Young People in the Global South

This book is an important contribution to documenting the vital role that young people in all their diversity play in pushing progress towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals. They are not passively waiting for change to happen. They innovate, mobilize and advocate for a more equal, just, and sustainable world, but are too often excluded when decisions are made. I hope readers are left with a strong conviction to ensure their meaningful participation and put youth-led action at the forefront.

Jayathma Wickramanayake, United Nations Secretary General’s Envoy on Youth

The voice and agency of adolescent girls is often overlooked in work on young people’s civic engagement and politics, where there has traditionally been more attention to young men and boys. This book addresses this gap by focusing explicitly on gender-related constraints and accelerators to young people’s full participation in civic and political life. The book includes a rich range of case studies and pieces by young researchers themselves –from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. We learn of how social norms specifically constrain girls’ mobility, learning – including use of technologies- and how these can be overcome. Importantly, this book presents practical policy and programme solutions to support girls to exert their leadership, voice and agency on issues that matter to them, including to tackle gender-based violence, refugee education rights and more. This book is relevant to policymakers, researchers and development practitioners alike; articulating the power and potential of girls and boys to influence change in their communities and in the world at large.

Lauren Rumble, Associate Director for Gender Equality, UNICEF

While much is said about the importance of assuring that the voices and perspectives of young people are integrated into the work we professionals do on their behalf, the reality is more reflected in lip service than action. This volume by Jones and colleagues digs deeply into what youth engagement means for policies, programs, research and so much more. Here youth are neither tokens nor the subject of our work but are partners every step of the way. It operationalizes the slogan: “Nothing about us without us!”

Robert Blum, Professor and Chair of the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, John Hopkins University

Context is everything, and yet there are common predicaments, processes and insights that link and illuminate the lives of young people growing up in precarious environments. This important volume helps us work between the particular (in terms of local knowledge, meanings and tactics) and the global (in terms of policies, programmes and strategy). Drawing on interdisciplinary and embedded research, the collection centres the voices and agency of young people; proposing a new agenda for evidence and advocacy that takes seriously the significance of gender, age and participation. Unusually, the book draws on longitudinal insights, showing how change and maturity emerge in dynamic settings. Covering the time period before, during and after the Covid -19 pandemic and drawing case study material from Africa, Asia, MENA and Latin America the volume is up-to-date and conceptually nuanced while attending to the categories and demands of contemporary governance and investment agendas. A must-read for policy makers and practitioners concerned with young people in the global south and a rich resource for students and researchers for years to come.

Rachel Thomson, Professor of Childhood & Youth Studies, University of Sussex

This book is a superb resource that advances our knowledge of the experience and influence of young people in the global South. Each of the four sections delivers a useful literature-informed overview followed by rich examples of initiatives written by practitioners and, consistent with the book’s theme, by young people themselves.

Nicola Ansell, Professor of Human Geography, Brunel University

People working with and for adolescents realize that young people are talented, powerful, and full of potential. The delightful publication of Young People in the Global South: Voice, Agency and Citizenship is a brilliantly conceptualized work based on strong evidence and extended global experience of working with adolescents. The book echoes the recent and enlarging focus on the need to utilize the adolescents' power of change in civic engagement, especially among less privileged populations. It fits exactly with their slogan “Nothing for us, without us!”

Mamdouh Wabha, Head of the Arab Coalition for Adolescent Health and Medicine

This is an outstanding volume. Its novel approach and structure weaves discussion and case-studies together to create a book bursting with engaging ideas about citizenship, activism, agency, politics and participation. The editors' commitment to youth voice is clear through the fantastic chapter contributions from young people themselves. A wonderful text that centres young people's lives and animates debates on civic engagement for academic researchers and practitioners.

Professor Sarah Mills, Professor of Human Geography, Loughborough University