In the News
McDonald's @ 50
Social Activism — Changing the Odds
By Rick Little
Nearly 40 percent of today's population wasn't born when Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States in 1980. These 2.3 billion young people have no memory of life before globalization, the Internet, laptop computers, cell phones and HIV/AIDS. The only world they've ever known includes MTV, CNN and satellite television. Many know about the Cold Way only from history books. Millions of young people are growing up in democracies and market economies that did not exist when they were born. And, unfortunately, global terrorism is a defining reality of their lives.
Years after Reagan and England's Margaret Thatcher transferred social protection from governments to individuals, social activism has become, in many ways, more personal, more grassroots and, when well-managed, more effective even while it no longer is all-encompassing. The former cradle-to-the-grave social safety blanket now is more of a quilt with all the attendant problems — weak seams, missing patches, frayed edges—but it's a quilt of our own making, both for better and for worse.
Social activism has spurred the growth of new social organization. Over the past two decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of volunteers, relief organizations, advocacy groups and service providers who are confronting critical social issues underserved by governments and social institutions. The substantial rise in social nonprofits and think tanks has become essential to activism around the world and, specifically, to efforts to assist young, underprivileged people in need.
Nearly three-quarters of all World Bank-funded projects now involve Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). Twenty years ago, Indonesia had only one independent environmental organization. Today, it has more than 1,800. In Cambodia, the number of CSOs grew from 25 in 1980 to 338 in 2000. In Brazil, there was an 18 percent increase in the 1990s alone.
However, despite these heightened global levels of social activism, we still inhabit a world that is sharply divided between vast wealth and wretched poverty.
Almost half the earth's population still struggles to survive on less than $2 a day. Two billion people still burn animal dung and wood to warm their homes and cook their food. The gap between incomes of the world's poorest and richest peoples has grown by more than 40 percent since 1960. America—the richest and most powerful country on the planet—still has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, school dropouts and poverty in the industrialized world, despite steady progress in recent years.
How to bridge these widening economic and social disparities is the leading topic of debate at global conferences and international forums. And yet the debate about globalization's impact on people's daily lives often excludes the voices of the most immediately affected, especially young people. Few leaders as what role young people play and what contributions they can make in shaping tomorrow's world. Even fewer look for ways to harness today's unparalleled opportunities to not only improve the chances for young people to succeed, but actually to change those odds. And almost no one asks young people what kinds of skills and support they want and need or what vision they have for their future. Unfortunately, most adults assume they already know the answers.
Despite the glaring inequalities that exist in today's world, we now are entering a new global era where information, education and access to opportunity will play important roles in determining who will succeed, and who will be able to reach his or her fullest potential.
Will we provide the world's youth with the necessary opportunities, skills, knowledge and values to reap the benefits of this new global reality, and to contribute to a more peaceful and democratic world? It's certainly the right thing to do. It's also the smart thing to do.