In 2025, young people around the world are facing multidimensional challenges: unemployment and economic insecurity remain major concerns, even among graduates, despite improvements in education and training. Traditional sectors are stagnating, while emerging fields—particularly in deep tech, AI, blockchain, robotics, and the blue and green economies—require skills that remain largely inaccessible to many youth. Access to quality education is still unequal, widening the gap between connected urban areas and rural or marginalized regions, and the high cost of higher education continues to be a barrier to youth empowerment.
Moreover, economic uncertainty, climate crises, and social tensions are taking a heavy toll on young people’s mental health, especially in urban areas, where anxiety, depression, and suicide rates are rising. In some regions, notably in West Africa, the Middle East, and Ukraine, prolonged political conflicts are forcing many young people onto migration routes, depriving them of development opportunities.
However, despite this context, new opportunities are also emerging. Young people are increasingly investing in innovation sectors such as sustainable agriculture, edtech, inclusive fintech, and renewable energy, supported by incubators, public policies, and seed funding mechanisms.
New technologies—AI, blockchain, cybersecurity—represent powerful levers for the future for those who manage to acquire the necessary skills. Education is becoming progressively more flexible and hybrid, integrating practical competencies (soft skills, digital skills, life skills) that facilitate professional integration. Furthermore, young people are increasingly recognized as key actors in peacebuilding and community resilience through dialogue, reconciliation, and social cohesion initiatives in fragile regions.
In short, while the challenges remain numerous, young people represent a major driving force for transformation toward a more inclusive, innovative, and sustainable future.
Florent Youzan
This text is an excerpt from an article published by DevelopmentAid: https://www.developmentaid.org/news-stream/post/198699/international-youth-day-2025