The World Youth Report 2005, Young people today, and in 2015 makes a strong argument for scaling up investments in youth development. The challenges are clear: 200 million youth live on less than US$1 a day, 130 million are illiterate, 10 million live with HIV, and 88 million young people are unemployed. While Member States and United Nations Agencies increasingly recognize the importance of investing in youth, it is very difficult to measure the success of their interventions. Programmes and policies are insufficiently monitored and many existing data are not age-disaggregated.
In 1995, the World Programme of Action for Youth (WPAY) was instrumental in setting a global agenda for young people on the basis of 10 priority areas1. In 2005, the General Assembly added five new priority areas of concern2. However, the WPAY did not provide a set of verifiable indicators that could be used to monitor the progress achieved in these priority areas.
At its sixtieth session, the General Assembly adopted a resolution (60/2) on policies and programmes involving youth, requesting that the United Nations Secretariat, in collaboration with other relevant United Nations Programmes and Agencies, establish a broad set of indicators related to youth, which Governments and other actors may choose to use to monitor the situation of young people related to the priority areas identified in the World Programme of Action for Youth.
From 12 to 14 December 2005, the United Nations Programme on Youth, within the Division for Social Policy and Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, organized an Expert Group Meeting on Youth Development Indicators. The meeting brought together representatives of youth organizations, United Nations Agencies, and intergovernmental organizations, academia, and policy advisers to provide inputs on a draft set of indicators that could monitor and measure youth development over time.
The objective of the meeting was to define, for the fifteen priority areas identified in the WPAY, a set of suitable indicators that would:
- Measure youth development;
- Compare progress in and between countries;
- Identify areas that need increased action;
- Encourage the collection of youth-related data;
- Enhance advocacy efforts for increased investments in youth, based on findings; and
- Advance the possibility of developing a Youth Development Index.
At the meeting, the observation was made that there are many fields in which a large number of indicators and data are already available; however, there are also a number of priority areas in the WPAY where those indicators or data do not exist. It was proposed that all participants would provide the Secretariat with a set of proposed indicators within their area of expertise. This report is a summary of the inputs received and is subject to further consultation with experts in the United Nations System and the youth development field.
While reading the following overview of suggested indicators, one will notice the differences between the various types of indicators. Some differences include:
- Indicators for which data are available for most/all countries versus indicators for which data are not available for all/most countries.
- Indicators for which data are available disaggregated by sex and age versus indicators for which data are not disaggregated.
- Qualitative versus quantitative indicators. (Where possible, preference has been given to the quantitative indicators.)
- Indicators that measure a current situation and therefore can monitor trends over time versus indicators that use indirect techniques to make projections about the future.
- Indicators measuring development trends specific to the youth population versus contextual indicators measuring general development trends that also (or disproportionally) influence the youth population.
Besides indicators in the fifteen areas of the WPAY, several demographic indicators are suggested.
It is important to note that to really measure the development of young people in all fifteen priority areas of the WPAY, an infinite number of indicators could be suggested that in turn could be tailored to national or local situations. In this document, a selection has been made of the quantifiable core indicators for which data are available on a global level. For some areas suggestions are made for desired indicators that could be included in the future when data become available. Finally, where applicable, reference is made to further documentation on established indicators within the UN System.
After consultation, this list of indicators will be finalized for submission to the Member States through the Commission for Social Development in February 2007. Further, the World Youth Report 2007 will include the main findings of the indicator discussion and will contain a statistical annex listing the core indicators for which data are available.
Acknowledgements
The Programme on Youth wishes to thank all participants in the Expert Group Meeting on Youth Development Indicators held in December 2005 at UN Headquarters in New York. For a list of participants, please visit: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/youthindicators.htm.
Follow-up inputs were received from the ILO, ITU, OECD, UNEP, UNDESA Population Division, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNODC, and individual experts, including Colette Daiute, City University of New York, Luis Davila Ortega, Global Youth Action Network, Carles Feixa, University of Lleida, David Gordon, University of Bristol, Roger Hart, City University of New York, Kenneth Land, Duke University, and Angela Langenkamp, German Technical Cooperation (GTZ).
Footnotes
1. Education, employment, hunger and poverty, health, environment, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, leisure-time activities, girls and young women, youth participation in decision-making.
2. Globalization, information and communication technology, HIV/Aids, youth and armed conflict, intergenerational relations.
Youth Development Indicators
[ Note: The following is a work in progress ]
GENERAL DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
1. Total youth population 15-24 years old
2. Youth as a percentage of the total population
3. Percentage of youth who are ever married
I. EDUCATION
4. Youth literacy rates
5. Gross enrolment ratio for secondary education
6. Net enrolment rate for secondary education
7. Gross enrolment rates for tertiary education
8. Transition rate to general secondary education
II. EMPLOYMENT
9. Youth unemployment rates
10. Ratio of youth to adult unemployment rates
11. Youth employment-to-population ratios
12. Youth labour force participation rates
III. HUNGER AND POVERTY
13. Percentage of severely underweight youth
14. Percentage of underweight youth
15. Percentage of young people living in absolute poverty
16. Percentage of young people living in poverty
IV. HEALTH
17. Adolescent fertility as a percentage of total fertility
18. Percentage of married or in-union young women currently using modern contraception
19. Maternal mortality ratio
20. Top 3 reported deaths by cause for youth
21. Probability, for a 15-year old, of dying before age 25
V. ENVIRONMENT
Core Indicators
22. Percentage of youth severely deprived of water
23. Percentage of youth severely deprived of sanitation
24. Percentage of youth severely deprived of shelter
VI. DRUG ABUSE
25. Lifetime prevalence rates of drug abuse among youth
VII. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
26. Rate of convicted children admitted to closed institutions
27. Age at which people are held liable as adults for transgression of the law
IX. GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN
Core Indicator
28. Percentage of all women who have undergone female genital cutting
[NB: This indicator is in addition to gender disaggregated data included in all priorty areas]
X. PARTICIPATION
29. Voting Age
30. Legal minimum age of marriage without parental consent
31. Existence of a National Youth Council
XI. GLOBALIZATION
32. Ratio of international youth to adult migrants
33. Internationally mobile students in tertiary education by host country
XII. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
34. Proportion of young people who used a computer in the last 12 months
35. Proportion of young people who used the Internet in the last 12 months
XIII. HIV/AIDS
36. HIV prevalence rate among youth
37. Percentage of youth with comprehensive correct knowledge of HIV/AIDS
38. Percentage of youth who used a condom at last high-risk sex
XIV. ARMED CONFLICT
39. Estimated number of youth refugees by country of origin
XV. INTERGENERATIONAL RELATIONS
40. Median age of population