New youth agenda at the World Bank? Readers and development partners weigh in

Can World Bank staff loosen their ties and engage with young people in a meaningful, productive way? Youth champions and development professionals hope that — if approved by senior management — a new team focused on youth will put an emphasis on listening more to young people to incorporate their ideas into the core of the global financial institution’s work. As Devex reported last month, World Bank senior management is reviewing a proposal called “Youth Development Global Solutions,” which suggests creating a new collaborative team that would work across global practices and country units on the challenges facing young people around the world. These would include issues such as youth engagement and participation, as well as access to economic opportunities, youth services and jobs. Such a team would make young people a more visible development priority at the World Bank at a time when youth is shaping up to be a significant aspect of the post-2015 development agenda. Currently within the new World Bank structure, youth as a development priority is obscured — neither featured as a unit, global practice nor a crosscutting solutions area the way gender, climate change and jobs are. If “Youth Development Global Solutions” does get approved, its first priority should be to listen to youths themselves, Aline Rahbany, urban learning hub leader at World Vision told Devex. Rahbany works with young people on peace building and urban programming in Beirut, Lebanon. “What we hear when listening to adolescents is that they have strong views and impressive community-level accomplishments in improving governance, reaching inclusive societies and reducing tension,” said Rahbany, adding that working with young people has to be done on their own terms, not the terms of a nongovernmental organization or a global financial institution. “It may mean a few World Bank staff have to take off the ties, and meet with youth at late hours or on weekends, and play football,” Rahbany said. “Joking aside, we don’t really have a choice not to engage with them, especially … in some more fragile contexts where youth constitute the bigger segment of the society.” Indeed, countries with disproportionately high youth populations in the 1990s were almost 2.5 times more likely to experience civil conflict, according to political demographer Richard Cincotta — a statistic that highlights the urgency of engaging with youth in such contexts. A reader identified as tayanibanda wrote in response to Devex’s coverage of the new World Bank initiative that it isn’t enough for young people to be consulted or engaged in a dialogue, but that they should be involved in programs at their inception. “They need to be where the policies and plans for development actions are cooked,” tayanibanda wrote. Rahbany said that a successful “Youth Development Global Solutions” team at the bank would bring added value to her work and the work of her colleagues. She noted that when World Vision and other NGOs interact with the bank on youth issues, they have to do so through “geographic channels” or “thematic conversations.” Now, Rahbany hopes there will be a clearly identified point of contact to engage the bank on youth matters. “As a child-focused NGO, having a World Bank youth focal point will be a multiplier of our effectiveness in the countries where we work,” Rahbany said. Independent consultant and global youth expert Daniella Ben-Attar called the initiative “an extremely positive and overdue development” in response to Devex’s story. She wrote that it comes after “numerous efforts over the past decade for a structural response to the youth imperative at the bank.” Another reader, identified as hadewijgh, wrote, “Working across traditional boundaries can benefit the focus on outcomes for youth. It means that [a new youth-focused team] conceives itself in broader terms than narrowly defined departmental and programmatic parameters.” Being able to work across traditional boundaries at the World Bank is one reason Kim developed the Global Practices. And one advantage of the new Global Practice structure, according to Kim, is that it points to one person as the bank lead on a particular issue and positions them as a global authority on that issue. Will “Youth Development Global Solutions” do the same for youth issues? Nishu Aggarwal wrote that “having the world bank taking this issue on is an interesting development, that has the potential to mobilize much needed resources (including political will) to make youth engagement happen.” While many express excitement at the bank’s new initiative, the institution may be playing catch up with some of its peer organizations when it comes to shining the spotlight on young people. Clarissa Nuñez pointed out that the Inter-American Development Bank has already put young people on their agenda and that such practices can support efforts at other finance institutions. IDB Youth is an initiative that seeks to engage young people in the development process in Latin America and the Caribbean and works with both the public and private sectors to help facilitate a space for youth entrepreneurs, social innovators and volunteers to contribute and have their voices heard. A new youth agenda at the World Bank is still in review at a time when the institution is undergoing a series of reforms. Rahbany said it would be a shame if the proposal doesn’t get approved, but added that there are other areas where the bank is “moving in the right direction.” She cited its strong youth focus in its Middle East portfolio. And as Gloria La Cava, senior social scientist at the World Bank and co-coordinator for the institution’s Middle East and North Africa region youth program told Devex, there is now commitment from professionals across the bank to regard young people as a development priority. What do you think about the “Youth Development Global Solutions” proposal under review at the World Bank? Keep the conversation going by leaving a comment below. Want to learn more? Check out the Youth Will website and tweet #YouthWill. Youth Will is an online conversation hosted by Devex in partnership with Chemonics, The Commonwealth Secretariat, The MasterCard Foundation and UN-Habitat to explore the power that youth around the globe hold to change their own futures and those of their peers.