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Project

Lessons learned on political participation and strategies to overcome violence in Latin American and South Asian youths
 

South America
South Asia
Project ID
108906
Total Funding
CAD 181,300.00
IDRC Officer
Florencio Ceballos
Project Status
Completed
End Date
Duration
24 months

Programs and partnerships

Governance and Justice

Lead institution(s)

Project leader:
Matías Bianchi
Argentina

Summary

Throughout the developing world, young men and women are facing high unemployment and experiencing strong feelings of dissatisfaction with their quality of life, in contexts of weak governance and institutions, increased political instability, and growing state authoritarianism.Read more

Throughout the developing world, young men and women are facing high unemployment and experiencing strong feelings of dissatisfaction with their quality of life, in contexts of weak governance and institutions, increased political instability, and growing state authoritarianism. These factors render societies vulnerable and play a role in radicalization. The predominant strategies that are in place to counter these phenomena remain state-centered, with limited participation of civil society stakeholders. Populations who suffer most from this violence, insecurity, and lack of civic engagement, such as young men and women, continue to be largely excluded from participating in policy- and governance-related decisions. But youth are active in an array of movements associated with emerging social, economic, cultural, and political issues. To understand these processes, IDRC launched “Giving youth a voice: promoting spaces for civic engagement, inclusion and violence reduction in South Asia and Latin America,” a cluster of eight projects aimed at promoting civic engagement of youth through social innovation for positive social change. This project, led by Asuntos del Sur, a think tank based in Argentina, will focus on knowledge synthesis, dissemination, and networking for the projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. It will work closely with the knowledge leads for the African and South Asian projects to find synergies and opportunities for collaboration.

Asuntos del Sur will:

- Develop knowledge synthesis aiming to identify lessons and evidence from each of the Latin America and the Caribbean projects and produce a comparative reflection on elements that may enrich the knowledge base on youth and civic engagement in contexts of violence.
- Facilitate knowledge exchange and networking capacities among these projects, both internally and with other institutions conducting similar action-research (particularly in South Asia and Africa).
- Disseminate and position the results and findings in the global and regional arena through the publication of books, video, infographics, and papers.