Empowering youth in Asia-Pacific's water sector is vital for sustainable water security. Engaging young professionals brings fresh perspectives, innovative solutions, and updated skills to address climate change, urbanisation, and water scarcity challenges. Youth also provide significant inroads to local networks and fresh perspectives to catalyse improved water and sanitation service provision and water resources management.
<p>A recent report by Asian Development Bank ‘<a href="https://www.adb.org/publications/young-people-asia-pacific-water-sanitation-management#:~:text=This%20report%20shows%20why%20encouraging,security%20is%20inclusive%20and%20resilient.&text=One%20quarter%20of%20the%20region's,under%20twenty%2Dfive%20years%20old.">Engaging young people in Asia and the Pacific’s water and sanitation management</a>’ advocates for meaningful youth involvement, offering models, case studies, and opportunities to enhance water sector policies and projects through youth participation.</p>
One quarter of the region's population is under twenty-five years old. This report presents case studies to demonstrate the benefits of engaging young people in the design, delivery and evaluation of water supply and sanitation projects. In the face of increasingly complex water sector challenges, driven by factors such as climate change and rapid urbanisation, young people can provide new and innovative perspectives. The publication outlines practical ways in which development practitioners in the water sector can involve young people in their work.
Inclusion is critical for building a fair and just society that respects and values diversity. Inclusive practices ensure that not only youth but people of all ages have equal opportunities to participate in social, economic, and political life, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or socioeconomic status. Furthermore, evidence shows that companies with diverse workforces and inclusive cultures are more likely to outperform their peers.
<p>Water as a sector can benefit from increased youth participation. Globally, and particularly in Asia and the Pacific region, most water subsectors such as irrigation management, water supply, and sanitation, take traditional approaches in their planning and service delivery and generally lack an intergenerational workforce. Further, about one-third of the water sector workforce is eligible to retire in the next 10 years. Engaging youth can help develop young people to become leaders and change agents in the sector.</p>
Youth engagement can help address the urgent need for innovation and digitalisation within the water sector. In this highly conservative sector, innovative solutions have been slowly adopted and recognised as viable alternatives to traditional modes of operation.
<p>Although there is limited data for youth-led digitalisation efforts in the water sector, a <a href="https://www.weforum.org/press/2021/10/asean-digital-generation-survey-calls-for-joint-action-for-an-inclusive-and-sustainable-digital-economy/">report from the World Economic Forum</a> points to the importance of intergenerational skills transfer, from the youth to the older generation, to address digital skills gaps in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Therefore, early contact with the water industry through internships or flagship projects can not only generate interest in the sector from students and young professionals and benefit water entities with competent and tech-savvy staff but can also help combat the generalised skills mismatch between qualified recent graduates and opportunities in the job market.</p>
Source: ADB
Meaningful youth engagement can be achieved through various models, including opportunities for young professionals, as highlighted by many of the case studies throughout this publication.
In 2021, the Global Water Partnership (GWP) launched the Water Academy for Youth (WAY) program to promote leadership, capacity building, mentorship, fellowships, internships, networking, and intergenerational dialogue. WAY is an interactive and customisable program that can be adapted to the needs and context of the region or country where it is being implemented. The program aims to support the acceleration of the Sustainable Development Goals and improve the skills of young leaders. WAY has been implemented at a regional level in the Caribbean, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Southern Africa.
<p>Innovation, entrepreneurship, and thematic tracks have been developed. The entrepreneurship track focuses on creating bankable business ideas, while the thematic track focuses on project and proposal development. Each region was able to adapt its program subcomponents for each track by including areas of interest such as transboundary water cooperation, the water–food–energy nexus, integrated water resources management, storytelling, leadership, climate adaptation, problem solving, and proposal and concept note writing.</p>
WAY is not a standalone program but a starting point to further engage youth in the water sector by fostering connections with facilitators, mentors, and the GWP network. Continued youth inclusion can take place through communities of practice, youth organisations, employment opportunities, country youth focal point placements, and seed funding for selected outputs. Mentors and facilitators play a key role in creating connections for youth with water community actors, and some mentor–mentee relationships have continued after program completion.
WAY participants have also been able to represent their countries or regions as youth cohosts in national, regional, and global dialogues, such as the 'Transformative Futures for Water Security Conference' in February 2023. Through WAY, participants developed research projects, stories, project concept notes, and proposals, which have the potential to be refined and extended as full projects.
Networked for change. An interactive session during the South Asia Water Academy of Youth (Image: Global Water Partnership South Asia)
Several common themes and lessons from the case studies can inform the design and development of meaningful youth engagement programs.
The full report can be accessed here