Young people are a pro-development voice: Wolfowitz

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August 20, 2005 - "Young people are more open to change.  The young people of South Asia have the added advantage of not being prejudiced by history.  It certainly is important to learn about history.  But it's sometimes even more important to get past it."

They were the words of World Bank President,  Paul Wolfowitz, during a discussion with youth groups from South Asia in India, on Saturday.
 
The young people from six South Asian countries - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka - traveled to New Delhi over the weekend to meet the Bank president.

It was a meeting he clearly welcomed. "Young people do have a pro-development voice and it is in the World Bank's interest to mobilize youth voices for change," Wolfowitz said.

The Bank President listened to presentations from each of the groups on a wide range of development issues - from condom promotion and de-stigmatization of HIV/AIDS, unemployment and youth activism to advocacy, entrepreneurship, conflict resolution and youth voices in development.

"Youth need acknowledgement and recognition," said Asnia Asim, a student at Pakistan's Institute of Business Administration, "to keep them engaged in the development choices our countries are making.  Apathy and alienation is setting in and the best brains are already heading out". 

"Youth are increasingly being represented in forums that influence decision-making," said Kumaravadivel Guruparan, from the Sri Lankan Youth Parliament.  "The challenge now is moving from mere tokenism to effective representation".

Shikha Jha from the Ark Foundation in India said youth networks such as those facilitated by the World Bank provided valuable opportunities to learn first hand from peers and contemporaries. "What I've learnt from my colleague from Afghanistan in the last few hours is so much more uplifting and enlightening than what the media has been reporting for years".

Mr. Wolfowitz agreed South Asia does have difficulty in getting the good news out through the media.  On this visit, he said, he'd encountered two of the most remarkable success stories on women's empowerment he had seen anywhere in the world - one in Pakistan and the other in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. And he said he'd neither earlier heard nor read about either in the media.

"I pick up a strong sense  that there is a fight going on, in favor of empowerment, at the highest levels of government and that is why those individuals who persisted eventually received support,"  Mr. Wolfowitz said.  "Young people can mobilize on the side of development.  If you can present the same kind of opportunities, you too will probably get support."

World Bank Vice President for South Asia, Praful Patel, said the region's engagement with youth was slow in starting but the focus since has been on building forums of youth influence both inside and outside the Bank.  He said he hoped to continue the dialogue with youth groups and invited those at the meeting to continue sending good ideas to his email. 

Rajib Upadhya, youth outreach coordinator for South Asia, said the Bank would soon begin to respond to a number of important messages heard from youth groups over the past  year,  through a number of new programs of partnership.