Poverty Eradication: The Role of Youth Participation as a Catalyst for Social Change

Youth are becoming the frontiers and catalysts of positive social changes through their participation. This paper examines youth involvement in the society to get a better understanding of the process of youth participation in development programs, and to investigate the perceptions of youth regarding the poverty issue in the world. Two different methods were applied in the study: a critical in-depth literature review was conducted followed by a validation process to better elaborate the process of youth participation in development programs. Questionnaires and an analysis of the findings were also used. The results show that the youth who live in poor countries are more used to poverty and consider it as an inevitable part of their lives. Besides, the more that youth think about and are aware of poverty in the world, the more responsible they feel towards it. Also, those youth who believed in the important role of holding conferences and events in making young people aware of the necessary actions to eradicate poverty had also taken more actions to tackle it.