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Youth Talks study reveals global youth ready to make sacrifices for social progress
While most 15–29-year-olds are pessimistic about their future, they also have a lot to say about their expectations for tomorrow's world and society. The Youth Talks consultation, launched by an international network of partners including SKEMA Business School, reveals that young people are willing to give up their habits and consider peace as a top priority.
Youth Talks, organised by the Higher Education for Good Foundation, published its results on 17 October 2023. This global youth barometer, in which about 10,000 SKEMA students and graduates, supported by professors, participated, collected around a million ideas from 45,000 young people in 212 countries and territories between October 2022 and May 2023, making it an unprecedentedly large consultation.
We invite you to explore and share the results by consulting the overall Youth Talks report and its dynamic data platform by logging on to youth-talks.org.
Youth ready for sacrifices
Among the main findings of this global youth barometer, it has emerged that young people are ready to reconsider and relearn the collective values and virtues we live by. According to the Youth Talks study, young people worldwide seem more ready than ever to make sacrifices to drive society in the direction they wish. Nearly half (46%) of participants are willing to give up aspects of their lifestyle, both material (22%) and immaterial (24%).
Young people are also ready to give up specific components of their diet, such as meat and junk food. Some even say they are ready to give up markers of identity and belief.
However, identity and belief markers are strongly represented in some regions such as the Middle East and North Africa.
Almost one in ten participants in this region mentions religion as something they are not willing to abandon. Conversely, young people from Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa show a stronger attachment to their identities, beliefs, values, and personal virtues. These aspects serve as crucial benchmarks in their lived experiences, in contrast to concerns expressed in Western countries. Thus, the willingness to give up markers of identity and belief varies considerably depending on the region of the world and cultural context.
Peace, a major issue
Young people worldwide see peace as the main issue we must collectively work on. The desire for peace everywhere in the world is deeply rooted among young people from almost all regions of the world. This desire transcends borders and seems to establish itself as a universal concern.
Throughout the report, the mosaic of shared opinions and ideas also reveals significant divisions not only between young people in the West and those in the rest of the world, but also within regions.
As highlighted by Marine Hadengue, director of Youth Talks, in her editorial, it is crucial to "re-establish ongoing dialogue between generations" and "find ways to work together without delay" to address global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and health and migration crises.
As a founding member of the Higher Education for Good Foundation, SKEMA Business School is part of the global Youth Talks partner network. Under the leadership of Alice Guilhon, dean and executive president of SKEMA, chairperson of the Higher Education for Good Foundation, and Marine Hadengue, executive director of the Higher Education for Good Foundation, the SKEMA communities – students, professors, alumni, collaborators – can be proud to participate in this unique and innovative project. Through it, SKEMA commits, as an educational institution, to promote the voice of young people, making it a powerful tool for international change.
