by Marlon Madden
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is putting its trust in the youth to provide the necessary thrust for the development of the region. Declaring that the region’s youth had the talent to innovate and contribute meaningfully to development, CDB officials promised
that the financial institution would be ramping up its support for young people.
Yvette Lemonias-Seale, Vice President of Corporate Services and Bank Secretary at the CDB, said it was the duty of the financial institution, governments, and other agencies “to act so we can release the creative and innovative potential of our young people”.
“Innovation is important for solving developmental problems, for spurring economic growth and for transforming our societies and who best to lead the charge to innovate? Those who explore, question, challenge and disrupt, the ones more likely to pick things apart and form something new. Young people are overwhelmingly representing those ranks,” said Lemonias-Seale.
She was addressing the recent youth forum, the final event of the CDB’s 51st annual meeting, which was held under the theme Listen, Learn, Live: Youth Insights on Innovation Imperatives and Investment. Lenonias Seale said too often reports on youth were focused on their “disproportionate representation among the poorest and vulnerable and their involvement in anti-social activities”. However, pointing out that people under the age of 30 were easily the most energetic and creative, she argued that providing an enabling environment for,
and promoting the development of engaged, empowered and equipped youth was essential
for the full realisation of their capabilities.
“Achieving such development is central to the achievement of the bank’s core mission of reducing poverty and transforming lives through sustainable, resilient and inclusive development,” she said. During the youth discussion panelists agreed that education was a significant contributor to development. However, they argued that too many of the region’s young people were still being trained for the existing workforce instead of being trained to become innovators and entrepreneurs.
Advising young people not to be afraid to fail when they start a business, the participants also urged the region’s youth to “figure things on their own” as they sought to keep abreast with technological advancements and to stay relevant. They also called for authorities to create greater opportunities for entrepreneurs to expand and export, improve the enabling environment including easier access to financing especially for farmers and enhancements in the doing business environment for entrepreneurs, while singling out the need for improvements in logistics and trade regimes in the region.
IDB’s Vice President of Operations Isaac Solomon agreed that urgent action was needed to help the region’s young people unleash their true potential. Declaring that the Bridgetown-based financial institution had an abundance of faith in the young people in the region,
he said he did not believe regional leaders have developed a sufficient understanding of how the youth function “in an ecosystem distinctly different from the landscape of the past”.
Solomon said while it was clear that many of the region’s youth were self-driven, their success in innovative pursuits was often dependent on the contribution and investment of governments, private sector, civil society and development organisations. “It is now up to us to coalesce around our young people by giving them the time, place, space and support to contribute meaningfully to development.
This is a call for us as policymakers and development practitioners to put our money where it counts and provide the architecture for innovation starting with the reengineering of education so that it is an experience that excites the creative energies of all learners,” said Solomon. “This is a call to provide the enabling environment for nurturing innovation and co-creation such as access to start up financing capital, coaching and market promotion. This is a call to provide the technology that both supports innovation and is itself the target of innovation and disrupts the status quo.
This is a call to free our young people from the limitations of archaic notions of productive work, and the restrictions experienced by persons of disabilities,” he added. He said the CDB therefore committed to accelerating its prioritisation of the region’s youth through its youth policy and strategy, while listening to the youth and increasing its focus and financing of innovation.
“Specifically, CDB will provide funding and technical support to empower youth to explore innovative ideas to tackle development challenges, provide youth with the tools to build and engage in impactful endeavours, and promote continual dialogue between youth and other key stakeholders regionally and globally, as they work to reshape a more prosperous region,” said Solomon.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
