jeudi, juillet 27, 2006 WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2007: DEVELOPMENT AND THE NEXT GENERATION GLOBAL YOUTH ENGAGEMENT 27/7/2006  Initially fearful that the event would be a dry talk filled with statistics and economic analysis masquerading as a “discussion”, my concerns proved to be unfounded as an energetic Mr Patil tailored his delivery to fit his 50-strong, primarily student-based audience. One thing which impressed me about him was that he took the first half an hour of his presentation NOT to present the key points of the WDR2007 (which was what he was actually there to do), but instead used the time to answer some basic questions about The World Bank posed by the audience, such as "Where does the World Bank get its money?" and "What happens when poor countries cannot repay their World Bank loans?" (The answers are: (1) through the sale of bonds, and through member countries’ financial contributions, and (2) loans are either forgiven or restructured [about debt relief].) After dealing with the fundamentals of what The World Bank is, what it does, and what its work involves, he went on to give the audience a sneak preview of the World Development Report 2007. Very briefly, the World Development Report is a massive report generated once a year by The World Bank, and it focuses on a single theme each year. This year’s theme is ‘Development and the Next Generation’, which centres on the global youth sector.  Mr Patil first showed how the global demographic was rapidly shifting towards a youth-based population, and shared with us the sobering statistic that “in five years, the world’s population of 1.3 billion youth will be competing for 300 million jobs…”He explained that the lack of jobs would cause widespread youth unemployment, which would in turn compound the problem of poverty, which is a perennial problem afflicting many in our world. Youth and young people from less developed countries are the most vulnerable to being pushed over the poverty line. The World Bank’s solution to this problem is a simple, but important one: the immediate engagement of the youth sector when crafting policies and programmes for the future. “It is critical to invest in young people in order to reduce poverty and boost growth,” Mr Patil said. He quoted an Argentinean youth, who summed up the problem involving youth and development today succinctly: “We (youth) always hear that we are the future, butwe are frustrate for not being able to be in the present.” As a result, the WDR2007 has chosen to focus on creating strategies to engage global youth in participatory partnership. The development of youth as “Agents of Change” within their own communities, giving youth access to education, healthcare and job opportunities are some of the ways which the global community can help to ensure that youth today can be prevented from falling into the poverty trap. Allowing for questions at any time during the presentation, Mr Patil welcomed interruptions during his presentation. Encouraged by his friendly, unassuming manner, and heartened by his straightforward (but never simplistic) answers, members of the audience peppered his presentation with thought-provoking questions, which made the dialogue session a truly engaging and interactive one. This year’s World Development Report is titled “Development and the Next Generation”, and will be presented at the 2006 Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group. With an audience makeup of the Ministers for Finance of 138 member countries, the World Development Report 2007 is expected to draw the global community’s attention to the importance of investing and engaging the community of youth today. If you’re interested, here are links to: The World Bank http://www.worldbank.org The World Bank in Singapore http://www.worldbank.org/sg The IMF-World Bank Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors http://www.singapore2006.org Mr Patil can be contacted at ppatil@worldbank.org [WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2007: DEVELOPMENT AND THE NEXT GENERATION GLOBAL YOUTH ENGAGEMENT 27/7/2006] |
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