BLOGS

Ana Laura lives in a low-income neighborhood in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. She opened her first “Mía” savings account at Banco ADOPEM in April 2011. She closely monitors the money she has in her account, keeping track of the number and size of deposits she makes.

Yesterday, USAID launched their first-ever policy for Youth in Development. The policy provides a framework to address youth systematically in line with proven best practices to support, protect, prepare, and engage youth to help them to achieve the best future for themselves and their communities and nations. The policy also provides guidance for integrating youth in core agency initiatives, bringing youth to the forefront of USAID’s work across all sectors.

As an active member of the Alliance for International Youth Development (AIYD), Plan International USA applauds USAID on the launch of the Youth in Development Policy! Along with many others in the development community, Plan has been anxiously awaiting the Policy’s launch. Plan’s work focuses on empowering children and youth in 50 developing countries, and this Policy offers an important reinforcement of the need to engage this population for lasting impact. We also congratulate Maame Yankah, a Youth Ambassador for Plan, for her participation in the Policy Launch Event, but more importantly for her many contributions to communities in Ghana and the US.

We applaud USAID’s new Youth Policy for recognizing the central role that youth should play in development strategies.  Turning this policy into action at the mission and programmatic level is our next challenge.  USAID Feed the Future and rural development initiatives in particular should consider how youth can be better integrated into strategies and specific program design.