The Bank's Focus on Youth

Why the focus on youth? The majority of the world's people are under the age of 25. Many live in the world's poorest countries.

To change this imbalance, the world needs your input, your understanding, your involvement. Together, we face many challenges, including finding and ensuring fair distribution of resources to:

• Reduce poverty
• Improve nutrition
• Increase access to schools and other education opportunities
• Strengthen youth organizations
• Promote youth participation and representation in government & civil service
• Improve health education
• Increase employment opportunities
• Decrease national and regional conflicts
• Decrease risky behavior like drug abuse that can lead to an increase in the number of HIV infected people

Youth can be powerful agents for change if given the opportunity to voice their views and develop and test their capabilities and creativity.

The World Bank will work in an integrated way to meet the challenges of young people in developing countries and make sure that young people's views and challenges are included when decisions are made.