What does it take for countries to thrive? Who are the people who make a country successful? Especially those in developing countries? This article is about people, not politics.
We often hear the saying ‘youth are the leaders of tomorrow’, and in many ways, this is true. Soon, young people and youth are the ones who will be running families, cities, countries and the world. Developing countries have always been of much interest, from the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), to MINT countries (Mexico, Nigeria, Indonesia, Turkey), and more specifically the Arab world.
Youth economic empowerment is more than just an answer to improved democracy, it is a gift that we give to the youth of the future to thrive. Threatened democracies have a negative impact across the world, including unprecedented political upheaval, armed conflict, and unrest, with urgent challenges to family structure, the status of women, and livelihoods – particularly related to young people in the Arab world. Putting our youth in a position to work around such threats will reduce and limit the impact by giving young people hope and confidence in the future and in their countries, and aiming to protect them from the scourge of crime and terrorism, which is fueled by poverty and marginalization.
Silatech is an international social development nonprofit non-government organization, that works on connecting Youth to jobs and enable resources for them to establish and sustain successful enterprises through providing innovative solutions to its local, regional and international partners. I wanted to highlight this here in order to understand that there are initiatives aimed at improving the global situation. Silatech recently took part in the sixth edition of the Athens Democracy Forum, an annual event established by the New York Times with this year’s theme “Democracy in Danger: Solutions for a Changing World”. The organisation is keen to create and encourage young people to recognize their role as change makers and leaders of the future and enable them to achieve a more productive and stable life for themselves and their societies. With sharing their story, we hope that they will reach more societies in other developing countries.