14 July 2003

USAID Will Co-sponsor Forum in Dominican Republic on Problems of Youth, July 14, 2003

(Event to focus on high poverty rate among young people in Americas)

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is co-sponsoring a July 21-23 forum in the Dominican Republic to analyze the high rate of poverty among young people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Young people attending the "Americas Youth Voice" meeting will draft a declaration on children's rights and responsibilities, and debate their role in sustainable development.

Results from the meeting in Santo Domingo will be incorporated in the XII Summit of the First Ladies, Wives, and Representatives of Heads of State and Government of the Americas, scheduled for October 16-17, also in the Dominican Republic. The theme for the First Ladies' summit is "Youth and Poverty," with other topics to be discussed ranging from teen pregnancy to violence against young people.

In a July 9 statement, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), one of the organizers of the Santo Domingo event along with the government of the Dominican Republic, said that 47 percent of adolescents in the Americas between ages 13 and 19 were living in poverty in 1997, with wide disparities in the opportunities available to young people.

To fill these gaps, youth leaders in Santo Domingo will design a proposal for the First Ladies' meeting, featuring guidelines for covering youth problems not met by current public policy. The problems to be addressed are in such areas as health care, education, employment, culture, and fostering an environment to obtain better development opportunities for young people.

USAID said youth unemployment is on the rise in most countries of the Americas. The agency explained that educational systems are failing to equip young people with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in a fast-changing marketplace. At the same time, businesses have an urgent need for workers equipped with the technical skills to contribute to the region's growing information-based economy.

In response, USAID has invested $3 million over a three-year period in a program that promotes training and job placement in information technology for young people in the Americas. Working in alliance with the Inter-American Development Bank and the International Youth Foundation (IYF), the $24-million program called "Entra 21" (Preparing Youth to Enter the Modern Workplace), co-finances 40 locally-conceived and -executed projects to train 12,000 young people for the information age. The IYF, based in Baltimore, Maryland, operates in about 50 countries to improve conditions and prospects for young people.

Entra 21 projects stretch throughout the Western Hemisphere. In Bolivia, for example, young people are being trained to help rural and urban communities link up with a new national telecommunications network system. In Colombia, 500 young people will gain technical competence that is in demand by local employers. In the Dominican Republic, Entra 21 is designed to help 360 disadvantaged youth gain the technical and personal skills needed to qualify for jobs being created in the city of Santiago.

In its May 31, 2002, announcement of the launch of Entra 21, USAID Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean Adolfo Franco said the program would "contribute significantly to the future success of the youth of Latin America and the Caribbean."

Franco added: "When the future of the child is bright, that leads to an improved quality of life for the family and community."