Mobiles for Youth Workforce Development
Landscape Review
The 21st century has already delivered two significant dividends: youth and technology. Today’s youth, ages 10–24, represent more than a quarter of the present world population. This demographic dividend offers youth the opportunity to contribute to economic, social, and political life in ways that lift countries out of poverty, ensure greater stability, and promote healthier societies. At the same time, technologies are spreading rapidly and inexorably across the entire world. This digital dividend is removing barriers of geography, limited infrastructure, and the costs of information access. By early 2014, there will be as many mobile-cellular subscriptions as there are people inhabiting the planet—7 billion. Much of this growth is occurring in low-resource settings in developing countries.
This landscape review explores the nexus of these two global dividends and highlights the growing evidence of the powerful impact of weaving young people and mobile technologies into the fabric of international development efforts.