Editorial | Giving youths a seat at the table

Across the world, a generation that is often described through its relationship with smartphones and social media is demonstrating that it can also organise, mobilise and demand accountability. Generation Z (Gen Z) has become an active participant in shaping the public agenda.

In Nepal, last September, young people took to the streets when the government restricted access to major social-media platforms. That mobilisation was driven by digital platforms. It soon became a crusade against corruption and limited economic opportunities. Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli resigned.

In India, youth-led protests over examination failures, unemployment and concerns about the education system were driven by social media.

While there is no call for a replication of Kathmandu or Delhi, or the protests by high school students in France, there might be valuable lessons in these developments for Jamaica, if the right ones are learnt.

With respect to young people, two take-aways are immediately clear from these developments. Young people have and are willing to exercise agency. Secondly, it was perhaps always a myth that recent generations are, or were, disengaged from society and driven by selfish ambition in ways that their parents and grandparents were not. They were differently engaged. Or the tools used to display or channel their engagement were different, until protests erupted.

So, what are some of the lessons that Jamaica might learn from these social-media protests elsewhere? The short answer, especially for policymakers, is how to harness and extract value from the conversations that people, especially young people, are having on social media. When read closely, it is not all vapid self-aggrandisement or exhibitionist display of personal lives.

TALKING ABOUT AMBITIONS

Young people, in between the showing-off and click-bait extremisms, are also talking about their ambitions, expressing their fears and their yearning for something better, even if that something is ill-defined or appears simplistic.

The challenge is to migrate these concerns from the babel of social media to constructive, policy-based dialogue and concrete action before frustration and grievance erupt in the manner now occurring in cities such as Paris, Lille and elsewhere.

Put another way, smart policymakers should not only see the manufactured glitz and noise of social media, but also listen closely to what lies beneath its rumbustiousness and the disjointed shorthand in which many of its Gen Z denizens communicate. In other words, young people have to be listened to and new ways found to engage them. For while Gen Z and other young people might have opted out of the formal political process and refrain from casting ballots, it does not mean they are unconcerned about issues of governance and development.

Indeed, like everyone else, young people have a stake in society. As UNICEF has noted, approximately 50,000 Jamaican adolescents of secondary-school age are out of school. Three in five of them are boys. Additionally, 35 per cent of 14-24-year-olds are not in education, employment or training. The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) reveals an overall national literacy rate of 89 per cent, disaggregated into 93 per cent for females and 84 per cent for males, while highlighting socioeconomic gaps, as only 47 per cent of children in the poorest households demonstrate foundational reading skills compared to 82 per cent in the wealthiest.

These are primarily outcomes of policies that were designed and implemented by older people. Perhaps new ways have to be found to give young people a greater voice in shaping policies and programmes for young people and for society as a whole.

STRENGTHEN MECHANISMS

In that regard, existing youth advisory mechanisms should be strengthened rather than made to operate as set pieces and props, which is largely the perception of those that exist.

Ways should be found, for instance, to genuinely consult young people on issues such as policies relating to education, employment, climate resilience, technology, public transport, crime prevention, culture and community development. Each ministry should have formal, standing mechanisms to achieve this.

Consultation should also have a visible feedback system that robustly interrogates the suggestions and propositions offered by young people.

Jamaica possesses significant advantages. Its youth are engaged in digital technologies and highly adept in the physical manipulation of devices that have the potential to deliver significant value. But these technologies are underutilised in these areas.

Social media, especially, has largely become a platform for street-corner rants and the airing of frustrations. Properly engaged and channelled, it can be an avenue for discourse and developmental opportunity.