Youth Participation and Leadership in Politics Crucial

Globally, the state of youth in politics leaves a lot to be desired. The most important place for creating laws and impact upon national policies are parliaments. How many youth are there in parliaments around the world? According to a 2018 report by the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), young people under 30 make up just over 2% of the world’s MPs. The situation is not any better in Bangladesh too, with young MPs (under-35) not making up even 1% of the total lawmakers.

The other most important political leadership positions are in the various committees of the political parties. There too, the top three political parties are lagging behind, with less than 1% youth in their central decision making bodies.

What is the actual number of youths involved in politics? According to a 2018 nationwide survey by BRAC, only 3% of the youth in Bangladesh reported being involved with political organizations. This corresponds with a previous survey conducted by the Institute of Governance Studies (IGS), BRAC University in 2011 which found that only 2% youth were engaged in politics.

It is possible to argue that the numbers cited could be slightly higher in reality as political parties in Bangladesh and their respective student and youth wings do not maintain a system of accurate record keeping of their members. Even then, the number is woefully inadequate given the percentage of youth in the total population of the country.

However, this does not mean that youth are not interested in politics or want to stay away from it. The 2018 BRAC survey showed that around half of the youth think that young people should definitely get involved in the political process. This finding corresponds with my own experience of conducting youth-focused dialogues across Bangladesh where I found that youth are not only interested in politics, but also want to join and contribute to the process.

What to do next then? It appears that while youth are interested in political issues, they have a certain mistrust of established political parties and their respective student and youth wings. This is not a phenomenon unique to Bangladesh, but seems to be a global trend. By the same token, given the right causes, they can be vocal and even mobilize themselves. From the Fridays for Future movement for climate change inspired by the Swedish teen Greta Thunberg to Bangladeshi youth being vocal about safer roads, there is no shortage of young people organizing themselves to demand for change.

The challenge for political parties thus, lies in accommodating these enthusiastic and informed youth into their organizational folds. For that to happen, building trust between the organizations and the young population is crucial. To that end, political parties must learn the priorities of the youth and incorporate them in their list of political events. One such example can be seen in the 2018 manifesto of Awami League where they provided a set of well thought-out pledges for harnessing the strengths of the youth for a prosperous Bangladesh.

Parties must also nominate more and more youth into their decision making bodies (committees) and elected offices, both in the local governments as well as in national parliaments.Parliaments themselves can also play a big role in enhancing the political leadership of youth. Research by the IPU over the years has revealed that youth quotas, lower eligibility ages, proportional representation and inclusive parliaments are all factors that increase the number of young MPs. Currently, there are no youth members in the Cabinet. Nominating at least one could send a signal that the government also values the opinion of the new generation in policy making.

The future that awaits us is both challenging and uncertain. From the adverse impacts of climate change to realigning our policies for the fourth industrial revolution, from achieving the SDGs to rising inequalities, the opinion of the youth are crucial for coming up with innovative solutions to present and future hurdles to our advancement. Let us not forget that youth constitute around half of our population.  Thus, the sooner we ensure their rightful participation and leadership in politics and policymaking, the better. 

Barrister Shah Ali Farhad

Special Assistant to the Honourable Prime Minister of Bangladesh

(The author is a Special Assistant to the Honourable Prime Minister of Bangladesh and a Member of Awami League’s International Affairs Committee).