YOUNG people constitute more than 60 percent of Guyana’s population, and can contribute exponentially to its social and economic development, according to the UNFPA State of the World’s Population 2014 Report, which drew heavily from its finding that a sound investment in a country’s young human capital could show exponential increases in economic growth.

Launched on Wednesday last at the Princess Hotel at Providence, East Bank Demerara under the title ‘The Power of 1.8 Billion: Adolescents, Youth and the Transformation of the Future’, the UNFPA designed the State of the World’s Population Report to give a voice to young people because they were being stifled with adult concerns in this world.

Its website details that the UNFPA was set up in 1969 “for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.”

“One of the areas that we would like to focus on is the area of youth,” Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Dr. Frank Anthony said as he plugged the need for discussions on youth empowerment to spread across areas of education, employment, health, peace, security, governance and participation.

Dr Anthony noted that these areas for youth engagement are currently on the cards, but “we need to develop quality indicators that would help us to measure what it is that we have accomplished, or what it is we want to accomplish over the next 15 years.

“There is the need to do more research so that we could have a better assessment of the situation relating to youth,” Dr. Anthony conceded.

He acknowledged that there are reports which clearly express the status of youth in various aspects, but was concerned that “what has been lacking is that they produced the reports but we did not get the kind of support at the global level, in terms of resources, to implement the programmes that we have identified.”

Dr Anthony lauded efforts of the consultative youth forum to include the youth voices in the Post-2015 Millennium Development Goals’ (MDG) agenda.

Following presentation of the much-anticipated State of the World’s Population 2014 Report, a two-day youth consultation facilitated by UNFPA Guyana will see over 100 young people from the ten administrative regions voicing their concerns in a forum aimed at highlighting youth engagement at all levels in the future development agenda.

Information gathered from the youth voice will aid in ongoing efforts of national actors to engage youth in dialogue on the emerging Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will follow the Millennium Development Goals. A draft document prepared during discussions will see the participants highlighting areas of priority focus for Guyana’s own development agenda.

“Never before have there been more young people. How we meet the needs and aspirations of young people and enable them to enjoy their rights will define our common future,” United Nations Resident Coordinator Khadija Musa has said.

Stressing the importance of youth empowerment to the economy, Musa reported: “East Asia invested in its young people’s human capital, starting in the 1960s, enabling the region to recognise its ‘democratic dividend’, contribute to a six percentage point surge in GDP [Gross Domestic Product], and quadruple per capita income in some countries.”

It has been noted that nine of ten of the world’s 1.8 billion young people live in less developed countries and are often plagued with obstacles, reducing their rights to health, education, and freedom from violence.

“A world in which a quarter of humanity is without full enjoyment of their rights is a world without the basic building blocks for change and progress,” the UN Resident Coordinator added.

The State of the World’s Population Report makes a case for urgent investment in young people, to be engaged in their communities and the development of their nations. The UNFPA report shows that the return in investment, particularly in young women and adolescent girls, can be enormous, with a potential to catapult developing economies forward by eliminating extreme poverty.

(Derwayne Wills)