Country Director's remarks at media briefing launching youth civic participation study

Remarks by Elena Tischenko

Country Director, UNDP Cambodia

Launch of study on

Youth Civic Participation in Cambodia

Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Media

Media Briefing

21 July 2011

Good morning!
 
Thank you for joining us today to discuss the findings of the study into Youth Civic Participation in Cambodia: Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Media. All of us here, I am sure, recognize the special importance of the theme of youth, their participation in democratic development and in shaping Cambodia’s future, not least because Cambodia is a country with a very young population. In fact, Cambodia has the youngest population in ASEAN with around 32 percent of the population being between 15 and 30 years of age, following the Cambodian definition of youth.

Youth the world over, and especially in countries like Cambodia, becomes one of the most important factors shaping the priorities, policies and societal attitudes because of the vast contributions that they can make to development and social cohesion. It is in recognition of this importance that the United Nations declared the year 2010-2011 as the second International Year of Youth, with the theme of “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding” and the motto “Our Year. Our Voice”.

While having great potential for positive energy, creativity and dynamism, youth is also a group facing special challenges, ranging from unemployment and skill shortages, to migration, health concerns, problems with gang violence and finding ways to participate meaningfully in local communities.

The UN system in Cambodia, in its Common Advocacy Points, stressed that Cambodia’s youth have a right to participate in the political, social, economic and cultural life of their country. For youth to actively participate and contribute to equitable development and democratic practices they need knowledge and skills. Building such knowledge and skills should be informed by a good understanding of youth aspirations and concerns, their views about key issues of Cambodia’s development and their thoughts on how they can be a positive force to advance the country’s economy, promote human development and strengthen mechanisms of participation and civic engagement. It is within this context that UNDP commissioned a study of Youth Civic Participation, carried out by the the BBC World Service Trust  - a study we are very pleased to launch today. 

In a moment my colleague will introduce the study’s key observations, and one of its main findings, namely that youth is enthusiastic about the direction in which Cambodia is moving. It shows, for example, that young people welcome concrete examples of transparency and accountability in governance, even though they often lack the vocabulary to express this. Similarly, many young people find it difficult to explain the role of important democratic institutions, such as the parliament.

While young people are able to identify issues faced by their communities, they recognized that they are not yet adequately included in the decision-making processes at the commune level, and that they rarely express their views to those in positions of power and influence. While young people generally have confidence in the electoral system, some young people face logistical barriers to getting registered and casting their votes on election day. As anywhere else in the world, youth in Cambodia are a generation that is increasingly plugged into the media, and enthusiastic about new opportunities for communicating with friends and with the outside world.   

The study on Youth Civic Participation is part of the broader, and longer collaborative effort of UNDP in Cambodia that is focusing on helping the youth to strengthen their role in development. While this year we are marking the International Year of Youth, the United Nations has worked since its creation, to help harness the imagination, ideals and energies of youth to build a more peaceful, just and equitable world. In this spirit, working with youth remains a long term commitment for UNDP in Cambodia. This emphasis will continue over the next 5 years, under UNDP’s new country programme, by helping young people to become more competent, empowered and inspired participants in Cambodia’s development.

Let me mention some of the activities that we are planning as part of UNDP’s continued support to youth:

• The Youth multimedia civic education initiative is being developed in partnership with the BBC World Service Trust and aims to help address some of the challenges and gaps identified in the Study of Youth Civic Participation that we are presenting today.  This multimedia programme is designed to increase youth civic awareness, to highlight positive examples of youth participation in governance and to let young people know more about how they can get involved in civic life, including in upcoming elections. The main media programmes will start going on air next year.
• UNDP has been engaged by its national partners, alongside other UN agencies, to support the development of the National Youth Policy , which will be an important platform for the Royal Government of Cambodia to coordinate the improvement of services for youth and to encourage and enable young people to participate in governance processes. 
• Another issue that UNDP will help to address is related to the mismatch between the profiles of graduates of educational institutions and demands of the sectors that offer employment opportunities.  We are working together with national partners to help close this gap as part of the development of a Human Capital Road Map. The recent Cambodia Economic Forum earlier this year put forward an ambitious policy agenda for accelerated economic and human development towards Cambodia becoming a middle-income country by 2020. A vital pre-requisite for this agenda to succeed is competent and adequately placed human capital. Youth is at the core of the formation of this human capital for the decades to come. We look forward to helping national partners make sure that the Human Capital Roadmap presents youth as a key resource.
• There are other examples – such as the student outreach programme of the National Assembly, support to the development of young women’s leadership, and support to better and more market oriented vocational training for young women – that we envisage supporting as part of UNDP’s country programme.  In other words, youth is both our cross-cutting partner and priority.

We hope that the study that we share with you today contains useful information for a broad range of government agencies, academic institutions, NGOs, media, development partners and other organizations working with youth. We also hope that it will serve as a valuable resource for the youth themselves and for university students.

We at UNDP are hopeful that youth voices, collected and analysed through this study, will help inform and guide more effective actions through which the youth can better contribute to equitable and prosperous future for Cambodia. The media has a very important role to play in helping this to happen. As the study suggests, the media provides a vital platform for young people to interact with wider society. Media is also one of the best channels to deliver civic education and to provide a space for the voices and views of young people to be shared. We hope to continue joining efforts with media and all other partners working to strengthen youth participation and contribution to Cambodia’s development.

Thank you for your participation in today’s briefing. I hope the Study report will be a useful resource for you in your work.

Thank you!