{"id":27790,"date":"2019-07-17T00:01:48","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T00:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/?p=27790"},"modified":"2025-12-13T20:44:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T20:44:06","slug":"young-people-forefront-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Young People Are At The Forefront Of Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Today the celebration of World Youth Skills Day helps to spotlight the importance of recognising the immeasurable value in the skills and social contribution of young people. Youth unemployment and poor access to education remain monumental barriers to opportunity, social mobility and the forging of a better more sustainable future; the making of which comprises a central pillar of Humanium\u2019s own mission. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">World Youth Skills Day in a nutshell<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>World Youth Skills Day, 15th July, was established by the United Nations General Assembly in their 2014 resolution 69\/145 to raise awareness on the importance of investing in youth skills development (United Nations, 2019). The day, held annually, aims to address challenges of rising youth unemployment, worsening poverty levels, increasing inequality as well as access to education and training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><table bordercolor=\"#EA7600\"><tbody><tr><td><P ALIGN=LEFT><strong>Global Data Snapshot (Plan International, 2019)<\/strong><br><br><ul><li><P ALIGN=LEFT>About 50% of out-of-school primary age children live in conflict-affected areas.<br><li><P ALIGN=LEFT>617 million youth worldwide lack basic mathematics and literacy skills.<br><li><P ALIGN=LEFT>75 million young people are trained but have no job.<br><li><P ALIGN=LEFT>In the next decade, one billion young people will enter the labour market, and large numbers of young people face a future of irregular and informal employment.<br><li><P ALIGN=LEFT>An estimated that 23% of young people currently employed in the world earn less than $1.25US a day.<br><li><P ALIGN=LEFT>Almost 90% of all young people live in developing countries.<ul><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>World Youth Skills Day has an important role to play, the United Nations declares, in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2019). In particular, Sustainable Development Goal 4 \u2018Quality Education\u2019 is firmly in line with Humanium\u2019s own objectives. Promoting fair and good quality education, levelling the inequalities in access to such services between races, genders, classes and countries is work that we cherish and fully support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Unemployment and access to education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Global youth unemployment is the most prevalent in developing countries, impacts girls and women the most, and, is on the rise (Plan International, 2019). Not only is unemployment and access to education crucially important to the lives of children and young people across the planet, but it has important repercussions on the rest of society: left unaddressed said phenomenons contribute to social exclusion, worsened inequality, social unrest and conflict as well as stunted economic growth, development and stability (Plan International, 2019). The promotion of education and training initiatives as well as fair entry-level employment opportunities is thus integral to building a fairer future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The gender barrier in schooling and employment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Barriers to education and employment affect women and girls disproportionately, since gender norms are one of the main obstacles faced by girls and young women when they want to access education and the world of work. For example, they are more likely to engage in \u2018invisible\u2019 domestic work which is often dangerous and unregulated. More than two thirds of all child domestic workers are girls and are sorely vulnerable to exploitation and violation of their rights (Plan International, 2019). This means that working alongside families, communities, local and religious leaders as well as men and boys &#8211; whilst always centring women and girls &#8211; is essential in helping to overcome these obstacles and providing young women with the equal opportunities they deserve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2019 as the year for promotion of children\u2019s rights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>World Youth Skills Day 2019 is especially pertinent because the<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/convention\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Convention on the Rights of the Child\u2019s<\/a>&nbsp; 30th Anniversary will follow in October, only a few months\u2019 time! Enshrined by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/convention\/text\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">articles 28, 29 and 32<\/a> of the Convention are children\u2019s rights to equal opportunities in education and to protection from forced labour. Similarly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights\u2019 articles 26 and 23 protect fundamental human rights to access education and employment (United Nations, 2015). The Convention\u2019s upcoming anniversary alongside World Youth Skills Day both serve to highlight the legal and moral duty the international community has to see children\u2019s rights fulfilled; an objective which just so happens to be Humanium\u2019s core mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Going to the heart of Humanium\u2019s values<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Providing quality education is crucial, but flawed if we do not ensure a ripe labour market to welcome budding workers. Education, training and employment initiatives must be wary to not patronise and impose the vision of disconnected global enterprise onto the lives of others, but rather to involve children and young people, and ensure they have prime control over moulding and directing the services and provisions tailored towards them.<br>This is why Humanium has chosen to always work alongside local partners like \u2018<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.avsi.org\/en\/country\/rwanda\/15\/\" target=\"_blank\">AVSI<\/a>\u2019 in Rwanda and \u2018<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hihindia.org\" target=\"_blank\">Hand in Hand India\u2019<\/a>, allowing strength through collaboration as well as prioritising the value of situational knowledge, expertise and already established-links that exist between on-the-ground organisations and the youth in their communities. This approach has allowed us to <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.w4.org\/en\/project\/ending-child-labor-in-india-humanium\/?utm_source=website&amp;utm_campaign=humanium_W4&amp;utm_medium=popup\" target=\"_blank\">launch a project<\/a> in Madhya Pradesh which, thanks to the latter collaborative bond, enables the identification of children the most at-risk, or already involved in, child labour, and who would thus benefit most from the education, training and residential shelter that we help to provide. <br>Children and young people are far too readily marginalised. As adults it is too easy to be unthinkingly dismissive and brush aside the invaluable role children have to play in not only in our day to day lives but in the central structures of our global society.<br>Today we renew our actions, our focus, and our appreciation towards the contributions made by a youth without whom we could not live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Written by Josie Thum<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:60px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Citations<\/strong><br>Plan International, \u2018Youth Unemployment: The Facts\u2019 (2019), Retrieved from https:\/\/plan-international.org\/eu\/youth-unemployment-facts, accessed 23\/06\/2019.<br> Shyamal Majumdar, UNESCO, \u2018World Youth Skills Day\u2019 (2017), Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7Nwqn5o4HGA&amp;feature=youtu.be, accessed 24\/06\/2019.<br> United Nations, \u2018Quality Education: Why it Matters\u2019 (2015), Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Goal-4.pdf accessed 23\/06\/2019.<br> United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2015), Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/udhrbook\/pdf\/udhr_booklet_en_web.pdf, accessed 24\/06\/2019.<br> United Nations Events, \u2018Background\u2019, World Youth Skills Day (2019), Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.un.org\/en\/events\/youthskillsday\/background.shtml, accessed 21\/06\/2019. <br> United Nations General Assembly, Resolution 69\/145, Sixty-ninth session, \u2018World Youth Skills Day\u2019 (2014), Retrieved from: https:\/\/undocs.org\/A\/RES\/69\/145, accessed 26\/06\/2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today the celebration of World Youth Skills Day helps to spotlight the importance of recognising the immeasurable value in the skills and social contribution of young people. Youth unemployment and poor access to education remain monumental barriers to opportunity, social mobility and the forging of a better more sustainable future; the making of which comprises [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-rights","category-education","category-empowerment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Young People Are At The Forefront Of Change - Humanium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Youth unemployment and poor access to education remain monumental barriers to opportunity, social mobility and the forging of a better more sustainable future; the making of which comprises a central pillar of Humanium\u2019s own mission.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Young People Are At The Forefront Of Change - Humanium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Youth unemployment and poor access to education remain monumental barriers to opportunity, social mobility and the forging of a better more sustainable future; the making of which comprises a central pillar of Humanium\u2019s own mission.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Humanium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-17T00:01:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-13T20:44:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Olivier\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Olivier\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/\",\"name\":\"Young People Are At The Forefront Of Change - Humanium\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-17T00:01:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-13T20:44:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/1eff9e75308caf4fb911ea040d1edf09\"},\"description\":\"Youth unemployment and poor access to education remain monumental barriers to opportunity, social mobility and the forging of a better more sustainable future; the making of which comprises a central pillar of Humanium\u2019s own mission.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Young People Are At The Forefront Of Change\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Humanium\",\"description\":\"Children first!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/1eff9e75308caf4fb911ea040d1edf09\",\"name\":\"Olivier\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/945a9bb4662b83cabc6e1483b64823d58adf8c47dcbb3a834cd5df54a5f60495?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/945a9bb4662b83cabc6e1483b64823d58adf8c47dcbb3a834cd5df54a5f60495?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Olivier\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/author\/olivier\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Young People Are At The Forefront Of Change - Humanium","description":"Youth unemployment and poor access to education remain monumental barriers to opportunity, social mobility and the forging of a better more sustainable future; the making of which comprises a central pillar of Humanium\u2019s own mission.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Young People Are At The Forefront Of Change - Humanium","og_description":"Youth unemployment and poor access to education remain monumental barriers to opportunity, social mobility and the forging of a better more sustainable future; the making of which comprises a central pillar of Humanium\u2019s own mission.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/","og_site_name":"Humanium","article_published_time":"2019-07-17T00:01:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-13T20:44:06+00:00","author":"Olivier","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Olivier","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/","url":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/","name":"Young People Are At The Forefront Of Change - Humanium","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-07-17T00:01:48+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-13T20:44:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/1eff9e75308caf4fb911ea040d1edf09"},"description":"Youth unemployment and poor access to education remain monumental barriers to opportunity, social mobility and the forging of a better more sustainable future; the making of which comprises a central pillar of Humanium\u2019s own mission.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/young-people-forefront-change\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Young People Are At The Forefront Of Change"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/","name":"Humanium","description":"Children first!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/1eff9e75308caf4fb911ea040d1edf09","name":"Olivier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/945a9bb4662b83cabc6e1483b64823d58adf8c47dcbb3a834cd5df54a5f60495?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/945a9bb4662b83cabc6e1483b64823d58adf8c47dcbb3a834cd5df54a5f60495?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Olivier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/author\/olivier\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27790"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88169,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27790\/revisions\/88169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanium.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}