ACADEMIA OPINION

Listening to the youth: Are we all ready?

Yeyen Yenuarizki, Kartika Febriana and Nadhira Febianisari

Jakarta / Wed, October 30, 2019 / 03:36 pm

Pledge to the nation: Students of junior and senior high schools in Bogor,
West Java, attend the celebration of the Youth Pledge Day on Oct.28. (Antara/Arif
Firmansyah)
Every year, the arrival of Youth Pledge Day on Oct. 28 reminds us
Indonesians not to take the youth for granted. Without the impatient youth, our
founding fathers might not have proclaimed independence on Aug. 17, 1945 and
we might not have become independent until much later. Without the young, there
might have been no people who challenged the House of Representatives,
resulting in the decision to postpone the ratification of several controversial draft
bills last September.
Indonesia now has a youth population of about 64 million, but how far are
we ready to meaningfully engage them in achieving “Gold Indonesia 2045” –
when we are supposed to be a great, competitive nation? How willing is the
government to involve them in planning, implementing and evaluating national
programs that claim to accommodate their interests?
Currently, the world has 1.8 billion youths aged 10 to 24 years old, which
according to the United Nations is the biggest youth population ever. The UN said
90 percent of the youth now reside in developing countries, including 26 percent
in the Asia-Pacific. Realizing their potential, the UN issued a grand strategy to
drive meaningful youth engagement in development under UN Youth 2030:
Working With and For Young People.
According to the World Health Organization, meaningful youth
engagement in development requires space, voices, influence and an audience.
Yet, the youth face challenges in engaging meaningfully. Based on a study on
youth civic engagement in the United States, the youth face social, cultural and
political barriers. Government commitment is among the political barriers, while
other issues include generational conflict, patrimonial culture and the gender gap.
Such barriers effectively neglect the youth in almost all decision-making
processes.
Most Indonesians, for instance, still discriminate on the basis of age and
gender, which prevents the youth from shaping the nation’s future. Bold-sounding
youth, for instance, are often labeled unruly.
Engaging the youth in civic and political activities will contribute
significantly to national development. According to the Youth Engagement and
Empowerment Report on Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia by the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, their participation also ensures
responsive results to citizens’ needs, ultimately strengthening the legitimacy of
political decisions, a democratic culture and trust in public institutions.
Based on research published by Indonesia’s Youth and Sports Ministry in
2014, young people still feel excluded from development programs. The
government still largely treats them as mere objects of development rather than
empowering them as actors. Youth participation in general is neglected, especially
among young people from vulnerable or minority groups.
The ministry, whose main responsibility is to accommodate youth interests
in Indonesia, has yet to carry out its functions effectively, what with an annual
operational budget of below 2 percent of the state budget.
However, youth empowerment programs are also carried out under other
ministries, such as the ministries of health and manpower.
Presidential Regulation No. 66/2017 aims to synergize all youth programs
in the country. However, there is no integrated youth database that keeps a record
on youth leaders in communities, their initiatives and the sustainability of various
training and capacity building workshops for youths under various ministries – at
least one that can be publicly accessed and regularly updated.
This data is needed as a reference for better efforts to get the youth to
collaborate, to get to know each other and to possibly ignite a bigger initiative that
could position the youth as the nation’s strategic leaders.
Indonesia could learn from Bahrain and Argentina. Around 16,000 people
from Bahrain aged 15 to 30 years old were involved in the formulation of national
youth policies. Their aspirations were identified and mapped through surveys and
focus group discussions that later became the basis of youth-friendly policies. In
Argentina, approximately 1,000 young people are engaged in the design and
implementation of annual local services to reflect their needs and interests.
Also, let’s not forget how our university students mobilized massive
protests to delay problematic laws. Indeed, the youth possess the capability and
ability to change the course of the nation.
Last March, the Health Ministry together with WHO and the CISDI
presented, for the first time, a national youth town hall. The town hall, attended by
more than 1,200 youths from all over Indonesia, allowed participants to voice
their aspirations on how they wanted to be involved in the development agenda.
The town hall might be a tiny but valuable step toward better youth empowerment
in the country.
However, many of us need to be ready to change our attitudes by no longer
looking down on young people and no longer dismissing their views.
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Yeyen Yenuarizki is a communication for development specialist, Kartika
Febriana is a knowledge management officer and Nadhira Febianisari is a
communication officer at the Center for Indonesia’s Strategic Development
Initiatives (CISDI). The CISDI was the official partner of the National Youth
Town Hall event in March, in cooperation with the Health Ministry and the World
Health Organization.