As discussions centre on promoting youth participation in meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the least Developed Countries (LDCs), Rabab Fatima, Under Secretary General and UN High-Representative for the LDCs, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, has disclosed it is inevitable to invest in youth in LDCs.
During a panel session yesterday titled ‘Reimagining a Better World’ on the sidelines of the Fifth United Nations LDC conference in Doha, Fatima, the Doha Programme of Action (DPoA), the blueprint for renewed commitment and engagement between the LDCs and their development partners, has a clear focus on investing in the youth.
She added that the educational and employment gap in LDC has prompted the DPoA’s inclusion of an online university to bridge the academic gap.
“The whole idea of having this is to create opportunities for our young people to get the right education and upgrade their skills so they can contribute to the development of their own country and emerge as important human capital for the growth of the rest of the world.”
According to the UN, there are 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24, accounting for 16 per cent of the global population. By 2030, the youth is projected to have grown by 7% to nearly 1.3 billion.
“It is clear that of the 1.2 billion young people in the world, the highest numbers are in the LDCs. This is a huge mass of young people. That is why when we were putting together the Doha Programme of Action, there is a clear focus on investing in youth because the future of the LDCs lies in the young demographic of these countries. I think the future lies in the LDCs with this large demographic dividend that the LDCs will have,” Fatima said.
Other participants in the panel, Hamza Abdiwahab and Johanna Alazar, both youth advocates from Somalia and Eritrea, stressed that youth engagement, empowerment and involvement should be the cornerstone of policies. Dunola Oladapo, International Telecommunication Union’s (ITC) Programme Officer for Youth, moderated the panel.
Of the 46 LDCs, 33 are in Africa, and most are in sub-Saharan Africa. Abdiwahab said the youth in the LDCs, especially in the horn of Africa, face many challenges, adding that connectivity is paramount to facilitating the DPoAs online university.
“It’s good for us youths to come together and see how to adapt to those issues. But another problem that we should look at is that 80% of the LDCs are not connected. They don’t have the Internet. So, that will be an issue with how this online university would be available for the people and youth who will join these open universities. So as a youth, we should be connected and try to come up with solutions in line with the United Nations and other donors like the European Union,” Abdiwahab added.
