The Road to the SDGs

PURPOSE X Young people in MCs face significant challenges, ranging from extreme poverty to poor educational opportunities and high unemployment. On average, IsDB annually allocates around 8% of its financial support to youth development projects and programmes. It is currently engaged in three major youth initiatives: – Youth Development Strategy (YDS), which outlines a focused and comprehensive strategic framework for the development of young people in MCs – Youth Development Working Group (YDWG), which advocates for youth and provides a platform to share knowledge on best practices – Youth Employability Platform (YEP!), which highlights good practices and strategies to improve the skills of young people seeking work in MCs. X The integrated YDS aims to ensure that IsDB efforts and resources are directed towards the goal of socioeconomic progress for youth in MCs. The objectives of this strategy are to support young women and men towards two principal objectives: – To be productive and economically empowered so as to contribute to the development of their societies – To be engaged and responsible, in order to embody and embrace leadership. X The YDS has three interlinked strategic pillars, education, economic empowerment and engagement. These pillars aim to empower youth to take action and accept responsibility in driving growth and adding value to the economic and social development of their communities. X The YDWG was established in June 2019 to address the issues of youth development through building on the collective experiences and commitment of a number of development entities. X The YDWG comprises representatives from a group of MDBs and international development organisations that advocate for youth development issues and seek to increase synergy through collective work on wide-ranging youth development interventions. X The members of the YDWG are: IsDB, WB, African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, EBRD, Inter-American Development Bank, GIZ, International Trade Centre, ILO, OECD, UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF and UNDESA. I sDB has launched three youth initiatives, leading to a significant expansion in its capacity to address the needs of young people in its MCs Youth Development Sector Policy Solving youth problems is a long- term task that will involve government action supported by development institutions and guided by the voices of youth themselves [ 142 ] SDGs