Youth Voices

If the World Bank wants to be true to its commitment of scaling up investments in children and youth, it must not only work for them but with them. One channel of dialogue with young leaders has found increased support at country level: youth consultative groups or "Youth Voices."

Following the initiative of the World Bank’s Peru office, there are now over twenty Youth Voices groups established and many more under way. The establishment of Youth Voices groups is – by definition – a country-led and country-owned process. The groups engage in a variety of activities depending on the country context they are embedded in. Generally, they are active in providing input to country assistance strategies and other policies that target or affect young people. In Ethiopia, for example, the youth group gave inputs to the Ethiopian MAP strategic planning. In Brazil, a diverse group of approximately 30 young people were mobilized to participate in the 2004-2007 CAS Consultation process, which coincided with Brazil's discussion of the country's multi-year plan. During the CAS meetings, the group agreed to mobilize youth and social organizations working on youth issues to build an informal advisory committee to accompany the CAS implementation.

However diverse the youth voices groups may be they all have one thing in common, which is that they partner with the World Bank in a mutual learning process. Youth Voices bring in new ideas and a fresh perspective to the Bank, based on their experience as youth and young leaders, while the institution supports their leadership skills to eventually expand beyond support to World Bank operations in order to reach out to local and national youth structures to become agents of change in their societies. Along these lines, the Moldova youth voices group has organized a youth caravan around the country to foster youth participation.

Presently there are Youth Voices groups in the following countries:

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