Lebanese Youth Policy

Goals of the youth policy

The five goals of Lebanon’s youth policy are evolving around the following areas:

- Demographic stabilization and hence reduction of migration rates

One of the major problems that Lebanon is facing the last decade is high rates of youth migration. In fact Lebanon experiences on the one hand high rates of internal migration from rural to urban areas mostly due to the deteriorating economic situation of the countryside areas and on the other hand high rates of external migration mostly of university graduates who chose to abandon Lebanon in search for better life opportunities usually within Europe.

- Labor permanency, fair wages and protection from exploitation

Lebanese youth constitute the 41% of the labor force,

The alteration of the legislations that discriminate against youth is the correct starting point in order to enhance real youth participation, treating youth as citizens with full rights, and redressing the development process in Lebanon. Therefore, the 2012 youth policy of Lebanon constitutes the first comprehensive and elaborated effort to address youth issues in the Lebanese society and provide youth with a chance to voice their needs. Despite what is happening in reality, the overall view point of the Lebanese youth policy regarding youth participation as seen in the theoretical framework of Timmerman (2009) evolves mostly around the goal of political enhancement, as youth participate actively in the youth policy and its development. There are also some minor signs of participation as ‘general good’ and ‘pedagogic means’, however the general scope focuses on participation as a political

from youth to the government: ‘’the youth policy document is the product of 12 years of hard work with youth, who articulated the policy recommendations based on their needs and aspirations, and presented them to the government. It is the first time in the Arab world where youth present policy recommendations to the government, not the government policy trickling down to young people’’. In that sense, when examining the Lebanese youth policy with the theoretical framework of Hart one can only place the participation model that the policy promotes on the rugn 7 of the Ladder: young people are actively engaged in decision-making processes that affect them, they take initiatives and lead activities. Besides the fact that the reality of the Lebanese society promotes a quite different participation model, as young people are considered lacking necessary skills and therefore excluded from decision-making processes, we have to examine the topic through the policy perspective and its scope of