Dubai School Of Government And Wolfensohn Center For Development At The Brookings Institution Launch Book On Regional Youth

’Generation in Waiting: The Unfulfilled Promise of Young People in the Middle East’ Provides Vital Insights about Region

The Dubai School of Government (DSG), a research and teaching institution focusing on public policy in the Arab world, along with the Wolfensohn Center for Development at the Brookings Institution, today jointly launched the book titled Generation in Waiting: The Unfulfilled Promise of Young People in the Middle East, in Dubai.

Generation in Waiting is a product of the Middle East Youth Initiative, a joint venture of the Wolfensohn Center for Development and the Dubai School of Government. Edited by Navtej Dhillon, former Policy Director of the Middle East Youth Initiative, and Dr. Tarik Yousef, Dean of DSG and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, the book presents an agenda for economic development policies that empower youth as they make the transition to adulthood.

The launch of the book coincided with a panel discussion by members of the research and policy community from across the region on the material struggles faced by young people in the Middle East.

Experts including Mary Kawar, (International Labor Organization), Nader Kabbani, (Syria Trust for Development), Rami Khouri, (Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy & International Affairs, American University of Beirut,) and Ahmed Younis, (Silatech/ Gallup), took part in the panel discussion.

In the foreword to the book, His Excellency Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Dubai School of Government, and James D. Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank and Founder of the Wolfensohn Center for Development at the Brookings Institution, said: “The Middle East faces a momentous challenge to ensure that today’s youth and children, the largest segment of the population, have more opportunities than their parents and are able to contribute fully to the region’s stability and prosperity.”

Generation in Waiting: The Unfulfilled Promise of Young People in the Middle East details the circumstances of this huge population, illustrating their hopes and frustrations, and explores how improved policies in the region can facilitate better transitions for young people.

There are over 100 million people in the Middle East between the ages of 15 and 29, representing the largest youth cohort in the history of the region. The authors point out that while today’s young men and women are more educated than previous generations, the quality of that education is poor. Consequently, the youth face diminishing opportunities to secure good jobs, obtain access to credit and housing, achieve financial independence, and form successful families.

In the book’s introduction, Navtej Dhillon and Dr. Tarik Yousef jointly observe: “Our hope is that this book will be viewed not within the narrow context of demography or security, but rather within a larger agenda of inclusive development in the Middle East.”

Established in 2005 in cooperation with the Harvard Kennedy School, the Dubai School of Government is committed to the creation of knowledge, and dissemination of global best practices in the Arab world. The school conducts various programmes that seek to enhance the region’s capacity for effective public policies.

The Wolfensohn Center for Development at the Brookings Institution analyses how resources, knowledge and implementation capabilities can be combined for achieving broad-based economic and social change in a four-tier world.

For more information on the Middle East Youth Initiative, please visit: www.shababinclusion.org .

For more details, visit www.dsg.ae or call 04 329 3290.