Youth Priorities and Electoral Participation: Canada and the Third World -A comparative framework

1. Youth Priorities and Electoral Participation: Canada and the Third World -A comparative framework • Youth priorities and political participation in Canada • Priorities of the Third World youth

2. To have an interest in politics, what do Canadian youth need? • Knowledge to participate • A sense that politics matters to them and that they can make a difference • A sense of belonging and being part of the society.

3. Political efficacy theory: Youth participation would be higher when a greater segment of youth in a society feels that individual citizen’s decisions to vote or participate can change politics and society

4. 2 kinds of efficacy: • Internal efficacy: belief and reliance on one’s ability to understand politics and vote • External efficacy: Believing that the government or parties would be responsive to people’s demands

5. 2004 Canadian Election Study: • A rolling cross-section campaign • survey with a representative sample of • 4,323 Canadians (55% response rate) • A post-election survey • A Mail-back questionnaire

6. 2004 Federal election in Canada show: Youth (age 18 to 29) voting: 15 points lower than the level among older voters (age 30 + ) What are the priorities of the youth? Health care

8. The decline in youth participation is not due to political cynicism as they seem to have strong views on socio-political issues. • What are their views on: • Business interests • Social issues • Groups in society • Law & order

10. The decline in youth participation is not due to political cynicism as they seem to have strong views on socio-political issues. • What are their views on: • Business interests • Social issues • Groups in society • Law & order

12. The decline in youth participation is not due to political cynicism as they seem to have strong views on socio-political issues. • What are their views on: • Business interests • Social issues • Groups in society • Law & order

14. The decline in youth participation is not due to political cynicism as they seem to have strong views on socio-political issues. • What are their views on: • Business interests • Social issues • Groups in society • Law & order

17. Declining Participationat Parliamentary elections as % of age-eligible electors http://www.elections.org.nz/now-or-never-lit-review.html

18. Youth Priorities and Electoral Participation: Canada and the Third World -A comparative framework • Youth priorities and political participation in Canada • Priorities of the Third World youth

19. Some Priorities of the Third World Youth: • Teenage marriage • • Increase protection against the harmful effects of early marriage; • • Amend legislation to ensure that boys are treated as equally as girls. • Honour killing • • Review legislation; • • Develop awareness raising and education campaigns to combat discriminatory attitudes and harmful traditions affecting girls; http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:LzJymUC4rkJ:www.iyfnet.org/uploads/what_works_in_youth_par.pdf+what+works+youth+participation&hl=en&client=firefox-a

20. • Develop special training and resources for law enforcement personnel. • Female genital mutilation • • Undertake strong and effectively targeted information campaigns to combat this phenomenon; • • Adopt legislation with extraterritorial reach to protect children within the State’s jurisdiction from female genital mutilation outside its territory.

21. About half the population in the world are youth aged 20 and below • http://esa.un.org/unpp/p2k0data.asp • In LDCs: 80% global young people live. • Youth comprise up to 70 % of some nations’ populations • Jennifer Corriero January 2004 Role of Youth Survey • http://research.takingitglobal.org/roleofyouth/

22. World Population 2000 (by Age - in thousands) http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/documents/ch04.pdf

23. http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2004/World_Population_2004_chart.pdfhttp://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2004/World_Population_2004_chart.pdf

24. Major problems that the Third World Youth face are AIDS, hunger, unemployment, and social inequities

25. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/documents/ch04.pdf

26. http://www.fessrilanka.org/fes/Links/pdf/pub/sly/sly2.pdf

27. The Youth and the Challenge of Democratisation:A Comparative Study of Survey Data from India and Sri Lanka* Subrata K. Mitra Mike Enskat Karsten Frey http://www.fessrilanka.org/fes/Links/pdf/pub/sly/sly2.pdf

28. Jennifer Corriero January 2004 Role of Youth Survey research.takingitglobal.org/roleofyouth/Role%20of%20Youth%20Findings.doc -

29. How Youth Respondents in Regions Identified Themselves Jennifer Corriero research.takingitglobal.org/roleofyouth/Role%20of%20Youth%20Findings.doc

30. An electronic survey (2002) was sent out to over 15,000 people from over 190 countries • Total sample: 1443 respondents from 126 countries. • North America (29.2%) • Africa (27.4%) • Middle East, 14.3% • Europe, 7.1% • Asia & Oceania 6.9% • South and Central America 4.3% • Gender: • male 58.7% • female 38.7%

31. Consumer culture: great influence on today’s youth (76%) • Education: important (89%) • Not equipped with job skills: 62.2% • Sustainability: top 10 only in Africa and Asia • Employment:top 3 & first in South America • (See graph)

32. Top 10 issues and interests of youth by region