The Well-being of Youth around the Globe

The blog, by Wikichild co-ordinator Melinda Deleuze, is about the new Global Youth Wellbeing Index which measures how youth are doing under 6 domains in 30 countries with hopes of ultimately improving the outcomes for young people around the world. This post is a part of the Wikiprogress Series on Child Well-being.

This week, the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) launched their "Global Youth Wellbeing Index", with support from Hilton Worldwide. This Index was designed to promote attention to youth issues, to encourage dialogue about the issues, and to invest in young people, given that they are the catalysts for development, prosperity and security. The Index is intended for youth themselves, policymakers, donors and investors, and implementers.

The report on the 2014 results explains some of the situational landscapes in which youth today are living, both negative (i.a. unemployment; poverty; gender inequality) and positive (i.a. education returns; HIV declines; technological know-how). In order to create a clearer picture of what is happening with nearly 70% of the youth (aged 10-24) around the world, the Index uses 40 indicators and provides results for 30 countries.

These indicators are divided into 6 domains (citizen participation; economic opportunity; education; health; information and communications technology; safety and security), with 5-9 indicators per domain. Also, to provide a piece of subjective well-being among youth, the Index integrates 1-2 subjective youth outlook and satisfaction indicators (e.g. perceived stress levels among youth) into each domain.

The main findings highlighted in the report are:

• A large majority of the world’s youth are experiencing lower levels of well-being (15% experience high or upper-middle well-being, 85% experience lower-middle or low well-being.)
• Even where young people are doing relatively well, they still face specific challenges and limitations
• Even where youth may not be thriving, they display success in certain areas
• How young people feel about their own wellbeing does not always align with what the objective data suggests
• Across countries, domain average scores indicate youth faring strongest in health and weakest in economic opportunity 
• Overall, youth well-being trends correlate more strongly with countries’ income levels than with their regions. Young people in wealthier countries tend to have higher overall well-being (see below).  
  

Global Youth Wellbeing Index Rankings by World Bank Income Classification

The report provides recommendations and next steps:

• Advance youth voices and participation 
• Promote deeper-dive and targeted research and analysis 
• Consider integrated policies and programs
• Advance the body of age-disaggregated and youth survey data

There are limitations to the Index, such as incomplete, inconsistent and uncoordinated data. The picture of youth also too broad, as the data is not disaggregated by gender, region, rural/urban, disability, religion, socio-economic status, etc.. However, the authors believe that by identifying the relevant data gaps, the Index can also assist the post-2015 development agenda.

The first steps can be difficult, but luckily those involved are aware of the challenges ahead and are willing to take this Index deeper and farther in the coming years. I look forward to seeing what the Global Youth Wellbeing Index will teach us in the coming years.  

- Melinda Deleuze

Wikichild Co-ordinator 

See Also

The Good Childhood Index
The Child and Youth Well-being Index
UNICEF Child-Wellbeing measure
Child Development Index
Early Development Index
Holistic Early Childhood Development Index

Open Data for Africa, Youth Participation and Assessing Progress towards the MDGs

This blog, written by Ousmane Aly Diallo, is  part of the Wikiprogress focus on its Africa Network*.

 “African societies, like any other societies indeed, have to measure progress. But more importantly they have to define what is meant by progress. They have to hold a dialogue in a way that has not been done before.” - Pali Lehohla (Director General of Statistics South Africa).

Welcome to this week’s review of progress initiatives, articles and reports that focus on Africa. Here are the highlights from this week:

• The Global Humanitarian Assistance Report has been released. This year's report focuses on how international assistance has responded to humanitarian crisis, with sections on funding, recent emergencies and quick response to humanitarian crisis. The report sheds light on the growing role of non-traditional donors, the increasing levels of unmet humanitarian needs, as well as the importance of transparency and access to reliable information. 

• Abuja+12: Shaping the future of health in Africa. African Heads of Governments and States pledged during the AU Abuja Summit to eliminate pandemics, such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, in Africa by 2030, as well as improve their national health systems and strengthen their pharmaceutical capacities. This summit helped to renew the commitments made during the Millennium Summit and the Abuja Summit in 2001.

• The Millennium Development Goals Report 2013 by UNDP, looks at the areas where action is needed most (i.a. hunger; maternal health; sanitation and environmental protection). This report also shows that the achievement of the MDGs has been uneven among and within countries.

• The Open Data for Africa initiative, hosted by AfDB, is now available for all 54 African countries. It is part of AfDB’s “Africa Information Highway” initiative, aiming to improve data collection, management, and dissemination in Africa. It will allow open access to the necessary data in order to manage and monitor development results in African countries, including tracking progress on the MDGs. (See video below.)

• The Economist devoted a special report on the Arab Spring, two years after its inception. The author Max Roedenbeck argues that the aspirations behind the movement are yet to be met and he proceeds to review what has been achieved so far. Duncan Green of Oxfam reviews the report and highlights its main points in this post.

• Malala Yousafzai spoke at the United Nations General Assembly this 12 July in defense of education for all, particularly for young girls. This blog, outlines three necessary steps to increase youth participation: listening, increasing involvement in decision-making as well as involvement in the implementation process.

We hope you enjoyed the week-in-review. Stay tuned the same time next week for another riveting read on the week that was.

 Yours in progress,

Ousmane Aly Diallo

* Wikiprogress Africa Network aims, to provide a platform for knowledge sharing on measuring progress in an Africa context.

"Yes, Malala, we're listening" - youth participation

This blog, written by Wikichild co-ordinator Melinda George, is part of the Wikiprogress Series on child well-being. It focuses on three necessary steps to increase youth participation: listening, involvement in decision-making and involvement in the implementation.

Have you ever witnessed a child tugging on his or her parent’s clothes, soliciting a moment of attention? How long does it take for this primary caregiver to acknowledge the child’s presence? And then how much longer until this person, responsible for the child’s well-being, responds “yes, dear, I’m listening”, if ever? 

If our objective is to improve the lives and well-being of children, then we need to acknowledge their presence and take the necessary steps to include them in our efforts.

Listening to the youth is the first step in increasing youth participation.

Hear part of Malala Yousafzai's speech to the General Assembly:

All children have a voice, and we should do more to seek it out. Last week’s youth takeover at the UN General Assembly on “Malala Day” represents more than just a girl’s stand for education. Young people have been advocating for more rights and better treatment for centuries. The difference is that now we hear them. We are listening to what they have to say and are praising their efforts at an international level, at least those who speak loudly enough. We need to expand our audible range to go farther and deeper.

(See the Special Focus on Malala and her fight for education on Wikigender.)

Youth involvement in the policy-making process is the second step.

We have been saying for years that youth involvement is an important factor in generating sustainable progress. Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan of action on sustainable development for the 21st century [i], states that “youth comprise nearly 30 per cent of the world's population. The involvement of today's youth in environment and development decision-making and in the implementation of programmes is critical to the long-term success of Agenda 21”[ii]. It also states that beyond their intellectual contribution and their ability to mobilise support, children and young people bring unique perspectives which need to be taken into account. This report was written over 20 years ago.

This month, Wikichild hosted an online discussion entitled How should child well-being be measured in view of future development frameworks? Several participants mentioned the need to involve young people when deciding how to measure well-being and to include "having a voice" as an indicator. 

The discussion was launched at the HBSC 30th Anniversary Event, which discussed and executed youth participation. First, the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People presented the “7 Golden Rules for Participation” (see slides below).

(7 Golden Rules for Participation from Wikiprogress_slides)

Also at the event, HBSC welcomed a panel of youth from Canada, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and England, who presented a video on how they have been participatory in the decision-making process 
(see video below).

.

The audience, full of child well-being experts, had countless questions about how young people could be better supported by schools, parents, relevant agencies and the community during this transitional adolescent period. The exchange was enriching, with the main message of support us, trust us and ask us.

Here's a quote from the Wikichild online discussion: 

“We need to ask young people in a more systematic and constructive way. They need to be involved in the development and the implementation of well-being measures.” 

- HBSC Event Participant

The third step is to involve youth in the implementation process.

Empowering youth so that they may be involved in the implementation procedure is the final stage of youth participation. A report by the Youth Visioning for Island Living (YVIL) states that young people, while dynamic and innovative, “often lack the concrete skills and tools necessary to implement their ideas[iii].”  We should find out what skills and tools the youth are lacking and then do what we can to make them readily available. Reaching this level of involvement requires time, training and investment, but it’s worth it.

These three steps should loop around, as we listen to feedback from young people in order to continuously improve the means by which youth can participate in the decision-making and implementation of  programs.

But first thing’s first ... Go ahead, youth, we’re listening. 

Melinda Deleuze
Wikichild co-ordinator

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 [i] Agenda 21 was drawn up after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992

[ii] Chapter 25 of Section III of Agenda 21, entitled “Children & Youth in Sustainable Development”

[iii] Supporting Youth in the Implementation of Sustainable Development Activities (following the review of the SIDS programme of action, Mauritius 2005), initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)