UIL Policy Brief 2
Youth matters: Equipping vulnerable young people with literacy and life skills
There are more than one billion young people worldwide aged between 15 and 24, representing the largest cohort that has ever had to progress from childhood to adulthood. Almost 87 per cent of them live in developing countries (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, 2011). As many as 123 million of this generation, 61 per cent of them girls, were reported to be illiterate in 2011 (UIS, 2013). Young people who have never been to school or those who have dropped out (or been “pushed out”) are among the most vulnerable.