Themes > Cross-sectoral themes > Children and Youth > Children and Youth

Contact person

For further information please contact:
Tina Silbernagl
Tel: +49 6196 79-1697
Fax: +49 6196 79-80 1697
Email: youth@giz.de

Children and youth in Development Cooperation

Around 1.9 billion children and adolescents live in developing countries, around one third of them in absolute poverty. Young people need basic children’s and adolescents’ rights, including equal access to education and health care and an opportunity to participate in society. This is the only way they can develop their self-help capacities and help to shape social change.

German development cooperation strives to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international charters on children and youth rights. Young people must learn to participate in public life and assert their rights. GIZ supports partner governments and government institutions in meeting their responsibilities, and through this also the gradual achievement of children’s and adolescents' rights.

In 1997 the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) became one of the first donors worldwide to focus on child and youth issues, commissioning GIZ (former GTZ) to implement programmes on youth employment, child and youth health, risk behaviour in children and adolescents, general and peace education and crisis prevention.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Successful local youth work

Active youth work programmes are underway in many of the country's municipalities. The cities and communities train youth officers, earmark funds for youth-related activities and promote youth peer projects. Young women and men are trained as youth leaders in special courses, where they learn how they can contribute politically inside their communities and successfully manage youth work activities. The National Youth Commission provides the framework for these successful local youth work processes, which GIZ (former GTZ) has been supporting for eight years.