Youth-led Development
Harnessing the Energy of Youth to Make Poverty History

Many strange things are done in the name of ‘development’: agencies build concrete boxes with tin roofs, cram 120 children into them and call it ‘education’; millions are invested in youth
‘training’ but little in job creation, which means youth move from being unskilled unemployed to skilled unemployed. Billions of dollars are shovelled every year into ‘budget support’ – but little of it, if any, ever trickles down to the young people of the world’s poorest regions on whose energy, commitment and idealism the future prosperity of those places depends.
In this Briefing, David Woollcombe explains why youth is such a promising new field for overseas development assistance. He argues that youth should be at the centre of all development
policy, and offers examples of where young people’s interventions are most effective. Because young people are happy to work as volunteers and take their wages in experiential learning rather than hard cash, Youth-Led Development (YLD) is extremely cost-effective. But Woollcombe argues that, even if it were more expensive, YLD is worth doing for the confidence, attitudes and skills it builds in youth. YLD offers a path to the cultural and economic prosperity less-developed countries need to operate effectively in the global village.

David Woolcombe