youth

Yesterday, USAID launched their first-ever policy for Youth in Development. The policy provides a framework to address youth systematically in line with proven best practices to support, protect, prepare, and engage youth to help them to achieve the best future for themselves and their communities and nations.  The policy also provides guidance for integrating youth in core agency initiatives, bringing youth to the forefront of USAID’s work across all sectors.

What was true for me a teenager in Missouri, I know also to be true for high school students in China: The best teachers are the teachers who let go. Through the Student Journalism in China program, students have developed the critical thinking they need to become active, engaged citizens, and behind these students are confident teachers.

Now more than ever we have a global responsibility to advance the understanding of financial rights and responsibilities among our young people. Building on our work in education and youth development, IREX was recently invited to join Child & Youth Finance International   (CYFI), an exciting movement that is working to bring financial access and education to children and youth around the world . Working together we can not only put a spotlight on this issue, we can make real change for our children and youth and their communities.
Here are a few things you can do right now to support the movement:

The Youth Theater for Peace (YTP) team is very excited to share some more impact news from the program in Tajikistan!

Only a third of youth in the Arab world believe their education has prepared them to get a job, according to a recent study by the Education for Employment Foundation. Not surprisingly, employers there say only a third of newly hired graduates are actually ready for work.

Thirty years ago, I arrived in China as a young American diplomat after the normalization of relations between the two countries. This summer, I returned to China to witness the vast changes that have taken place.

I had the opportunity to attend the expansion ceremony for IREX’s China Student Journalism Program and the second annual journalism camp held in the remote northwestern province of Gansu. Walking into an auditorium filled with Chinese and American youth, I could feel the energy and excitement in the room. Students and their teachers were proud of the newspapers displayed on the walls of this large auditorium. Their eagerness and commitment to serving as voices for their peers and community were inspiring.

When I think about what I want exchange students to experience during their time in the United States, grocery shopping has never made the list. Visit Washington D.C. and view the Declaration of Independence? Check. Attend a baseball game? Sure. Debate the merits of fruits and vegetables found at the local grocery store? Not really one I'd considered.

A recent report from News Group International analyzed trends in social media around the Arab Spring, specifically looking at the footprint and characteristics of online discussions immediately before and during the political uprising in Egypt. It highlighted a trend in the online discussions that demonstrated the inter-connected nature of economic frustration and political upheaval, even highlighting a tipping point in January 2011 when the demands of political defiance overtook the discussion of economic frustration.

“Education is the manifestation of the perfection already within a person.” As I listened to the words of Sanjoy Ganguli, founder of the Jana Sanskriti movement and keynote speaker at a recent conference I attended, I couldn’t help but smile.

As part of United Nations' International Year of Youth, I asked our Chief of Party for the Azerbaijan New Media Project Angela Nicoara about her experience with youth and their involvement in media. Angela says that media tools and skills can help youth have an outlet to affect their own communities and futures in Azerbaijan and throughout the world.

Here are more of Angela's answers.