SESRIC launched and presented its flagship report on “State of Youth in the OIC Member States 2022” during the 5^th Session of the Islamic Conference of Youth and Sports Ministers (ICYSM), which was held on 07-09 September 2022 in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Prepared by SESRIC in partnership with the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF), as mandated by the Third Session of the Islamic Conference of Youth and Sports Ministers held in Istanbul in October 2016, the report provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of youth and identifies key challenges faced by youth in the OIC Member States in four thematic areas, namely (i) education and skills development; (ii) employment and entrepreneurship; (iii) health and well-being; and (iv) social participation. The report also looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the development of youth, highlights best practices from the OIC Member States, and draws a set of policy recommendations surrounding the pandemic response and recovery with a particular focus on young people.

Among the major findings, the report shows that the OIC Member States have made noteworthy progress in improving the state of their youth in key areas of development like improving literacy rates and reducing adolescent fertility rates. Yet, many OIC Member States still are not able to realize the full potential of their young population due to a number of challenges ranging from youth’s economic inactivity and limited social participation to concerns over health and wellbeing and education and skills development. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed decades of human development around the world, particularly amongst vulnerable and disadvantaged populations including youth. Youth living in the OIC Member States also could not stay immune from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of them experienced increased difficulties in access to basic services from education to health and developed high-level of stress and anxiety due to uncertainties.

The report further highlights that the OIC Member States host 350.8 million youth accounting for 18.5% of their total population and 29% of the world’s total youth population as of 2022. The available forecasts predict that the OIC youth population will further increase to 471 million by 2050. In this context, the report presents a number of policy recommendations for the consideration of policymakers towards addressing growing needs of youth, providing required essential services for the development of youth, and unleashing their full socio-economic potential. The report also points out that the OIC Member States need to exert additional efforts, develop new policies and programmes, and reach out to more young people in their respective societies to achieve sustainable and inclusive development.

Online Electronic Version

• State of Youth in the OIC Member States 2022 (English) (Arabic) (French)