PERSPECTIVES
mographic gift. Entrepreneurship and the private sector
can leverage the potential of this population and provide a
bottom-up approach to youth job creation.
Younger and Bigger Cities
A 2012 UN global population report predicts that the
global population will grow to 9.6 billion people by 2050.
With this number in mind, the global challenge of population growth will greatly impact cities in the developing world.
A UNICEF report on the state of the world’s children predicts that, by 2050, 70 percent of the world’s population will
live in cities. Furthermore, a World Bank report on urban
poverty predicts that over 90 percent of this growth will be
from cities in the developing world.
The International Development Research Center’s
study, “Researching the Urban Dilemma,” found that
“whereas in 1950 there were 80 cities with populations exceeding one million, today there are 480.” A global youth
bulge has largely fueled this explosion in the urban population in developing countries. UN-Habitat’s State of Urban
Youth Report states that almost half of the global population
is under 25, with 1.3 billion people between the ages of 12
and 24. Nowhere is this demographic shift more apparent
than in cities: by 2030, 60 percent of urban residents will be
under the age of 18 according to a UN-Habitat paper on the
demographic youth bulge.
This demographic shift, coupled with rapid urbanization, is changing the face of the developing world. According
to a UN Report on the global situation of youth, 85 percent
of the world’s one billion youth, defined by the UN as all
persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years, live in develop-
ter economic opportunities, they add to an already growing
urban youth population. In fact, most migrants into urban
centers around the world are young people.
As a result, the urban population in Sub-Saharan Africa
has expanded by 600 percent in the last 35 years, and predictions from UNICEF’s report on Africa’s Young Urbanites
suggest that, within the next 15 years, more than half of the
continent’s population will live in cities.
The speed and scale of this youth-fueled urban growth
is exceeding the capacities of cities around the world. Cities are unable to keep up with the basic needs of a rapidly
growing youth population, which has resulted in a myriad
of challenges that are pushing urban institutions to crisis.
Youth Marginalization & Unemployment
There is an increasing number of youth living in cities
in the developing world that are facing daunting economic
and social challenges, including social exclusion, lack of economic opportunities, and limited access to resources. They
are increasingly marginalized, excluded from the economic
growth of cities, and forced to live on the margins of society.
This economic and social exclusion is rooted in cities’
failure to create quality jobs. As millions of youth migrate
from small towns and villages into urban centers, they face
limited opportunities with insufficient infrastructure, housing, and other basic services as well as unequal access to
opportunities for education and employment. As such, they
are not sharing in and benefiting from the prosperity of their
cities. Rather than being at the center of economic activity
and growth in cities, the youth find themselves unemployed
or living in poverty in the unstable informal sector.
“As a result of limited job opportunities in the public or formal private sector, millions of young people are forced into
the unregulated, exploitative informal sector...”
ing countries. Africa has been deemed the world’s youngest
continent, with a population of 200 million youth according to the African Economic Outlook report. This number
is expected to double in the next three years. According
to a report from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies,
African cities are growing by 18 million people each year.
Much of this growth in cities is from increases in the youth
population, according to a UN-Habitat report on the state
of African cities.
Youth are at the forefront of the continent’s demographic shift toward cities: the number of young people
in the continent is growing faster than anywhere else in
the