The best way to raise youth is to empower them and to let their passion and creativity guide our work with fresh ideas, impetus, and inspiration, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland KC said at the launch of the Global Youth Development Index (YDI) Report 2023 last week in which Brunei Darussalam ranked 27th place globally and fifth in the Commonwealth with a score of 0.810, moving up six places within the Commonwealth since 2020.
The report was launched to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth. She added, “The YDI empowers stakeholders to address complex, multidimensional issues affecting youth.”
The Sultanate also scored high in education (0.941), as well as health and well-being (0.847), and peace and security (0.775).
Spanning 183 countries, the report’s findings highlight notable advancements within Commonwealth countries, with Singapore maintaining its leading position as the top-ranked nation globally, closely followed by Malta, Cyprus, New Zealand and Brunei Darussalam. In terms of global rankings, the top 10 YDI scores were led by Singapore, followed by Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, Slovenia, Norway, Ireland, Spain, Malta and Switzerland.
Key highlights from the report shed light on the impressive strides made by Commonwealth nations for youth civic and political participation, scoring highly in comparison to the global average.
As for continuous improvement, 94 per cent of the 50 Commonwealth nations analysed demonstrated improvement in their YDI scores over the past 12 years, signalling positive trends in youth development outcomes. On employment and opportunity progress, the domain showed the most significant improvement, driven by a 52-per-cent increase in youth financial inclusion metrics.
Over the past 50 years, the Secretariat has been investing in youth policy development through initiatives like the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP).
The YDI is a resource for researchers, policymakers and civil society, including young people, to track progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) associated with youth development. The document added that countries may improve their overall score and performance but not increase their relative ranking on the index. – Azlan Othman
