International Youth Day : The Road to 2030

International Youth Day aims at reminding the world of the cultural and legal issues surrounding youth across the globe. In recognizing then analyzing these problems, we may be leading the way towards the betterment of world youth conditions.

Young people need to feel empowered to make a real contribution as citizens. By being encouraged to actively engage in their communities, they would feel more responsible and would strive to bring forth a significant addition into the development and the well-being of society.

Youth of the World

An emerging recognition of youth potential that lacks institutional support

 

The global youth experience revealed that youth exclusion from the public life militated against their best interest. Actively engaging in dialogue with the younger generation is primordial for the creation of stronger nations.

The world is home to 1.8 million young people. A generation growing faster  in poor countries , a generation of 600 million adolescent girls with urgent needs  and potentially-broken dreams.

In order for youth aspirations to survive, nations should foster youth development by ensuring that they are actively engaged in the different activities offered by civil society . Their participation is an accentuation of their importance as free, dignified citizens.

The common understanding that youth lack the maturity to think and the will to act is erroneous

Youth opinion , is a fresh, different and most importantly a conscious perspective that should be taken into consideration by decision-makers for societies to emerge from global issues such as poverty, discrimination and  illiteracy .

YOUTH PARTICIPATION in Tunisia

A growing engagement and a fuller civic maturity.

 

In a post-revolutionary Tunisia where new civil liberties are acquired, youth are standing at the forefront of social change. With a decrease of youth inactivity (World Bank Report), the prospects for Tunisia are promising.

The boom of associations that Tunisia witnessed after 2011 is highly revealing of the significant transition as experienced by Tunisian people . There is a growing interest in joining and initiating civic organisms and a larger desire to be heard and acknowledged.

As Tunisian people, we came to the understanding that youth participation must lie at the centre of the creation of policies for youth.

Yet, the inclusion of Tunisian youth in the civic sphere remains an unfinished project  and it is due on one hand, to the lack of the institutional channels necessary to effectively participate in public life  and on the other hand, the mistrust towards associations that inhibits civic engagement.

We asked youth how they feel being young in Tunisia and how would they rate the importance of youth participation in the public life.