improvements, but if it is worth it depends on how it ends. here is where i hesitate, but i increasingly interrogate and question myself. we don't know how it will aend. things may collapse. it is also possible that five years down the road there will be another civil war and afghanistan. isis is slowly emerging in the country, much worse than the taliban. the taliban is deeply entrenched and hardly defeated. youou end up down the road, have safe havens for the taliban and isis i will say it is worth -- was it worth the price? >> tonight on c-span's "q&a." >> a look at efforts to prevent radicalization's around the

world. this is 1.5 hours. >> ladies and gentlemen and friends. good morning. i am pleased to welcome you to this morning's discussion on youth engagement. michael svetlik. my more than 25 years, organization has worked to advance good governance and democratic rights by providing technical assistance to election stakeholders across the globe, working in countries undergoing democratic transition. for those emerging to those

experiencing democratic consolidation. we are working to empower the underrepresented, including youth, women and persons with disabilities. and other marginalized groups. field-based research to improve all aspects of the electoral cycle as part of the larger political process. we have now worked in conducted programming in more than 145 countries. and we currently have more than 30 offices in various countries. through our programming, we

that a strong democratic ross s is critical to a country -- democratic process is critical to a country's health. when that knowledge can be translated into action in such things as community service and leadership. with this commitment to future democratic health in mind, we design programs and implement youth programs around the world, that foster an understanding of citizen's rights and responsibilities in a pluralistic society and work to create a culture of engagement. age isis worksat to provide training, tools and opportunities. votersly and franchised

to participate in elections and advocate for positive change in their communities. considering the challenges that young people face, including the serious threat of radicalization, these programs are more vital than ever. i have a very personal connection to our work with youth. as i started my career almost 25 years ago as a peaceful volunteer working in poland. i worked with high school aged students for over three years, and subsequently treated research and worked with other youth in caucuses in central asia. at that time we were working to combat advocacy -- to combat disorientation, and to orient young people to the rights and responsibilities that are either newly found or newly realized.

i am proud to be part of an organization taking these issues seriously. given the new threats that we face and challenges you face some 20 years -- youth face some 20 years later. i would like to introduce our moderator, my colleague agustin us designton helps youth-specific programs and other initiatives. and ie in welcoming her look forward to a lively summer session. augusta. [applause] augusta: now i am embarrassed. thank you for that very kind introduction. i would like to take a moment congresswomanhank sheila jackson lee for providing

support for this event. we're pleased to be here this morning to discuss the topic of youth engagement and we believe this topic is particularly thely and light of challenges in the month of august as well as the challenges people face every day in their communities. i would like to invite the audience here in the room as well as those watching online to join the conversation on twitter fes1987.ing @i one more housekeeping,. -- housekeeping comment. we will have -- save questions from the audience until panelists have had a chance to respond to my grueling battery of questions.

microphones are in the center of the room. i am joined on the panel today by four of my colleagues who between them have a wealth of regional and technical expertise that will and rich our disgust -- enrich our discussion. cohen manages ifes programs and central africa. is the senior gender specialist and she is part of the program which promotes equal rights for men and women around the world and finally, julia schmidt is the deputy regional director of the europe and asia division and

provides expertise on security strategies and program development. many thanks to you for joining me today. so. on discussion today focus how it can serve as a deterrent to radicalization. a quick working definition of radicalizationis is a process by which a person is indoctrinated into a rigid ideology equipped with a set of future goals and plans that eventually lead to extremism. this is the understanding have of that term throughout the discussion today. it is important to note at the outset that research suggests there is no single half toward radicalization, rather it is likely due to a confluence of factors that might compel an

individual to radicalize. however alienation from political identity, a lyrical organization and or lack of opportunity to engage in meaningful work are often cited as contribute in toward an individual's turned toward radicalism. let's examine why this might be the case. a simple note about demographics here could provide some of the motivation for focus on this topic. according to recent figures from unesco, about one third of the population is under 30 years of age. the vast majority live in countries with developing economies and democracies.

many of these countries are the ones in which ifes works there it -- works. ofa has the largest number young people. know when wee to youth andg about facts and figures, many of you know that there is no single definition of youth among turkish and her's. -- among practitioners. definition, uncit has another, and in the african youth charter, " everyone between the ages of 15 and 35 years."

think of yourself that 15 versus present-day. the developmental gap between those milestones is huge. for our purposes, in terms of this conversation, youth is best understood as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood to the independence of adulthood. this makes it more of a fluid category rather than a fixed age group. it two aimed to direct distinct groups. young people who have not reached the age to vote versus young people who have. in the unitedere, states that hallmark moment is 18. elsewhere in the world there are different voting ages. up to 21 versus down to 16. it is different based on local context.

this is one of the reasons why it as an institution, we do not remark on a particular age to define categories of youth. in light of the demographic statistics, it seems clear that these numbers speak for themselves and terms of justifying why this is critical to address the needs globally. insightindings reveal into people's attitudes and believes surrounding democracies and democratic participation which is critical to the vehicle in ensuring critical needs are addressed. unfortunately, studies are finding that young people are not fully engaged in the democratic process. according to the 2014 youth afrobarometer survey, nearly 20% never discuss politics with family and nearly 60% have never contacted a local official to resolve community issues.

furthermore, the number one finding from the recent 2015 survey indicates that young people in the middle east are uncertain that democracy could ever work in their region. these findings give cause for concern, but when asked about their top right ortiz in people frequently indicate they are interested country beating to their societies in a meaningful way. a report from earlier this month analyzed the statements and recommendations from dozens of youth summits. than 10ion to more large, national and regional polls. what this analysis found was that young people identified economic opportunities, participation,en

good governance, anticorruption, security, quality and human rights among their top concerns. eagerggested generation to take on the challenge of leadership. it is up to communities to equip young people with the tools to meet this challenge. ifes's work around the world focuses on democratic rights by providing elections to political stakeholders and empowering the political process so there -- so the underrepresented have a voice in the way they are governed. hand engaging people in the political process is crucial to a function of health and that a cultural democracy exists only when an people are informed and translate that knowledge into action through immunity service, leadership or other non-electoral art is a patient methods.

commitment that serves as a potential deterrent to radicalization. of particular importance and programs for those that have not yet reached the voting age in their country as an expensive body of research suggests that early intervention helps establish and cement lifelong patterns. with this framework in mind i would like to turn to our panelists for discussion. thank you for humoring me. know, we are all here to discuss how our work contributes to youth development. i would like to pose the question, and perhaps this is a question for each panelist. what are theon, most persistent challenges in

terms of civic and emotional engagement? please. jessica: good morning everybody. first let me thank augusta. in terms of where i work most of us know some of the basic challenges that have existed before the revolution took place and continue to exist even now. youth bulge.the we know that in some countries as much as 70% of the country is under the age of 30. in most of the middle east and north africa the population age

continues to be under the age of 25. phenomenon that will continue for at least another decade and it will have a large effect on people in the middle east and north africa. tight with this is the lack of educational opportunities and high levels of youth unemployment which may range between 25% and 40%. this is also something that many young people were protesting about and yet we see that unemployment has actually increased in many of the countries. tied with this is the lack of upward ability meeting many young people are unable to get jobs or have families and this can have a big impact on their psychology. in regards to the civic and voter education there are four points of it like to bring up. the first is that prior to the peopleion in 2011, many

had not had a sort of experience with democracy. andconcept was fairly new even in those countries were elections were held a lot of this is surface level. did not know how to make true elections that had integrity and complied with international norms. international -- individuals did not understand the notion of citizenship and even if they wanted to be cynically active they did not know how the translate the concept into positive change. there are lots of civil society organizations that want to focus on youth or advocating but did not have the tools, means or capacity to do this. after 2011 there was a lack of reaching out to youth by the authorities. even though the youth are a big part of the revolution, they

have not seen this translate to having any sort of voice within government or in advocating with government. political parties are still run primarily by people who are older than the youth age. presidents in many of these countries are well beyond the median youth age. the president in yemen was four times the median age of 18.5 in yemen. increasinglyhave lacked trust in the democratic process. as a guest that mentioned earlier there abuse surface shows clearly that you and -- less and less youth think democracy will work in their country compared to 2012. potentialere is the for democracy to work.

there is a continuing lack interest -- of trust in the concept of democracy itself. we should also mention that political institutions are weak and this has allowed many nonstate actors to move in. we have seen that groups like isis and al qaeda move in to take control and are increasingly start to radicalize and take control. those i think are some of the main reasons why political engagement has not been very strong. this doesn't mean it is all bad news. see in thingse like the arab youth survey is that there is still optimistic -- optimism. they do still see countries like

the u.s. as allies so this is something we could potentially make work in our favor. it doesn't always been to be an issue. if it is accompanied by educational policies like korea and japan or accompanied by strong market policies as we see in east asia this could actually become a positive and not a negative. there are so many follow-up questions i want to ask -- augusta: there are so many follow-up questions i want to ask but i think it is better to have some of the other regional comments. matt, are any of the challenges you have seen in your program similar or wildly different? think that a lot of the issues that are raised are very similar to a lot of

dynamics we find in africa. i think what i would like to add to the discussion in terms of specific challenges and thinking specifically about africa and more specifically about central to me, one of the biggest challenges is the general failure of the state and the state institutions to deliver economic growth and better opportunities. linksort of undermines any you might try to create between engagement and an improvement in your own life. i think that is essentially a major challenge to youth engagement. but moret broadly, specifically youth engagement. with the factat

that there are a lot of political actors that are looking to instrumental lies youth to further their own political gain and offer an immediate access to some sort of me it raises a fundamental question. gameo you support the long or, how do you make the long game of democratic and economic development more attractive when there are these actors providing a much more instant gratification? augusta: thank you. juliet, do you have anything to add? juliette: the light on my microphone doesn't work but i trust it is working? you. i want to add to the things said previously.

asia, one of the largest concerns is the lack of real channels to be heard and waste engage on issues determined to be most important that others determined not to be important. we see a lot of the same things spoken about earlier, the extra levels of apathy and indonesia. and isis they said 70% of young people don't care about politics. only 70% said they were slightly interested. there is a high level of political violence and there is quite a bit of disagreement on how power is transferred within countries. essence of isis's work which is the electoral process and how change can happen through official channels. when this disagreement exists you see high levels of frustration and apathy among the population. this causes some within that movement to take some of the pilot action matthew -- some of

the violent action matthew was talking about earlier. cases, there are lack of inclusive policies within the government and youth are often a part of not only marginalized tripoli --oubly or tripely marginalized groups. further are facing obstacles to participation. the other thing we see is a lack of skills in order to advocate address -- advocate and grievances nonviolently. high tolerance of violence and it is perpetrated by young people often encouraged to take to the streets on behalf of political parties and engage in violent acts. it is also perpetrated by police and cultures and countries where

there is high tolerance for mob violence so this is seen as an appropriate tool to engage. the last one is this sense of meeting. we are all looking to live meaningful lives and when it comes to young people it is a particularly important or intense time. meeting is derived in a number of different ways, whether that is economic meaning or a sense of political participation or whether you're part of a political movement. the people whod are particularly vulnerable. they are susceptible to school curriculums that promote alternative views who are susceptible to political parties that want to use them to mobilize them and they are susceptible to groups providing this sense of immediate meeting to be part of something bigger than them. also really critical what

augusta said at the beginning that it changes country by country said to generalize the other region as broad as asia is difficult. augusta: thank you for those comments. jessica? that i am notw supposed to be commenting now, because we are talking regional issues, but she gave me a couple of good issues that regional generalities can change per country and you can also see global trends. i want to pick up on a point aboutuliette made marginalization's. there is a particular challenge for youth and young women and their access to the political and civic process. if we look at the girls --mselves and the issue which i know is a priority here in the u.s. government, girls and education.

this is a key piece to access for girls. regions we work around the world, parents and communities have to make choices about who goes to school and young and poor girls are often the least recognized in their or thes and communities, choices made between the sun and the daughter and the sun is chosen for reasons tied to a number of cultural understandings of with this son we can invest in hope for our future in the community so as not to put the arden squarely on the parents either, but i think the lack of access to education is a key moment for girls and i think another piece of that in terms of societal burdens on young girls is early marriage and pregnancy making sure that girls can stay in school so that

they can continue to progress in their societies and become leaders in their societies. and when we talk about politics in particular, there is this masculinity of politics that this is men's work or boys work. that is something else we try to work to break down the barriers of and to do so as soon as possible is critical. just to raise one more point on this, security. a lot of the places where we are working is unstable. societies are breaking down. they are attempting to transition to peace and oftentimes in those laces for women and girls there movement is severely restricted, which means that they cannot necessarily participate in meetings and public life in the same way that men and boys can. augusta: thank you very much.

of discussion in these challenges. offer to theant to panelists, because it came up more than once. i would like to explore this idea of political parties co-opting a youth movement. both matt and julia mentioned this -- juliette mentioned this. can we talk a little bit more about how that might happen or why joining the youth wing of a party might be of interest to a young person? and how the parties abuse that position? matthew: i think the example that comes to mind for me right , thes the randy -- berendi

country that isis is working in right now. one of the major issues throughout the past election ,rocess has been that the csbd the ruling party has created a youth wing it's political party militarized is a youth wing and they essentially act as goons. they strong-arm people into behaving as the ruling party wants them to behave. during the protest, there were reports they would dress up as policeman and initiate violent confrontations with the protesters in an effort to have everything spiral out of control.

that is somewhat of an extreme example, but with a lot of the rebel movements that are very active in the eastern congo, there are certainly other forms that are equally extreme. i think that becomes kind of attractive to the youth to join. youth thating about do not have much in the way of opportunities otherwise. we are talking about political systems in which resources are very concentrated. it is not a very diverse economy. way toe most immediate have access to resources on a meaningful scale, through political activity and in the randy -- burundi, it is through

this militant kind of engagement. augusta: what does that mean for the future? can young people come back and anserve in public office in ethical or non-corrupt way? matthew: i suppose that depends on what unfolds after this conflict. think one of the major challenges with transitions in general is -- how do you bring these actors, especially young ones -- this is some thing that lineca and speak to --the between victim and perpetrator is kind of blurred, because these young people can be seen as both. how do you bring these people back into the fold once stability has returned?

the goal is to move forward from that situation. augusta: thank you. i will make -- juliette: i will make two quick comments. there is a lack of control there -- i forgot my second point. i will come back to it later. augusta: did you want to add to that? issue,: it is a huge when it comes to our topic of radicalization, and when you attempt to bring those who have been fighting back into a democratic process. this is something that isis has been struggling with and many of the countries we are fighting

in. the reintegration of young men and boys. this is an enormous challenge. from a gender perspective, we are very concerned about how to address the issue of what is more exciting. running around with your goons town hallg in meetings and having conversations about politics? it is not so easy to make that transition, to make that shift in a society that has been unstable, unpredictable, and unsafe for so long. the second point -- sorry, it came back to me. we cannot treat youth as a monolith. people are individuals. they come for their own reasons, some of which are different. i wanted to recount an anecdote. i lived in lebanon for a couple years and i have been following the protests over the garbage

disposal issue. recounted by somebody who i follow on facebook who had been part of these protests. she talked about some of the youth who were perpetrating violence. hadmajority of the group turned against them and was trying to get them be arrested or have the security forces take them out. they actually engaged with these youth answered started talking about some of the issues, and these youth became some of their biggest allies in terms of preventing the protest from turning violent. engagement with young people on a personal level can make an enormous difference. augusta: we have talked to the panel about some of the challenges, some of the regional challenges, some trends across regions -- i would like to ask if we can turn to some of our problematic -- programmatic examples. our programs are designed to address these challenges and it

would be nice to hear more about what we are doing in countries. your next ami, so -- you are next to me, so i will in on you first. about some ofhink the things we can do to address these challenges, one of the things i would say is that we do need to focus on building more of a culture of democracy and civic awareness, and civic-mindedness, even targeting a younger audience than we typically target. not only voting age youth, but a slightly younger -- grade school or secondary school level. this is something we hope to soon be doing in tunisia where we will be working with the ministry of education. to work with authorities to introduce civic education within the school system itself.

we hope to be working with them to introduce the idea of voting. we will be doing voting simulations for youth, and introducing the idea of civic responsibility and concepts related to it. it is important to introduce from a young age. when people grow up with democracy they have different expectations. in the north africa region, people are still trying to figure out what democracy actually means. up with those who grow democracy have higher expectations and will often try to work within the system. when i was reading but some of the recent protests and south america noticed that some of the youth leaders were saying they were not trying to topple democracy. they had high expectations of what democracy should offer them. some of these

concepts are early on would have dividends and a higher impact on the system. programhink that in our -- and we support youth groups. we try to empower individuals as well as civil society organizations. some examples that i can give is the work we have done into iietzsche with a group called watch. it was a group we helped over a .wo-year period notas helped young woman only understand concepts related to democracy and civic awareness, but helps to give them skills to allow them to be in the public sphere. by that i mean they gained some

skills and capacity to be able to take what they had learned and to use it in internships. many of these young women went on to take positions in places like the prime minister's office and i also hired one of the staff members and we had someone who joined the election commission. so giving them some hard skills they can translate into the workplace is important. finally one of the things that is mainstream youth activities, this is one of the ways we can sustainably introduce youth projects. youth are such a big part in most countries that we do need to think about youth when we are thinking about designing photo registration projects. also, making sure that government is able to take youth

concerns in a constructive way. feel that their voices are still not heard. not beingare still consulted and don't have decision-making power. one of the things that ifes can do is to facilitate these dialogues which is something we're hoping to do with our syria democracy forum where we will be connecting youth groups with the cerium interim government -- with the syrian interim government for serious conversation. mbar.ta: thank you, a you illustrated clearly that classic problem of wanting to affect change versus engaging with an institution. young people sometimes have difficulty navigating that transition and they are passionate about the issue.

wantingionate about not to engage with what is seen as a corrupt or ineffective body. programs that can help build those links tend to be sustainable and effective. thank you. would you care to share some africa examples? sense,: i think in some and augusta touched on a little bit. all of the work that ifes does his end at building strong and democratic institutions that deliver what they are supposed to deliver within the economy and society, it's one of the key aspects of promoting engagement in general but specifically youth engagement. it is almost meaningless to talk about engagement, if there isn't

some sort of a working government to engage. if there is that link between the act of engaging and the eventual results that come with it. in that sense, all of the work has an engagement component to it and engagement is hopefully one of the end results. specifically do work with youth in our programming. in africa, we have one great example. one that is just starting. of a very youth focused project. what it is, in kenya is we are doing a youth survey.

it is to try to get an understanding of why the youth are registering at such low numbers in kenya. to try get more youth to register. augusta: to draw them in. ifes will be working with the minister of the institution for curriculum development and the develop a cynic's curriculum -- which is kind of rare. school curricula that is focused on civics and how to engage appropriately with government institutions.

now, our engagement has been more mainstreamed into programs. most specifically into voter education. that is something that we do a lot of in africa. to spread huge need information about how to vote and why to vote. system, isemocratic it an ideal system for africa. so the way that we do that for the most part -- there are a couple ways. one of them is to work directly -- youth organizations networks tapping into and systems that already exist .o reach out to youth

the other is to make sure that civics and voter education are happening where the youth are. when we do that we make sure that our partners are going to schools to do it. anywhere where youth might finally it'sen developing civic and voter education messaging and media that might appeal directly to youth. of radio shows that appeal to youth or comic books contestshave done song and these electoral caravans e,at are a get out the vot party on the street, kind of thing. that is the main ways that we kind of specifically reach out.

a poet great idea of your right to citizenship and cast a ballot. caravansthe electoral were done as the election day was getting close and it was always done in tandem with more substantive civic and voter education. the goal -- and they were quite appreciated and visible -- the -- this was within the drc. the day of the elections could and there were certain fears that there might be incidents of violence. the idea was to create a festive atmosphere right before the elections. just to help get out the vote.

augusta: thank you. make -- to juliette: i wanted to make one quick comment. some of this is domestic and some is international. there are a number of activities that are similar across regions, but some i wanted to highlight on the asian side, working with countries where the violence is localized and domestic. areas, we have a training program called p.a.v people against violence in elections. we have been bringing in young local leaders and members of whoety's and organizations,

come to learn ways to get involved that don't involve violence. understanding the roots of violence and how it affects the electoral process, understanding the types of activities they can be involved in that don't hold -- use violence. how to hold town halls. how to lead peaceful rallies. we also built other types of skills beyond conflict resolution and reconciliation type skills. fulfilling that gap of skill building. in afghanistan, we have a debate exercise where people learn to debate and go on to debate internationally. ,n some of the places we work it is an opportunity to explore one's faith and relationship the democratic values. the aim is to equip people to talk about the topics on their minds. the idea is that they already have the vocabulary and resources to articulate this. another area we are involved is

civic leadership cap's. -- camps. are places to come to have that intensive civic education experience and then two things within their own communities. these things can be anything we believe are of interest. it might be waste disposal or clean water initiatives are having discussions about the levels of violence in cities but groups that don't often come together to have these discussions. maybe i will leave it off there and answer some in the next question. augusta: the issues they are addressing -- are they products of the student's design? juliette: they are all designed by the students.

it is key to note that we work with local organizations that are staffed by young people and the answers really come from the students. or the young people who participate. there is no point -- again, it goes down to exploiting or manipulating youth to support other issues if they are not coming from them themselves. augusta: there are two more themes i would like to touch on before we open up to audience questions. raised some interesting points earlier in her comment and i would like to go back to can delvesee if we into them a little bit more. you talked about some of the unique barriers that young women and girls face. atould like to follow-up now ask you what solutions are available to these barriers?

i am happy to talk about that, but before i do i want to take a day and it knowledge that on the hill this is an important day for congresswoman jackson lee and her colleagues. they wear red on wednesdays. in memory and support for the abduction of the girls in northern nigeria. i just want to speak to this issue for a few minutes. it is a great thing they are doing to continue to wear red on wednesday. this is an issue happening too young women and boys around the world. that they are going to school and her parents assume they are going to learn and then they don't come home. nigeria an expert on but i did live in northern

uganda for a long time and a similar incident happened in 1996. girls wereere -- 139 abducted by the lord's resistance army and taken into similarly there was a mounting support, not but i wasglobal scale in uganda when the last girl was returned and it was not in the same year. afterward to do not give up on that campaign and let's not forget about those girls and other girls and boys that fought they were leaving for school in the morning and are now in captivity for armed violence. apologies for the advertisement but i think it is important to acknowledge. prioritizes inclusion as part of the democracy and government's work.

we understand that not everybody can participate in the same way whether women or men or persons with disabilities. we are looking for ways to reduce those barriers and find pathways to participation. for our work with young women youngrls i mentioned the woman's leadership program that we have in doing this work around the world and i just want to say that isis does have similar projects and themes but they are quite tailored to the unique experience of the women and girls in those particular countries. in libya there is an interesting dynamic that most women in libya are educated. some are highly educated with advanced degrees but then they go home and they don't work. spring -- orarab

during the arab spring many women were outside the home for the first time participating in the revolution and afterward they went back behind the walls again so this leadership prior -- project targets those young women and we included an internship to say -- to help support efforts that say what happens after education? i also want to mention the fumble we did in ifes. that recognize and support for young people we need to create an enabling and supportive environment that involves family members. we did not anticipate that there would be so many husbands and brothers showing up. where ouromething program staff quickly found

meals and these kinds of things for those who come to support their young girls and women moving outside their homes. learning that we must engage family members and we must support them. and in our iterations beyond the initial training we are including the men supportive of their women to participate in these trainings and we are not just accidentally providing meals but convening them to say, what is it that is important about leadership quality and why are we gather here today and in burma, there were many young women involved in the leadership training and they were very focused on community peace the program was more tailored to that. talked a lot about civic and voter education.

this is critically important. we have survey data from around the world that says women consistently lack the information about how to register to vote and how to participate as candidates so targets aimed at young women and girls is critically important to inspire interest. organizationeat called running start that focuses on providing pathways for young women to politics and thesestheir species -- is that 10 year is important -- tenure is important. the longer you go the higher up you are that women start to tune in later in life. so this is to inspire them to start earlier and to continue and i think that is a critical

piece. we need women and girls participating but we also need them to lead those processes. augusta: thank you. i come toents -- youth work from a general conclusion perspective so all of the programs i have been involved with serve both girls and boys. and needed tong have a discussion about particular education and support needs that girls face in furthering their civic education and leadership potential. there is one other theme i would like to explore and we are sort of shifting gears a little bit

but in the context of this discussion it is something that needs to be raised. youth and social media are discussed in the same breath. much is the role of social media in recruiting young people to extremist movements and so forth. like to ask our panelists whether technology and social media have a role in engaging young people and if you could share your thoughts about that perhaps provide an example, if it exists where we have been able to do that. ambar: absolutely. social media has a big part to play. we somewhat social media did for the youth in 2011.

they were able to share immediately photos and videos and talk about their experiences as they happen on the ground and i think that engaged much of the global audience. we also see the internet being used as a tool for organizations highly skilled at using such tools such as isis and al qaeda. they target young people by creating games and providing content in different length which is like arabic, english and farsi. there are games that simulate defeating your enemy and going on were missions. social media. augusta: the opposite of games for change. ambar: the opposite. and speaking of women, this is a tool that can be used to reach women who cannot leave their homes. young people can be educated on their own time so this is one of

the main ways that they sequence each other to bond with each other and create a social identity online so just as the internet can be used for that we certainly need to be thinking about how we can use it for further civic and political engagement to counter this kind of conflict as well. it can be a platform for positive engagement. while discussing civic engagement might not be as interesting as some of the more radical product engagement out there, we need to be thinking about how we can incorporate ict to incorporate venues where they can share ideas and have discussion that forms. where they can find entertainment and platforms perhaps through media celebrities, videos, music, games.

in tunisia we are working to create a game that would teach young people about democracy but also to remind them about things like registering to vote. there has been a campaign to get young women and others to register to vote. this is a platform that can also be used to engage young people to make sure they are out there and voting to we can use the internet to create ambassadors and social media. it can be used for change to propagate ideas and democracy and civic action. augusta: are there any recommendations for how it could

be used as a tool or leverage for places and low internet countries. i think it is important to bring up to her because i let you do it. matthew: i don't know that i have any real suggestions for how to successfully use social media in places that have low internet penetration. technology has a critical role to play in even more and it is true for youth that it is for the broader population because the world is becoming increasingly technological and more responsive to technology. the one thing that i would say technology the

certainly does play a role, it is not going to solve all of the problems and i think like with we development programming to consider the effect it might have on people who don't have access to that technology. typically in most countries and for those witha access to the internet it is fairly middle-class and are not the most disenfranchised to begin with. they are the ones you're not engaged so you have to be careful with technology that you are not reaching those people were already engaged and further disenfranchising those who art. that is something that runs through development in general but it's something that bears

aseating and is kind of seen innovative and something that is seen sometimes as the solution to all of our programs -- problems. >> i look forward to the day when we stop talking about technology as new. i have been on facebook for 10 years and i was not an early adopter. u.s. -- u.s. afghanistan debates over skype. we reach out to local partners so we havel media some innovative discussions within the organization to talk when germsdo we do or more pervasive and went

robotics are really a part of our life. also engage those tools as will all young people when they become a reality as well. jessica: can i say something quickly, in addition to supporting the robot babysitters as you suggested -- [laughter] we're seeing that the gender gap is disappearing. it's a good thing and an opportunity. traditional is that gender problems persist so in a place like nigeria we are seeing quite strong usage of men and women on social media, facebook and twitter you when we ask the question of would you support a woman for president the numbers

for youth are probably worse than for older people. i'm not sure what that is about the probably have to do some of the more long-term cultural work to address the image and participation of women leaders in political and electoral rossa sees -- processes. augusta: that is a good point to pause and open the floor for questions. thank you to matt, ambar, jessica and julia for the insight that has helped -- juliette for the insight that has helped frame our conversation. we will open it to the audience. if you have a question, please make your way to the center and please introduce yourself and share your affiliation and let us know whether it is directed toward a specific panelist or if

i can exercise my right as moderator assign. please. ifes.h, chris, also with , in eachcommon thread region and theme that civic whoation provided to youth happen to live in countries where the government is unable or unwilling to provide it themselves seems to come up in a lot of discussions. are there success stories that you can provide for such -- for civic education programs that ifes may have started that have been adopted by the government or schools or have begun to spread on their own? panelistso any of the have -- i think in a couple countries we work very closely with the ministry of education on these.

maldiveslaces like the , we are able to work with universities on a seminar series and we engage in that as well. we are very fortunate to be joined by our chief of party who ran a very long-standing youth and education campaign and has also made inroads with the ministry of education there so it is very exciting. >> i am olivia hodge with congressman frankel -- franken ester office. i was wondering if there is anything u.s. policy can do to help promote this engagement? augusta: excellent question. jessica? [laughter] theica: i think i mentioned

girls -- even social media support for young women and girls around the world. these types of things are extremely important but continuing to invest in these programs and making sure that we look at this specifically. aboute talked a lot including it in our programs but targeted support to young people. we have talked about the youth bulge as a negative, but also as a positive. event andof this radicalization -- i hope and think our panelists have done a pretty good job of moving the onus away from the youth themselves and the fact that their structures are attempting to respond to and work with our failing them in a lot of ways

and i think government bilateral pressure is also extremely important so targeted support continuingut also pressure to make sure the government structures are really responding to the needs of their think those are important pieces. >> i would also like to add that it is useful to remember that this is a long game. there has to be a lot of investment made. it is not something that will happen overnight and expecting youth to adapt to things that happened in 2011 in an environment where it hasn't always been conducive is something that we need to invest for the longer-term and as i mentioned earlier, investing in a younger generation is also

important. not only those who may already be voting age but also those were growing up and building up that democracy culture at an earlier age will pay down the line as well. >> good morning. jones with the rii global youth coalition. i have a theoretical question. you talked about how we cannot treat youth as a monolith in society. so the question i have in terms of engagement is -- how do you engage one particular demographics such as youth or women without alienating another? ofyour opinion, is the risk alienating another group worth engaging the different? augusta: that is an excellent

question. go ahead, jessica. jessica: it reminds me of a story. i was in northern uganda and having a town hall style meeting and we were talking about engaging and how we have to engage them and this older man turned to me and said i need to be engaged as well and it was aha moment.oment -- where you can always point out the multiple marginalization's. with idp's, then extremely idp's, and you realize that you do have to address all of the issues. you do have to engage the entire community. whether because they all need assistance and access to the processes, or as support.

if we are talking about engaging young women in a conservative society in africa, we do have to involve the society. we have to make the case white it is important to -- why it is important to everybody. that said, i think targeted support and targeted programs is critically important. i think both are needed. juliette: starting with a coat -- quote from dr. danielle at perkins. when you're looking at extremism, it is important to target the groups at highest risk and that is where you get the biggest impact and i would say that yes, we always engage. it is a very interesting question and something that

implementers need to be conscious of. one last -- ambar: one last point i will add to that is that sometimes you cannot mix the groups together. when we have workshops we say we are going to involve youth and have men and women -- sometimes that is not the best strategy. sometimes it is important to have single type groups meeting before immersing together. so that is something i what to keep in mind regarding -- depending on the country you are in or the culture of you are in. augusta: thank you. please. >> good morning. thank you for your presentation. i have two questions. the first one goes to people who work on africa issues. i will just make it general. in terms of is,

local solutions or citizenship skills. how does it work and practical when organizations are not really strong enough or where the government may not be willing to accept international promotion to the country and also, i have to raise a sense of hope issue. when their sense of hope is -- that is the first question. the second question, i am curious to know how your monitoring evaluation system operates in terms of output-input based indicators? countries it is complicated with different factors but i will raise one many, most of the time

parties, especially in this age are very hesitant to accept international promotion or international support on this issue so if you could talk a little bit about that. augusta: thank you. matthew: those are some tough questions. is that we do work and a lot of fairly difficult environments in which the governments are not necessarily receptive to the type of assistance we are able or would like to give them. terms how practical it usually works is ifes does have the weight of the donor community behind it so there is some support that comes from their and in many cases we would

be able to do the work that we do without that kind of support. broadly speaking, when working in these situations, ifes tries to focus on what we cannot couple -- and can do -- what we can accomplish and what we can do. we are very much technical experts. work thatproach the we do from that perspective, it kind of -- we basically have international best practice that we can rely on. that serves as kind of an entry point to working with that might be

skeptical of international assistance. -- orms of working -- encouraging the youth to be considered by government authorities -- it is a long the game. so i think the support that we can give to organizations are already working in that space. there are a lot of countries in which there are these indigenous dialogue processes very focused on youth and to a sense we can support those and build their capacity to engage with the government on some level

influence they can have by the sheer weight of numbers that there are is sort of the way we can approach that in the long term. question, ithe m&e am not sure how to answer that. ambar: i had a comment about that one. juliette: in some cases it is the solution. where you mentioned hope is lacking. we look at that in terms of providing examples from other countries and celebrating the heroes and the opportunities that do exist. without hope you don't have anything. just an example from where we are working in west technical do provide

expertise, but it is very much driven by the agenda of the people in local settings. we did a women's leadership training and the women said thank you for these skills, we want a gender quota. we want a parliamentary gender quota. that agenda item was not derived by ifes, but it was what they wanted to do with the skills they developed and i think that is an important piece. e, i just have to say that we are busted on that. the democracy and governance sector is the latecomer to this issue and to defend it for a second, it is not so easy to measure behavior change. when you dig a well you can say i dug 10 wells that it is much harder to say i have changed 10

minds. but we understand this is critically important to putting value on the work and seeing the needle move. progressive and ifesg mnd department in and working on the quantitative aspects but also the qualitative. is as an anecdote floating around the hallways, we introduced civil society to them for the first time and there were all these women's groups from all over the country and he was delighted to meet them. mnd -- m&ee to the section of our report, there was no way to capture. introduction has

sparked a whole new way of .ngaging that is a key piece, looking at the qualitative -- there is a large body of knowledge. othera: there are specific -- juliette: there are other specific examples we can talk to. we can capture the number of women who go to the program and become poll workers, or who run for office or who are elected. there are other points we can capture. when it comes to the civic leadership camps we are really able to have long-term enough programs but we can say were you able to engage in did you participate outside something that we funded demonstrates you want to continue to use these skills. so this is something to take very seriously.

exactly what is itgoing to reference and has been said throughout the panel, it is a long game and how do you determine whether it was participation or exposure to democratic ideas and principles in one ifes program or some other program 15 years ago. that we have two questions and i want to make sure we have enough time to address them so, please. everyone.rning, i would like to say thank you for allowing me to be part of this young democratic briefing. i want to make some comments and then a question. recently, nigeria had april

elections, and that was the first time we can say we had successful elections. ifes has been working in the african region for many years. specifics --w the the specific contributions of ifes toward these elections. want to say that y ali, the young african leadership initiative has centers in africa. had partnerships -- i don't know if ifes has thought about partnerships with these young people because it creates partnerships that can be walked and capacitykills

in the aspects of democracy and governance. during my professional development internship should not be here ordinarily as i am a physician but i'm interested in health governance and all of these issues are interrelated. spot --o put you on the matthew: i am not very familiar with the nigeria project. i don't think there are many specific -- i can speak to many specifics as to what i fisted in nigeria. i know we have a -- as to what ifes did in nigeria. another recent elections were a real watershed moment in terms of our support to the nigerian election commission.

we have a few ifes folks in the crowd, i don't know if some of you can speak more directly to that. >> we would be happy to connect you with the nigeria team if you want more details. i'm sorry that i cannot speak more to that. of your suggestion of has beenith yali, ifes working with them for a long time and we are the milieu with the program. tohink it is a terrific idea deepen that partnership and look at these regional centers as potential partners. that is definitely a great idea. augusta: thank you. our last question. admirent to say that i your efforts to make sure your programs are organic, youth-led

and culturally sensitive. i know that we see democracy as a universal ideal and we are sing that, especially with the recent extension of suffrage to women in saudi arabia but have you found it hard to divorce democracy from a western ideal and what kind of reception you have? pushback or is it generally positive? maybe i can start with that. i will say of course we have had lots of pushback before and after 2011. it is hard. democracy in a certain way but the rest of the world doesn't really see it in this realization is something we have come to and it forces us to be more flexible. we just did a recent assessment

in syria and when we talk to people there is a strong reaction to the word democracy because of what has happened in the region where people don't really believe in it. surveythe error of youth showing less and less people are concerned with the idea of to not talk about democracy, instead talk about citizenship and what does it mean to be a citizen and what are your responsibilities? so for us we have e to be able to adapt and we have to maybe in certain context not use the word democracy and see what kind of language actually makes sense in the context and use it because we could still be in the end proponents of the same sort of concept but just changing terminology could make a world of difference in terms of people's reception to