Building A Youth-Friendly World: A Long Way to Go Chapter 5 Building A Youth-Friendly World: A Long Way to Go Youth is a critical phase in the life of every person; no longer a child but not yet a full adult. It bookends the years when identities are shaped and destinies are forged. There are more young people today than ever before, but on the whole the world population is ageing, so the youth will only become an ever smaller proportion of the global population in the future. The SDGs have set ambitious targets for the global community but they can only be achieved if young people are empowered enough to participate in and contribute to national development to the fullest. For all the hope and aspiration they embody, young people also face daunting challenges in every part of the world. The purpose of the YDI and this report is to help all concerned understand the current levels of attainments and capabilities of young people, identify the dimensions and intersections in the youth development process that are less than ideal at the national level, provide a rallying point for advocates of youth development and facilitate the evolution of more evidence-based policies underpinned by data such as those in the YDI. Youth development is multidimensional and cross-sectoral in nature. And given the varying socio-economic, political and cultural context within which it takes place at the national or local level, it is beyond the scope of a report like this one to offer specific policy proposals that may or may not have universal relevance. However, the data and insights revealed by the YDI are of critical importance to policymakers, development workers, researchers and young people. The state of global youth development, as revealed by the 2016 YDI, can be said to be modestly encouraging in some spheres and worryingly inadequate in others. On the positive side: • Of the 1.8 billion young people in the world, more than 1.2 billion are living in countries where youth development has shown some improvement over the past five years. Youth development in Commonwealth countries is improving at a higher rate than it is across the world in general. • The region with the lowest level of youth development in the world – Sub-Saharan Africa – has recorded the largest improvement in its YDI score between 2010 \ 111