National Security

The role of youths in development and security is shaped by the state’s capacity to harness their potential and meet their needs on a range of issues.

The vulnerability of youths to socio-economic shocks and their demographic dynamic place youths at the heart of development and national security processes. Understanding the connections between youth poverty, illiteracy, employment and unemployment and human insecurity is of utmost importance. Youth illiteracy undermines development, while literacy without opportunities can lead to negative employment, undermining security. If a society’s values, norms, customs, practices, structures and institutions are under threat and such changes in turn threaten the development of its children into youth and then adults, then that society cannot sustain itself.

Considering the strategic positioning of youth in societies as future leaders, they are increasingly become actors in the present. Hence, the empowerment and participation of youth s a key tenet of the Sustainable Development Agenda, as emphasized by SDG 10, which calls for the promotion of the social, economic and political inclusion of the young generation, and SDG 16, which aims to ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.