Event Summary
There are currently 100 million young people between the ages of 15 and 29 in the Middle East, the largest proportion of youth in the region’s history. Rather than being perceived as a problem and source of social and economic pressure, this youth bulge can and should be recognized as a demographic gift. With the right policies and enabling environment, young people in the region can be source of economic prosperity as well as positive social change.
Event Information
When
Monday, January 07, 2008
2:30 PM to 5:00 PM
Where
Falk Auditorium
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC
Map
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On January 7, the Middle East Youth Initiative, a joint partnership of the Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings and the Dubai School of Government, presented recent research on how to improve the economic landscape for youth in the Middle East. New working papers on social exclusion, economics of marriage and the state of youth in Egypt, Iran and Syria were presenteded by a distinguished panel of experts, who also discussed the role of institutions in the Middle East and policy recommendations for how the region can leverage its large youth population.
Transcript
NAVTEJ DHILLON: Today’s briefing is devoted to an issue that we think is absolutely integral to the prosperity and peace of the Middle East. The region faces an unprecedented youth bulge which is imposing severe pressures on the education system, the labor markets and social institutions. This is also a huge opportunity to build a foundation for lasting prosperity. This cohort also comes of age, I think, at a time when the region is experiencing a positive economic turnaround at the back of partly the oil boom.
So the question that we have posed to today’s panelists is the extent to which the current oil boom can create opportunities for this generation because I think that we all agree that the lasting prosperity in the Middle East hinges upon not losing this generation to depravation, exclusion and further alienation.
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Participants
Featured Speakers
Ragui Assaad
Regional Director, West Asia and North Africa at Population Council
Djavad Salehi Isfahani
Professor of Economics at Virginia Tech; Visiting Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Nader Kabbani
Director of Research, The Syria Trust
Hilary Silver
Associate Professor of Sociology, Brown University
Diane Singerman
Associate Professor at the Department of Government, American University