Aspirations on Hold : Young Lives in the West Bank and Gaza
Seventy percent of West Bank and Gaza's population is under the age of 30, and their share will continue to grow in the years ahead. The aspirations and ambitions of this large and growing population of children and youth have the potential to...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/200831468328798038/Aspirations-on-hold-Young-lives-in-the-West-Bank-and-Gaza http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26875 |
| Summary: | Seventy percent of West Bank and
Gaza's population is under the age of 30, and their
share will continue to grow in the years ahead. The
aspirations and ambitions of this large and growing
population of children and youth have the potential to
define the future of the West Bank and Gaza. This assessment
seeks to contribute to the understanding of factors driving
the choices of young men and women at this critical juncture
of their lives, with a particular emphasis on the roles that
changing gender norms and the conflict environment are
having on their aspirations for education, jobs, and forming
families. Young Palestinians are moving into adulthood in a
world surrounded by roadblocks and barriers, and gripped by
soaring unemployment and uncertainty about what their
futures may hold. Still, this generation remains optimistic
and ambitious. They are pursuing high school and college
degrees, and hanging on to expectations for better jobs and
better lives than was possible for their parent's
generation. In the face of such bleak prospects, why? What
is driving these youth's aspirations for high levels of
education and good jobs? To provide a broad context for the
youth's testimonies, this report first takes stock of
developments affecting the West Bank and Gaza over the past
decade. In this period, the Palestinian territories
witnessed two major episodes of conflict: the second
intifada beginning in 2000 and the crisis in Gaza in 2007.
Both episodes had severe and wide-ranging economic
repercussions, and were accompanied by restrictions on
internal and external mobility of people and goods. As a
result, in the last decade, the West Bank and Gaza has
witnessed economic volatility without parallel (even in
comparison to countries affected by large financial crises),
massive spikes in poverty, and some of the highest rates of
unemployment in the world. Young people's unemployment
rates are even higher, and much more so for young women. The
youth's focus groups indicate that traditional gender
norms remain very strong in their society, and mainly seem
to be reinforced by the difficult conflict environment.
Men's status as the breadwinners means that boys,
especially from poor families, are likely to withdraw from
school sooner than girls in order to take up income earning
roles; and the weak economy intensifies these pressures. |
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