Youth & Inclusion
Photo by Dominic Chavez, IFC
To achieve critical business goals and remain competitive, infrastructure and natural resources companies need to engage a largely underutilized asset: the world’s 1.8 billion youth. Young people will make up as much as 75 percent of the workforce by 2025. They are also up to three times more likely than adults to be unemployed. Companies are well positioned to increase their resilience while providing more opportunities for youth across the value chain, including direct and indirect jobs.
IFC’s Sustainable Infrastructure Advisory helps companies to realize opportunities for youth engagement by framing a response to four key challenges that infrastructure and natural resources sectors face:
- Talent acquisition and a workforce of the future
- Innovation and competition in an era of rapid technological change
- Building stable, resilient communities and economies
- Increasing pressure for environmental, social, and corporate governance
We understand the importance of investing in young people whether as local leaders or as members of the workforce. We guide our clients to engage in activities that go beyond meeting corporate social responsibility targets or mitigating risks to create shared value.
Implementing strategies that directly respond to the potential of young people and tracking impact will be essential for industry to align objectives across departments, including attracting and retaining talent.
1.8 Million
youth worldwide
50%
of the global population is under the age of 30
75%
of the workforce by 2025 will be made up of young people
In Action
Publication: Creating Value through Global Youth Engagement
This report developed with the International Youth Foundation, highlights existing opportunities that reinforce the business case for companies to engage proactively with young people within and beyond. It is structured in three sections:
- Key Industry & Youth Challenges introduces the state of the infrastructure and natural resource sectors and demographics in emerging markets.
- Youth Engagement Offers Solutions articulates opportunities available to these companies.
- An Action Plan offers foundational and targeted activities that companies can pursue to create value.
Canada-IFC Benefit Sharing in Natural Resources Program
The goal of this program is to help companies to harness the power of new media* to give voice and raise awareness of young people.
The program works on two areas:
- Providing young media professionals with new skills so that they can effectively engage with infrastructure and natural resource companies.
- Helping companies to actively engage young people by partnering with young media professionals
*New Media includes multimedia such as videos, and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.
Photo by Dominic Chavez, IFC
