Youth political Participation

 
Youth is a creative force, a dynamic source of innovations, and they have undoubtedly, throughout history,
participated, contributed, and even catalyzed important changes in political systems, power-sharing dynamics and economic opportunities.
However, youth also face poverty, barriers to education, multiple forms of discrimination and limited employment prospects and opportunities.
Youth, Governance and Participation – Major issues Since the Arab Awakening many youth in the region have remained politically active through “political movements” instead of engaging with and in political parties. Young men and women are traditionally active politically in universities (when allowed) but very often disillusioned with political leadership and political institutions and excluded from policy development.
As a result, political activism of youth is not organized according to formal groupings. Opportunities for youth to engage in governance and participate in political and decision-making processes depend largely on the political, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts where social norms in many parts of the world result in multiple forms of discrimination against young women. Both formal and informal engagement can be understood as political participation, and both are beneficial for a vivid and resilient democracy and should be supported.
There is strong evidence that the participation of young people in formal, institutional political processes is relatively low when compared to older citizens across the globe. This challenges the representativeness of the political system and leads to the disenfranchisement of young people.

1 UNDP (2012) Enhancing Youth Political Participation throughout the Electoral Cycle
2 UNDP and IPU, (2012) Global Parliamentary Report
3 UNDP and IPU, (2012) Global Parliamentary Report
4 UNDP (2012) Enhancing Youth Political Participation throughout the Electoral Cycle http://undesadspd.org/Youth.aspx fac