While youth confidence in vaccine development against COVID-19 varies across countries with different income-levels, the general trend in the global sample of youth indicated high levels of confidence, with only 8% of youth expressing disagreement with the statement that they are confident in sanitary measures to respond, manage and address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Youth are identifying the challenges and needs in their communities, and moving rapidly to address them to get ahead of the pandemic as it hits the continent. At The Youth Cafe, we’re seeing inspiring and hopeful examples in our network of more than 50,000 youth. Youth know what is most needed in their communities; they have the ability to adapt and respond quickly to an emerging crisis situation; and youth in The Youth Cafe’s network have the digital skills, gender equality, and facilitation knowledge necessary to rapidly intervene where their communities need it most.
The increase in unemployment as a result of COVID-19 is expected to exceed the rise in rates of unemployment in the aftermath of the 2009 global financial crisis. Based on the 2009 experience, without targeted policy intervention, it is likely that youth will again be disproportionately affected by a global recession, with a higher percentage of young people being unemployed compared to adults, and a slower uptake of employment by young people during the recovery. In light of the threat to the livelihoods of many youth, it is crucial that measures to ease the financial impacts on households are comprehensive and sufficient to bridge the gap resulting from loss of earnings
