SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

YOUTH PARTICIPATION:
A RIGHT WITH MANY
BENEFITS
Youth involvement in democratic processes upholds
their rights, and can contribute economic
and human development benefits. When more
youth voice their perspectives and needs, there is
a greater chance that their issues will feature in
development planning, budgets and programmes.
This can open opportunities to more effectively
steer development, given how large a population
share youth are in some countries, and, in time,
and with appropriate policies and institutions,
to increase the demographic dividend.
Since many Asia-Pacific economies are
growing fast, they need innovative and dynamic
leaders, including youth, who can offer new
insights and pioneering solutions to current
challenges. Today’s youth are more informed
than ever before. Many are progressive and
forward-looking, and keen to tap into new technologies,
products and markets. Their skills and
capacities are vital to the kind of transformational
change that the region is pursuing.
Further, their unprecedented access to information
has raised their ambitions, and facilitated
the articulation of demands. The pressure associated
with rising aspirations is already driving
higher rates of rural-urban migration, a trend
only expected to increase as educational, health
and economic opportunities become more and
more concentrated in large urban centres. Young
people today also increasingly see themselves not
as passive recipients of favours and privileges,
but as carving out a role for themselves in the
development process.
Their expectations of governance are high,
particularly in terms of increased transparency,
greater social accountability, improved economic
performance and greater equality. Pragmatic and
concerned with finding better jobs and attaining
higher standards of living for themselves and
their families, they see democratic governance
as a means to that end. For governments to gain
youth support and trust, they will need to do
more to demonstrate results. 91
Despite greater recognition of the importance
of youth participation, practice lags behind
in Asia-Pacific on many fronts. Youth in
East and South-east Asia are less likely to vote
than adults, for instance (Figure 3.9), and are
less active in public affairs. 92 At the same time,
they are interested in and knowledgeable about
national political and economic issues. They
tend to engage through activism and social
networks, rather than participating in formal
political parties or civic organizations. This may
in part be explained by the lack of opportunities
to play roles in politics that make a meaningful
difference.
Non-participation in elections, however,
does not mean that youth are not interested and
lack opinions. The 2013 Telefonica Global Millennial
Survey showed that youth in Asia-Pacific
tend to be more optimistic than those in the rest
of the world. Around two-thirds of respondents
thought that the economy in the region was
headed in the right direction, compared to 50
percent worldwide. Forty-four percent believed
that technology is the most important field of
study for ensuing personal future success, compared
to 36 percent worldwide. 93 Youth were
concerned with the environment and upward
mobility; they also viewed social inequality
FIGURE 3.9:
Youth are consistently less likely than adults
to vote in elections
Source: UNDP 2014.
Today’s forwardlooking
youth are
keen to tap into
new technologies,
products and markets
105