Keeping boys out of risk

The Commonwealth Secretariat and the World Bank have launched a regional competition to identify and promote successful projects working with youth-at-risk in the Caribbean.

The competition, 'The Caribbean Contest: Keeping Boys out of Risk', is targeting government ministries and offices, schools, universities, special projects, NGOs and stakeholders from the private sector working with disadvantaged young people in the region.

Experts working in the Caribbean have identified a rapidly growing gap between boys' and girls' participation and performance levels in education that affects boys negatively, while research has shown that early drop-out and underperformance in school directly increase the risk of negative outcomes and engagement in other risky behaviours such as crime and violence.

"We need to tackle the factors that lead young people to engage in harmful behaviours, otherwise this will be both economically and socially costly for societies at large," says Dr Jyotsna Jha, an Adviser at the Secretariat.

In May 2009, the Secretariat and the World Bank are hosting a two-day regional conference in Jamaica to look at why boys are underachieving and how this impacts on society, as well as to identify adequate policies and instruments to address the problem.

Winners of the contest will be invited to present their experiences at this conference and these best practices will be summarised in a publication which will be widely disseminated and promoted through printed material, the internet and other media.

National and regional stakeholders in World Bank and Commonwealth member countries in the Caribbean are eligible to submit application(s) for one or more activities that are currently ongoing or completed after the year 2000.

Participating initiatives should fall under one of the following three categories:

- School and Education Initiatives: educational programmes, mentoring, school management initiatives, etc.

- School-to-Work Transition: youth job training, special support to young entrepreneurs, etc.

- Community Based Initiatives: after-school activities, youth service programmes, violence prevention, etc.

Institutions seeking to participate in the contest must submit the application form that can be found on the World Bank website.

Participation in the competition aims to encourage knowledge sharing and learning, and provides an opportunity to promote successful activities at the national, regional and international level.

Key Links:

• Gender
• Education