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In line with its mandate to host priority policy-development initiatives and to provide policy-related services to the research programmes in the HSRC, the Policy Analysis Unit (PAU) of the HSRC launched a Youth Initiative on 31 January 2007. The project will run for a three-year period. The launch coincided with the presentation of the World Development Report 2007: Development and the next generation by the World Bank’s South Africa office. Dr Emmanuel Y. Jimenez, who led the core team that prepared the report, gave a presentation at the launch of the initiative. During 2007 the initiative will primarily consist of a series of round-table meetings, convened jointly in 2007 by PAU and the Child, Youth, Family and Social Development programme and in collaboration with relevant groups in the Presidency, the Department of Social Development, the Youth Commission, the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, the South African Youth Council, the World Bank, research community and others. Experts from the policy, programme and research environments will come together to consolidate the state of the science, the demands for action, and interrogate key questions on youth development. The debates will attempt to move the youth development agenda beyond acknowledging the extent of the challenges, to proposing viable policy and programmatic directions that can be undertaken in an integrated manner. The exact topics for these round-table meetings will take shape during consultative meetings and will include polling young people. The Youth Initiative will tap into the rich history and traditions of youth activism in our country. This will be done through the use of interactive technologies to both conduct research (polling via sponsored mobile telephone calls) and ensure the active participation of youth in the policy dialogues. The Policy Analysis Unit (PAU), established in 2006, with dedicated funding from the National Department of Science and Technology, serves as a think tank and a forum for the deliberation and analysis of public policy on the most critical issues affecting the lives of ordinary people. It is a cross-cutting programme that pulls together pertinent resources from all the research programmes at the HSRC.
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