 Report Launched

The world today is younger than it has ever been, with half of the global population under the age of 25, and the majority of those living and growing up in cities and slums. This “youth bulge” defines one of the great challenges of the 21st century, this being how do governments at all levels overcome this urban divide, a divide where youth are finding themselves marginalized and excluded?

The State of the Urban Youth 2010-2011 report uniquely focuses on calling for the global community to level the playing field for urban youth. In this report UN-HABITAT focuses on youth exclusion from opportunities in urban areas, with the report imploring that now is the time to provide targeted programmes for urban youth so as to assure their equal access to opportunities. This report is based on a survey on youth opportunity and inequality given in four rapidly urbanizing cities: Rio de Janeiro, Mumbai, Kingston, Nairobi and Lagos.

The findings of the survey suggest that young people have unequal access to basic services such as housing, education and employment, which leads to the youth not being able to have meaningful work or study.

The report suggests that inequality in earnings and assets are related to the unequal opportunities that youth face throughout their lives. Education was found to be the key determinant of equal opportunity. Other factors which affected this opportunity were: predetermined circumstances beyond the youths control such as gender, race, ethnicity, education level of parents, disability and region of birth; family resources such as childhood residence and access to basic services and a secure shelter could effect the mental and physical growth of a child, which in turn could limit their social, economic and cultural networks; intergenerational inequalities, where parents who are educated are more willing to invest in their offspring’s education and place high expectations on them receiving good results; and gender disparities in education which lead to unequal opportunities in later life.

"Kids like us don't normally help out in other countries!” Using youth-centered capacity building initiatives to foster local and international development

Economic downturns have a direct impact on social life, creating unemployment, increasing criminal behaviors and decreasing social support and networks (Auslander & Litwin, 2001). One of the most vulnerable groups during economic downturns is the urban minority youth (Winchester, 2008), disproportionately affected by the 2008-2009 socio-economic crisis and global financial collapse. One positive result of this crisis is that it created room for creative solutions, calling for original social interventions and policies to protect vulnerable groups and foster entrepreneurship (Lustig & Stern, 2000; Schramm, 2009). Disconnected urban youth need skills to be empowered and create positive change in their lives, neighborhoods, and global community. Thus, they create social mobility pathways and social networks (Robb, 2000).

Founded in 2007, Global Potential (GP) is an original volunteer-run grassroots program aiming to give a voice to the poor and build community capacity and youth leadership. GP pairs New York City low-income youth groups with poor youth in rural villages of developing countries. Local schools and community programs are sought out to identify and recruit “high-potential” youth from low-income communities. These youth then participate in a three-stage program: (a) an intensive 16-week training on social entrepreneurship and leadership; (b) a 6-week immersion program of capacity building and peer mentoring in rural development projects in a developing country, and © upon return, a 9-month social enterprise application in their own low-income neighborhoods.

GP carries out innovative youth survey data. To date, the positive impact on quality of life indicators (self-esteem, leadership, increased awareness) has been monitored on 50 youth from NYC and 150 youth from the Dominican Republic; experiences of poverty are contextualized. The preliminary findings from this data show that industrialized and developing countries can work coherently to create alternative youth-centered development models. There are many implications for future directions in policy and program development.