Click here to collapse content ICT for youth development By Douglas Court* Technology – specifically ICT – has played a central role in young people’s rise to prominence on a global scale. It has helped them mobilize, collaborate and given voice louder than before. It has brought them together in response to social concerns. It has connected them across vast geographical barriers. For young people, access to information means better access to capital, markets and training needed to pursue a career or studies; increased participation in political processes, and recognition of youth as responsible citizens in today’s society. Access to technologies, the internet and information, facilitates youth entrepreneurships, which is often considered as an effective mean to address youth employment crisis. In 2011, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimated that young people under the age of 25 accounted for 45% of total internet users. Globally, 36% of young people aged less than 25 used the internet (compared with 34% of those 25 years and older), with vast disparities between developed and developing economies. In the developed world, 77% of young people under the age of 25 used the internet compared with 71% of those 25 years and older. In the developing world, 30% of the under 25-year-olds used the Internet compared with 23% of those 25 years and older. Despite these trends, the total number of internet users in the developing world far outstrips those in the developed world. Youth are undeniably pioneering the use of ICT, and driving trends in what is a dynamic and major growth industry. While the good news is they are using ICT – the challenge is to inspire them to use it to change their world in a positive way. National and international policy and regulatory bodies – governments, civil society and the United Nations – can help by recognizing and encouraging the accelerated use of information and communication technologies in development strategies and frameworks for the future. With this in mind, the BYND2015 Summit on Youth and ICT – hosted in Costa Rica from 9-11 September 2013 – assembled more than 500 young participants from diverse nationalities to celebrate and showcase the power of ICT for development; and discuss ideas and proposals for how the technology can be leveraged across different sectors. The Summit assembled some 600 young people from 68 nationalities onsite, with a further 8000 from 173 countries actively tuning-in online to contribute to the Summit’s crowdsourcing initiative, and to participate in the remote workshops and mini-Summits hosted by the BYND2015 Summit hubs situated around the world – mobilized in most instances by ambitious and committed young people themselves. The hubs model provides a new example for engaging young audiences; and further shows that when opportunity and responsibility are given, young people rise to the occasion and put their full weight and energy behind a worthy cause. Their level of engagement was staggering, not only ‘following’ the event but actively sharing proposals and ideas that helped shaping the initial Summit outcome, presented in the form of a young people’s declaration. The declaration provided an initial outcome from the event available in time for the start of the General Assembly; and serves as a high-level framework to encourage and guide Member States in the development of their own ICT based youth initiatives – further mandating universal access to information and communication technologies for young people, regardless of social circumstances. The declaration document is unique, in that it represents the combined voice of thousands of young people from all around the world who offered their ideas and priorities via an innovative online crowdsourcing process spanning months prior to the event. In total the crowdsourcing yielded more than 1000 unique ideas from around 3000 contributors in the two months leading up to, and then during the Summit. Many of the online conversations were happening in multiple languages, including Arabic, English, Spanish and French, Portuguese as well as Indonesian. The online components then merged with open drafting consultations at the event, the result being a truly collaborative work which takes into account a vast array of viewpoints from youth of diverse backgrounds. Their message is unequivocal: that in order to compete in the global digital economy they require access to the technology, tools and training that many take for granted, and which the development community is far too quick to overlook. For young people, BYND2015 is the start of a new inclusive global dialogue, leading to a world where information and communication technologies can overcome major development challenges of our time by creating new opportunities for young people everywhere. ITU intends to take on board their concerns and ideas; and to continue to engage them in shaping and implementing international ICT policy. Access the full declaration as well as additional information about the BYND2015 Summit at itu.int/bynd2015. Douglas Court works with the International Communication Union (ITU) that organized the BYND2015 summit.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 09:34:34 +0000
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