Mohammed Ali Mahrous
The Yemeni youth cannot be underestimated given the pivotal roles they have played recently, particularly since 2011. This is hardly surprising, considering that around 69% of Yemen's population is under the age of 30. This percentage should be taken into account when formulating the country's public policies, as this demographic constitutes the majority of the population and has specific interests and aspirations that need to be addressed within the framework of the country's governance.
After 2011, and as a result of the widespread youth participation, there was an explicit drive to empower the youth to play important roles across all state institutions. All parties agreed to ensure youth representation of at least 20% in the three branches of government as an outcome of the National Dialogue, which unfortunately could not withstand the war that subsequently erupted, placing the youth in difficult choices to cope with the coercive developments facing the country.
The priorities of the Yemeni youth after 2011 included eliminating corruption and nepotism, reviving the economic situation to provide job opportunities, improving the education system and the quality of education, and enhancing vital public services such as electricity, water, and healthcare, according to a World Bank blog post in February 2012. However, since the outbreak of the war in 2015, the priorities and needs have evolved. In addition to economic revival, there is now a growing mental health crisis, the need to ensure the protection of young men and women, and the imperative to prevent further damage to the education system due to its politicization and use as a weapon of war. There is also a need to heal the wounds that have led to the erosion of social cohesion and the deterioration of the social fabric, as per a study by the Yemen Peace Forum in January 2022.
It is observed that the youthful enthusiasm that reached its peak during the period between 2011 and 2013 has started to fade as the country has reached a political impasse, and the parties have turned to armed conflict, in which the youth belonging to them have become the fuel for that conflict. Meanwhile, the proposed youth visions and the hopes pinned on playing a pivotal role in the future of the country have been swept away, and what was being shaped is no longer on the table, as the players have changed, and the rules of the game have changed, and everyone has turned to excluding the youth in various and undeclared ways.
The inevitability of the decision requires that the youth choose the style that suits them to deal with their current issues and needs, away from the ongoing political tensions, which means the need for an empowering consensus that restores consideration to the highest population ratio, and the most marginalized in terms of roles and rights. Here, the process of exclusion practiced by the political forces towards the youth, even those belonging to them, is manifested, as the majority of them have reached the conclusion that the forces do not keep pace with their aspirations, nor do they meet the needs generated by the artificial conditions due to the political conflict.
A strong desire has emerged among the youth to make decisions through official legal processes rather than informal means or institutions, such as parties, but this desire has collided with the war that has been taken as an excuse by the authorities controlling the scene in terms of the need for expertise to manage the situation and work on its militarization or resort to the quota system that has been adopted in its choices based on affiliation at the expense of competence, leading to a disastrous institutional failure in the areas of control of each party.
Political tensions remain the most prominent reason for the exclusion of youth, followed by military conflicts that use youth out of place, and therefore result in many reasons for the dispersion of youth aspirations due to unemployment, dropout from education, and joining armed formations, and the creation of new orientations that ultimately led to a great youth apathy towards the need to play real roles to influence decision-making centers and work as blocs with weight away from any other calculations.
Our need as youth is clearly manifested in the need to establish a unifying entity that adopts youth visions, and presses for their achievement and implementation, not only to empower youth, but for us to contribute to playing a pivotal role at the national level, and participate in developing economic and political solutions, and work to bridge the gaps and bring viewpoints closer, reaching a long-awaited comprehensive solution.
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