Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2021
by ANTHEM PRESS
7576 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
2021 Eirliani Abdul Rahman, ElsaMarie DSilva and Sonja Peteranderl
editorial matter and selection; individual chapters individual contributors
The moral right of the authors has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021930105
ISBN-13: 978-1-78527-631-6 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78527-631-X (Hbk)
Cover image: Photograph by Sonja Peteranderl
This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
Ambassador HE Dr. Michael Schaefer
Eirliani Abdul Rahman, ElsaMarie DSilva and Sonja Peteranderl
Lynn Houmdi
Moroccos youth face severe economic and social obstacles and economic reforms are central to realising their potential. While governments may be attracted to megaprojects financed by foreign partners, initiatives based in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises prove the success of entrepreneurial thinking in harnessing the skills and energy of the youth.
Julia Jaroschewski
In the violence-ridden favelas in Brazil, the police often act as if they are above the law. Thousands of children and young people have become victims of the drug war. With smartphones and social media, the youth are now fighting back: they document and denounce police violence and other grievances and make their voices heard.
Kebba-Omar Jagne
The Gambia is strongly affected by brain drain and capital flight. In the face of economic and political difficulties, many young people were forced to find jobs and opportunities elsewhere. But the diaspora could play a powerful role in the politico-economic transformation of the country and in the building up of Gambian society to achieve a demographic dividend.
ElsaMarie DSilva
Building confidence and leadership is essential in developing the capacity of youth to take charge and confront challenges such as the pandemic of sexual violence. In India, the crowdsourcing platform Safecity addresses and maps sexual violence and engages youth as volunteers to be agents of change and experiment with solutions.
Ekua Yankah
The African girl child is the foundation for the success of African families and the future of the African continent but gender equality for women and girls is far from being achieved. Girl-centred programming in development and investments could unlock the untapped potential and empower girls and women.
Sonja Peteranderl
In disadvantaged, violence-ridden neighbourhoods such as South Los Angeles, the youth are deprived of education and job opportunities and structural inequalities lead to a high risk of arrests and imprisonment. Nevertheless, success stories of former gang members prove that they can become role models and develop alternative futures for their communities.
Patrick Mpedzisi and Annegret Warth
Youth policies are a strategic area for harnessing the demographic dividend. Substantial policy planning, implementation and investment at all levels are required. International stakeholders should conduct cooperation in partnerships with multisectoral and multidimensional stakeholders in three areas: (1) mainstreaming and harmonisation of continental youth policies, (2) supporting youth policy monitoring and (3) strengthening youth representation on continental, national and local levels.
Rudrani Dasgupta
Many Indian youth struggle with mental health crises. The lack of affordable and accessible mental health resources is pushing millennials towards ad hoc solutions, allowing the digital well-being market to thrive. While apps can provide a remedy for some, they do not solve the core problem.
Elizabeth Maloba and Stefan Cibian
The likelihood of African countries converting demographic changes in the coming decades into demographic dividends for growth and poverty reduction will depend on several factors, including the effectiveness of development cooperation. Development cooperation tends to fail in global problem solving; it locks the involved stakeholders in a perpetually unequal partnership making the possibility of local ownership and mutual trust illusory. Integrating existing cultural institutions, practices and values in the process could lead to increased sustainability and therefore effectiveness of cooperation initiatives.
Colette Mazzucelli, Christian Rossi and Viola Prisca Roggia
Conferences can provide a platform to engage the youth in debates about the future of Europe. The Europe Day at the University of Cagliari in Sardinia focuses on themes that speak to Italys role in European integration. In the future, it could also deepen the understanding of the youth about the implications of climate change and motivate them to address these local, regional, national, European and global concerns.
Reinventing Diplomacy
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, our world has changed dramatically. We are not experiencing the end of history, as some analysts have forecasted, but our societies are going through a phase of great uncertainty and turmoil.
The speed of digital advancement in all areas of life reflects an enormous leap in technological innovation, opening the door for new opportunities. But it has, at the same time, been an unprecedented engine for globalisation a source of great insecurity for many people who feel increasingly powerless in an ever more complex world. People are longing for simple answers to complex problems, which leaders are unable to provide. Rising frustration, withdrawal into the private, resurgence of nationalist trends and radicalisation of opinions are resulting phenomena. We see a loss of common sense, of solidarity in many of our societies, and an erosion of our very value system which has been the guarantor for freedom, stability and prosperity in the past two generations.
These domestic trends are mirrored in international relations. The system of global governance is rapidly eroding. It must be a major concern if multilateral organisations and treaties are deconstructed by the architect of this system, if America First is putting transatlantic partnerships in question and if a rising power like China is starting to fill the vacuum created by interest-driven national concepts of governance. Autocratic leaders are en vogue, propaganda is replacing dialogue and national interest is pushing aside action to defend global common goods.
