Community Matters : Fulfilling Learning Potentials for Young Men and Women

Abstract

Close to 90 per cent of the world’s youth (aged 15 to 24) live in developing countries. This provides both opportunities and challenges for development. While the youth today are more educated than their parents’ generation, many young men and women in developing countries have missed the opportunity for basic education. The majority of the world’s young illiterates live in South and West Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (see diagram). This hampers their ability “to survive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work in dignity, to participate fully in development, to improve the quality of their lives, to make informed decisions and to continue learning” (UNESCO 1990, Article I.1).