From Oil Boom to Youth Boon: Interview with Navtej Dhillon

Navtej Dhillon

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Video Transcription:

The Initiative really came about to do three things. First, to shift the debate more on economic development in the Middle East. Over the course of the last seven years, I think, unfortunately, economic development has become somewhat subservient to other agendas. And, secondly, the Initiative’s role is to help policymakers think about some of these complex issues, in the areas of education, employment, housing, and credit, and develop strategies on how best to solve it. And I would say, finally, the Initiative is also aspiring to be somewhat of a platform for the voices of many young people who are involved in a different fight, I think. And that’s a fight that one doesn’t get to hear about much. And I think that fight is really about securing livelihoods; it’s about education; it’s about housing and economic aspirations for a better life.

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What we are today witnessing is something of a unique phenomenon, and let me explain what that is. On the one hand, I think, for the first time possibly in three decades, you have sound economic growth that the region is enjoying. In part that growth has been led by an oil boom, but even in countries which are not dependent upon hydrocarbons, there is a momentum for economic reform, and these countries are enjoying an economic turnaround. Now this economic turnaround, or this economic performance, coincides with, as I already mentioned, the presence of a large number or young men and women. There are 100 million young men and women between the ages of 15 and 29. In the next 15, 20 years, we will see another 150 million people added to the existing population of the Middle East.

Now, if we can combine the current economic growth, and make it more inclusive, to provide opportunities for these young people who are economically, socially excluded, I think the region will be well on its way to enjoy the level of prosperity and stability that we see in other parts of the world, like East Asia.

If, however, this opportunity is squandered, I fear that we might see greater economic and social problems. And I think this is the core issue at the moment that the region faces, which is how to use this current prosperity for the benefit of its people, and most of those people are its young citizens.

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One of the challenges is that over the course of the last five years, we have seen a mushrooming of programs tackling – retraining young people, helping to provide them with jobs, and credit, and housing. I think that what we have been saying is that, at a time when the region is endowed with a fiscal space and fiscal resources, it’s very important that programs are aligned with broader policy goals. Because many of the problems and challenges that we are seeing emerge in the Middle East have to really do with the institutional setups that were created once upon a time to serve certain types of social objectives, which today in a more globalized age are not serving their purpose. Just one example is the public sector recruitment guarantee scheme for graduates. Once upon a time it served its purpose in the sense that it allowed and gave incentives to families from even low-income backgrounds to invest in the education of their children, because there was a guaranteed pathway, that you go from high school to university and university to a public sector job.

Now that system, and that contract, is no longer feasible, and many programs, I think, on the ground, continue to somehow reinforce these old and somewhat defunct, I would say, institutional arrangements. So programs need not be just band-aids. I think programs need to also be conducted and executed in a way in which that they serve the broader institutional goal, which is to really create an environment in which young people can make their decisions and choices in a better way.