e are facing a series of potentially existential crises, from climate change to widening income inequality to pandemics and a rapidly deteriorating geopolitical environment. Unlike past global challenges, however, the challenges facing the world today are posed to leave a disproportionately large impact on future generations. With climate action in particular, the window of opportunity for meaningful action is no more than a few decades at best—but with youth activism as a growing force seeking to make real transformable changes the world will need, it is critical that the youth of today are given real access to decision makers and the ability to influence policy debates and solutions. The question is, then: how can key decision makers leverage the potential and creativity of this generation to make real actionable solutions?
We need to look for tangible ways to empower youth in climate action.
With immediate action needed now to fight the climate crisis, the youth need to be involved in their future—and therefore, they need to be given real access to decision makers and decision making. According to WISE, this can be done along three axes: education, economics and engagement.
• Education. With less than 10% of 15-year-olds taking the OECD’s PISA test demonstrating competency in advanced mathematical thinking and reasoning as well as in comprehending lengthy texts, there is an urgent need to create a common intellectual and ethical problem-solving framework which needs to come from education systems prioritizing scientific literacy, reasoning, and applied ethics. Without these basics being covered in education, it will be difficult to future-proof students for a highly uncertain future.
• Economics. With an unprecedented amount of economic issues facing the youth today such as highly uneven access to capital and struggles to finding meaning in many of the jobs available, young people have become very skeptical of the prevailing economic model. Therefore, there is a need for interventions such as an economic stimulus that is directed at the youth and, a need for broad-based acceleration and investment programs that allow young people to start businesses.
• Engagement. There is a need for young people to actively engage with international bodies such as the United Nations and its constituent agencies, and for these bodies to take the lead in facilitating this engagement by giving youth a real voice in decision making and the opportunity to help set the agenda.
There is a need for innovative solutions to address the equity and access gap in education.
• The Educate Lanka Foundation is one program working to address the equity and access gap in education. Under the theme of “think global, act local,” The Educate Lanka Foundation aims to provide access to quality education to underprivileged and marginalized Sri Lankan youth through not only formal education, but also through different learning opportunities to develop the values, skills and competencies they will need to survive and thrive in work, school and life. Through micro-scholarships and a hybrid pedagogy that embraces multiple modes of education platforms such as traditional in-person classes, virtual learning and self-learning, the Educate Lanka Foundation is able to locally mentor their students locally in Sri Lanka—and through partnerships with multiple global stakeholders and Sri Lankans abroad, they are then able to connect them to mentors and peers internationally to broaden their global perspective.
it is through this process of bringing together the private sector, global partners, institutions and a wide range of curriculums that the foundation is able to bring in perspectives and knowledge from outside he students’ marginalized communities and provide them with the foundational social and emotional skills needed for students to create actionable solutions both in their local communities and globally.
• The Amal Alliance aims to fill the equity and access gap for refugee youth. By providing displaced and disenfranchised youth with psycho-social support, social and emotional learning, early childhood development and peace education, The Amal Alliance aims to provide access to education for children in refugee camps in several countries with a large refugee population. Indeed, even without formal education structures in place, it is critical to provide children in non-formal settings with social and emotional skills, interpersonal skills and life skills through various curriculum that uses techniques such as mindfulness, play, dance, reading and writing, and to more importantly make sure to take into consideration the particular needs of children who may be dealing with trauma, stress and a toxic environment. The Amal Alliance accomplishes this by tapping into the refugee population itself and training the younger adult generation to then impart curriculum to their community, as well as by bringing families into the education process.
• Technology can provide equal access to everyone. Until recently in Afghanistan, there has been a trend towards installing IT centers in public schools to provide training for young girls. In these centers, they not only learn technological skills, but entrepreneurial skills as well. From technology classes centered around working with computers, social media, coding, robotics and BlockChain to entrepreneurial classes involving managing money and creating businesses, young Afghan women in these programs have been able to build start-ups in a variety of sectors and connect to the private sector to work with existing businesses.
There are certain critical skills education institutions need to invest in to help young people prepare for and be an active part of decisions that affect their future.
• There is a need to emphasize literacy, reasoning and applied ethics. With the fundamental knowledge areas of literacy, numeracy and scientific literacy critical to learning yet often underdeveloped in education institutions around the world, it is critical that we focus on building the fundamentals of education first—not just because the world needs more engineers, doctors and innovators, but because these domains provide a common foundation around which we can communicate, build consensus and problem-solve.
• There is a need for social and emotional competencies. In order to increase learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy, it is important that students’ social and emotional health is taken into account, and that prioritizing wellbeing is at the forefront. Therefore, it is important for education institutions to also focus on skills such as creativity, self-awareness and empathy to help increase students’ social and emotional competencies, as well as promote diversity and inclusion.
• Creativity, free thinking and frontier thinking are key. In order to create sustainable solutions to the world’s problems, creativity and innovative free thinking that offer solutions to age-old problems are essential—but without access to education that promotes these forms of thinking, the youth of today will not be able to create the sustainable solutions of tomorrow.
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Creativity and Sustainability: Involving Youth in Decision-Making
Photo by Chang Duong via Unsplash.
October 24, 2021
We are facing a series of potentially existential crises, from climate change to widening income inequality to pandemics and a rapidly deteriorating geopolitical environment. How can key decision makers leverage the potential and creativity of this generation to make real actionable solutions?
W
e are facing a series of potentially existential crises, from climate change to widening income inequality to pandemics and a rapidly deteriorating geopolitical environment. Unlike past global challenges, however, the challenges facing the world today are posed to leave a disproportionately large impact on future generations. With climate action in particular, the window of opportunity for meaningful action is no more than a few decades at best—but with youth activism as a growing force seeking to make real transformable changes the world will need, it is critical that the youth of today are given real access to decision makers and the ability to influence policy debates and solutions. The question is, then: how can key decision makers leverage the potential and creativity of this generation to make real actionable solutions?
We need to look for tangible ways to empower youth in climate action.
With immediate action needed now to fight the climate crisis, the youth need to be involved in their future—and therefore, they need to be given real access to decision makers and decision making. According to WISE, this can be done along three axes: education, economics and engagement.
• Education. With less than 10% of 15-year-olds taking the OECD’s PISA test demonstrating competency in advanced mathematical thinking and reasoning as well as in comprehending lengthy texts, there is an urgent need to create a common intellectual and ethical problem-solving framework which needs to come from education systems prioritizing scientific literacy, reasoning, and applied ethics. Without these basics being covered in education, it will be difficult to future-proof students for a highly uncertain future.
• Economics. With an unprecedented amount of economic issues facing the youth today such as highly uneven access to capital and struggles to finding meaning in many of the jobs available, young people have become very skeptical of the prevailing economic model. Therefore, there is a need for interventions such as an economic stimulus that is directed at the youth and, a need for broad-based acceleration and investment programs that allow young people to start businesses.
• Engagement. There is a need for young people to actively engage with international bodies such as the United Nations and its constituent agencies, and for these bodies to take the lead in facilitating this engagement by giving youth a real voice in decision making and the opportunity to help set the agenda.
There is a need for innovative solutions to address the equity and access gap in education.
• The Educate Lanka Foundation is one program working to address the equity and access gap in education. Under the theme of “think global, act local,” The Educate Lanka Foundation aims to provide access to quality education to underprivileged and marginalized Sri Lankan youth through not only formal education, but also through different learning opportunities to develop the values, skills and competencies they will need to survive and thrive in work, school and life. Through micro-scholarships and a hybrid pedagogy that embraces multiple modes of education platforms such as traditional in-person classes, virtual learning and self-learning, the Educate Lanka Foundation is able to locally mentor their students locally in Sri Lanka—and through partnerships with multiple global stakeholders and Sri Lankans abroad, they are then able to connect them to mentors and peers internationally to broaden their global perspective.
it is through this process of bringing together the private sector, global partners, institutions and a wide range of curriculums that the foundation is able to bring in perspectives and knowledge from outside he students’ marginalized communities and provide them with the foundational social and emotional skills needed for students to create actionable solutions both in their local communities and globally.
• The Amal Alliance aims to fill the equity and access gap for refugee youth. By providing displaced and disenfranchised youth with psycho-social support, social and emotional learning, early childhood development and peace education, The Amal Alliance aims to provide access to education for children in refugee camps in several countries with a large refugee population. Indeed, even without formal education structures in place, it is critical to provide children in non-formal settings with social and emotional skills, interpersonal skills and life skills through various curriculum that uses techniques such as mindfulness, play, dance, reading and writing, and to more importantly make sure to take into consideration the particular needs of children who may be dealing with trauma, stress and a toxic environment. The Amal Alliance accomplishes this by tapping into the refugee population itself and training the younger adult generation to then impart curriculum to their community, as well as by bringing families into the education process.
• Technology can provide equal access to everyone. Until recently in Afghanistan, there has been a trend towards installing IT centers in public schools to provide training for young girls. In these centers, they not only learn technological skills, but entrepreneurial skills as well. From technology classes centered around working with computers, social media, coding, robotics and BlockChain to entrepreneurial classes involving managing money and creating businesses, young Afghan women in these programs have been able to build start-ups in a variety of sectors and connect to the private sector to work with existing businesses.
There are certain critical skills education institutions need to invest in to help young people prepare for and be an active part of decisions that affect their future.
• There is a need to emphasize literacy, reasoning and applied ethics. With the fundamental knowledge areas of literacy, numeracy and scientific literacy critical to learning yet often underdeveloped in education institutions around the world, it is critical that we focus on building the fundamentals of education first—not just because the world needs more engineers, doctors and innovators, but because these domains provide a common foundation around which we can communicate, build consensus and problem-solve.
• There is a need for social and emotional competencies. In order to increase learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy, it is important that students’ social and emotional health is taken into account, and that prioritizing wellbeing is at the forefront. Therefore, it is important for education institutions to also focus on skills such as creativity, self-awareness and empathy to help increase students’ social and emotional competencies, as well as promote diversity and inclusion.
• Creativity, free thinking and frontier thinking are key. In order to create sustainable solutions to the world’s problems, creativity and innovative free thinking that offer solutions to age-old problems are essential—but without access to education that promotes these forms of thinking, the youth of today will not be able to create the sustainable solutions of tomorrow.
