- 7 hours ago
Join our conversation with Layne Robinson, Head of Social Development, Youth and Gender Directorate at the Commonwealth Secretariat. We'll dive into strengthening youth policy systems and expanding opportunities for young people.
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00:00This is Ajanda Awani with me, Naila Hudam.
00:09The Global Youth Workers Conference is being hosted in Asia for the first time.
00:13And this year, the fifth edition of the conference focuses on the theme
00:17Youth Work in a Changing World, Sustaining Local Wisdom for Global Connectivity.
00:22On this episode, we'll explore what it truly means to balance local understanding,
00:27local wisdom with global engagement.
00:30How the Commonwealth's Five-Year Strategic Plan positions youth at the centre of development
00:36and what new initiatives could potentially shape the next decade.
00:40Joining us at this hour is Lane Robinson, the Commonwealth's Head of Social Policy Development,
00:45here to attend the fifth Global Youth Workers Conference 2025
00:48and also the 10th Youth Minister's Task Force meeting.
00:51Thank you so much for joining us. How are you?
00:53Very good. A pleasure, Zolman. Thank you for having me.
00:56And it's a wonderful opportunity to discuss these things with you.
00:58Yeah, I'm happy to have you here in the studio joining us.
01:00And I'm sure it's quite a busy part of the week for you here.
01:05The Global Youth Work Conference, as at the time of recording, is still ongoing.
01:09Correct.
01:10But it's very interesting, I think, to look at the theme,
01:12Youth Work in a Changing World, Sustaining Local Wisdom for Global Connectivity.
01:16Could you explain what this actually means in practice?
01:20Well, it's a theme that I think is quite relevant for the time we're living in.
01:24Youth Work is a distinct profession and, you know, the people that work with young people,
01:30which range from those professionals or those volunteers, we are focusing on them in this conference.
01:35So most times conferences focus on young people and what they're doing, their ideas.
01:41We do that, but we also do the fact that we focus on the people working with young people.
01:45And that's a lot of people who support them.
01:47And so this conference is asking the question, as the world changes politically, economically, socially,
01:53technologically, environmentally, how should these people react to those changes?
01:57So, for example, this morning we're discussing in the conference the rise of AI.
02:02Is that going to change how youth workers mentor and support our young people?
02:07What about those that we have in our schools and other places?
02:10How will that affect them?
02:12And so in this conference we're unpacking all of that.
02:14The world is changing very fast.
02:16And now we, as the youth workers who work with young people, must also change and adapt to fit that.
02:21But then we have this sub-theme of looking at local wisdom and how that interacts globally.
02:26Which is important.
02:28So the conference understands that there are interesting ideas and innovations that are happening in every country,
02:35in every village, in every community.
02:37How do we remember that, not lose that with all the changes,
02:41but then translate that and keep that that affects the global community?
02:45And so we are learning lots of wonderful, interesting things about what's different in Malaysia,
02:49what's different in the Caribbean, and how that changes the rest of the world.
02:53You mentioned a lot about these interesting ideas that come out.
02:56Maybe you can share with us some of these innovations, some of the more interesting ideas that's come out,
03:01trying to understand where the youth position themselves in this changing world.
03:06Well, we were talking yesterday, I'll give some examples, in the Caribbean.
03:10So they have been practicing youth work there for a long time.
03:13But their approach now seems to be that they must begin to harness those ideas that are coming from,
03:19you know, lots of the Caribbean are from, they have descendants from, they have descendants from Africa.
03:23So they're saying they have been practicing youth work based on Western ideas.
03:27Right.
03:28And now those are not working.
03:30They're seeing increased social problems, young persons going into jail, young men going into, you know, into violence and crime.
03:37And so they have gone back to go, what were their ancestors, what did their heritage teach them about men and how they should be treated?
03:45And so they have started doing, practicing youth work based on African ideas and concepts.
03:50And it is making a difference.
03:52I'll give another example from, I mean, Africa itself, you know, the idea of the community being the center of the country.
04:00The idea that everything comes from the village and the role of the village is an inspiring concept.
04:05Ubuntu, that we should be together.
04:07And so that concept has been lost as you go into, you know, this technological world where everybody's on their mobile, but the community is disappearing.
04:15And then we had examples from the Pacific.
04:18In the Pacific, they have the village.
04:20The village sits together.
04:21They're elders, but they do and make decisions together.
04:24Again, in a changing world, you could lose those things.
04:27So youth work, this conference is saying, let's pull back and look at some of those models of how we organize community.
04:33And then let's not lose that as we go forward in technology.
04:36Youth with technology and other very fast changing things.
04:40So Malaysia is actually a great example.
04:42There's so much mix and dynamism here, not just in the way you live, but the way you understand and are tolerant of others.
04:49Those are lost in a lot of our country context right now.
04:52In parts of the UK and other places, the intolerance is quite stark and they're having problems socially.
04:59But you have a model here where everything seems to work well.
05:02Not perfect, but it's working.
05:04So we need to learn what you're doing here and translate that in the rest of the world.
05:07So this conference is all about that mixing of these ideas and sharing so that together as a commonwealth, we grow.
05:14That's interesting.
05:15But I think to me, at least how I see that, there's a lot of local wisdom, local knowledge, indigenous knowledge that's being treasured and highlighted.
05:22But the other sort of end of this theme that you're working on is global connectivity.
05:30And as you said, this probably comes as a surprise to me and perhaps other Malaysian audiences that are watching this,
05:36that there is this sort of demand that there's this interest to learn about how Malaysia is functioning as a society.
05:42So do you think that local wisdom then has this place in the world that there is this demand and interest and intrigue for it?
05:48We think so.
05:50And it's interesting that as a conference, we use the word wisdom.
05:54Wisdom is not something that we talk about a lot.
05:57It's something that you think wisdom belongs to the elderly or the seniors, the ones who have had.
06:02But actually, wisdom is now something that is the purview of many.
06:05Your experience, your learning can actually give you insights on what is happening.
06:09So, yes, we have found in Malaysia lots of, you know, one of the articles that was written here was how gracious Malaysians are.
06:18The way that you have engaged in a very peaceful, humble, but a supportive way is unique.
06:25You go to other places in the world, it's a very difficult reception.
06:30But here, it's so gracious.
06:33Now, what has caused that is what the wisdom is teaching us.
06:38And then if you take that from Malaysia and you go to another country, can you take that wisdom with you?
06:42Can you be more gracious in how, be more kind and respectful and appreciative?
06:47You know, simple things.
06:48In the conference here, at the end of every session, there's a gift.
06:54There's a token.
06:55I mean, it's, you laugh, I know you laugh because you think, that's not, that doesn't happen everywhere else.
07:00No, no, no, no, no, no.
07:01Don't you, that doesn't happen.
07:02Many places you go, you're lucky if you get a thank you.
07:05But here, they pause, there's somebody of great honor comes, thank you.
07:12That's beautiful.
07:13And I think that, I've seen that over the years coming to Malaysia, that beauty of spirits, that graciousness.
07:18And I think that for me is what we can take, you know, in a very cutthroat world.
07:25This will be something that we can take back.
07:27As simple as that.
07:28It's nice to hear that it's being appreciated.
07:30It's very much appreciated.
07:31Because I do realize now that that's such a norm here.
07:33It is.
07:33We do love a gift ceremony.
07:35It's always, it's a mandatory part of the event.
07:37Trust me, it's a very beautiful tradition.
07:40And I know you may feel, oh, we're tired of it.
07:43For us, it was beautiful.
07:45We welcome it.
07:46And we think many countries could learn and listen from a simple thing just as that.
07:51And that is what I think permeates all throughout how you do things here.
07:54We've found that in almost all our experiences.
07:57I mean, yeah, it's good to hear that.
07:59And I mean, I guess this ties back to perhaps one of the reasons why Global Youth Work Conference or the GWIC is being held and hosted in Asia for the first time.
08:08You know, you get to experience cultural norms like this.
08:12But, you know, talk to us a little bit about why the Global Youth Work Conference is, you know, looking towards the East and it's being hosted in Asia now.
08:20No, thank you so much.
08:21So the last few conferences have been in different parts.
08:23So our first two conferences were in South Africa.
08:26And you kind of appreciate the South Africa with its fight for freedom was a good place to host the first two conferences.
08:32And then the conference was held in Malta, which is a European, small European state, a little bit in the Mediterranean, another different experience.
08:41And then we met the last one, the fourth conference was held in the UK in Reading just two years ago now.
08:47And very different technology, lots of cameras, lots of slightly different.
08:52So we're missing, you know, as we look in the Commonwealth, the diversity is what is our strength.
08:56So what were we missing? That spirit, that humility, that graciousness is what the youth work, I think, needs for the future.
09:03In a very fast pacing world, you can forget to slow down and to be kind and to be humble.
09:09And I think coming here has given us that appreciation.
09:13And so the conversations have been a little bit tainted by that, which is exactly the point of moving it around.
09:18We want to add in this dimension into how we see practicing youth work.
09:23And so that's why we're here.
09:24But also there are other practical reasons.
09:26Malaysia has been one of the strongest countries with youth development globally.
09:30I don't think people say that a lot.
09:31I know you talk about trade and so on.
09:33But Malaysia has the longest running, one of the longest running national youth councils in the world.
09:38When you go to and you see 70 odd years of having youth be a part of the decision making, it's great.
09:44We're at the International Youth Centre.
09:46There's only like four of them in the world.
09:48Malaysia has one, one of the longest well-established ones.
09:51Beautiful place.
09:52There's cultures coming, mixing, intermingling, learning, going back.
09:56Beautiful.
09:57So the practical reasons are that Malaysia is a gem for us in the youth sector, remains so over the many years, and we want to learn.
10:05And then Asia is one of the fastest populations with youth, a big population of youth here.
10:09Bangladesh, Pakistan, 70 million young people in Pakistan.
10:13So if you talk about youth development and where it's going to go, you have to talk to Asia.
10:18We talk to Africa about being young.
10:20It's the youngest continent.
10:21But in terms of the numbers, it's in Asia.
10:25And so whatever is working or not working here, you can learn and you can take that anywhere else in the world.
10:31Does this perhaps align with any of Commonwealth's plan to perhaps potentially expand partnerships or look at youth engagement a lot more closely in this region?
10:41Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, we've been I've been coming to this region all this year.
10:46I mean, maybe it's I've been thinking about it now is as if we have targeted this region as a region for growth.
10:52So earlier this year we were in Pakistan and what we did there was we launched for the first time the Commonwealth Alliance for Young Persons.
11:00So young people as as young leaders sitting at a regional level.
11:04So, you know, I've talked about your National Youth Council, the fact that you have a national council that the young people, the young leaders sit in all parts of decision making.
11:12But you never had one regionally in this region.
11:14Other regions have had for decades.
11:17The Pan-Africans, the Caribbeans, the Pacific have had for decades.
11:20This region has not had.
11:22So in January and the years preceding, we worked with all our countries to create a regional platform of young people who could then engage with ASEAN, with SARC at that level.
11:33So this region is and that's it's new.
11:37I wondered why it was new, because you've had the longest running youth council.
11:40So we are finding out that there are gaps in how we do things and therefore, yeah, the opportunity to cooperate.
11:45And so what you have now is that regional group will now talk to the as youth leaders, the Pan-African youth.
11:51They will be able to talk to the Caribbean youth.
11:54They'll be able to talk to the Pacific youth.
11:55So you have now this intersection there.
11:57That's one level of it.
11:58Then also we've done for the first time, this is a youth workers conference.
12:01So the youth workers associations that we're setting up, you know, the places where the professionals can talk and you didn't have many in this region.
12:10Good that we are now here, they're already springing up.
12:13You know, Pakistan again had set up its first association of youth workers, the professionals who work with youth so they can talk.
12:19And the idea there is that they will then talk to the other 32 associations around the world.
12:24And you have this now, this ongoing sharing, this mixing, this mingling of ideas and thoughts that goes beyond this conference.
12:32That's our goal.
12:34How does this potentially tie into the Commonwealth Strategic Plan, the five-year 2025 to 2030 plan?
12:41Because there is quite a lot of focus on youth development.
12:43Absolutely.
12:44Why now?
12:45Well, the Commonwealth has been for the longest, well, for probably the last 50 years, one of the only institutions that has had an intergovernmental, a body led by governments that focuses on youth.
12:57So most governments, most intergovernmentals don't have one.
13:01The Commonwealth has had one for 50 years in the Commonwealth Youth Program.
13:05And it was set up by our leaders, the heads set it up, because they felt the beauty of the Commonwealth is its young people.
13:11So 60% of the Commonwealth is young, so 1.2 billion young people.
13:16It's a young Commonwealth.
13:18So if you have a young Commonwealth and you have the longest-running youth program, then it makes sense that it's going to be reflected in the Strategic Plan.
13:25In fact, if you're going to talk about health, education, trade, peace, security, democracy, the most of the population will be young people.
13:34So whatever you're going to talk about, we'll touch on their life.
13:36So in the Strategic Plan, you have this weaving throughout it of this idea of youth being there.
13:42And I think our meetings here is what I said about youth should be at the center of that discussion, because nothing, if you're going to move your countries forward, even Malaysia, in Pakistan, in India, you have to engage your youth.
13:53So the plan does do that.
13:54In its three pillars, focusing on trade, focusing on democracy, focusing on climate, it does say we must have youth empowerment running throughout.
14:02Now, the mechanisms to do that are what we are working out now, but the idea that youth must be the center and the cross-cutting or a critical part of it is very important, and we support that.
14:13And this conference has been saying that.
14:14The young people have been saying that.
14:15You know, in this region, you've had great examples of young people in leadership.
14:19You know, the co-chair of the conference, Senator Drew Fitchfee, has just been made a senator.
14:25That's big.
14:26It doesn't happen everywhere in the world.
14:28You should celebrate these kinds of things.
14:30I've seen so many young people here who have become the leaders.
14:33They're running industry.
14:35They're creating ideas.
14:36You're doing something different here with the young people.
14:39They are more advanced than any other.
14:41That is not happening everywhere.
14:43That's why we're here.
14:43We're learning from you.
14:44And that's why the plan is weaving youth throughout.
14:46It's interesting you pointed that out.
15:03Again, potentially some things that we take for granted and we don't realize that we should be grateful for.
15:10But, you know, I guess from a perspective of a Malaysian, when we're hearing these things, you know, about youth support,
15:16or perhaps not just in Malaysia, in other countries as well, when we're talking about the support for the youth or any of these initiatives,
15:22we of course want to understand or, you know, make sense of it in dollar and cents, right?
15:28Correct.
15:28We want to see the ROI, the return on investment, which, you know, with initiatives like these, sometimes the ROI isn't as tangible.
15:37Absolutely.
15:37You can't see it potentially in the next year or the next, you know, quarters, financial quarters.
15:42The ROI is a lot more intangible than that, right?
15:45So where do you see this ties into youth entrepreneurship, perhaps innovation and, you know, the larger economic integration and economic growth?
15:57Do you think that that's also important?
16:00Or perhaps we need to expand our understanding of this ROI?
16:05No, no.
16:05We were discussing this in the conference, so I smiled.
16:07So one of the conversations we had was about the number of years we invest in our education of our young people.
16:13This is formal education now, not this conference we were talking about non-formal education on youth work,
16:18which is out of school, the skills you get when you focus on, you know, teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving.
16:26And you see where I'm going.
16:28So you spend, what, 15 years in school, and you do math, English, arithmetic, and I'm going to challenge you to say,
16:34at the end of it, what do you have?
16:36And the problems are many now.
16:38You're hearing that people come out, they're not getting jobs.
16:41Some of them come out, they're still not able to.
16:43So you spend 15 years of investing, yeah, many millions of dollars or pounds or whatever, you're not seeing that result.
16:51And that's 15 years.
16:52But in youth work, we get a young person for a year in a program, and people want to see a magic result.
16:58You must transform this whole person into a multi-billion investment.
17:03So in the conference, we are questioning, is that a realistic expectation of youth work,
17:08that we are in one year or six months or six weeks when we are given a young person for a program must work magic?
17:14When in the education system you have had them for 18, 15 years, and it's not given a result.
17:19So we are questioning the idea of the ROI in the conference.
17:22We question it to say, maybe it's not the right matrix to be using.
17:26Maybe we need to think about other things and think about different things.
17:30That what we are trying to do in youth work is not so much to change just for dollars and cents,
17:36but to change mindsets.
17:37Because if you can change how a person thinks and how it changes how they behave, how they approach to life.
17:44So rather than asking a question, oh, we are training you, we are giving you lots of knowledge so that you can become a job seeker.
17:50No, we are saying, what is the creative, innovative thing that you have inside of you?
17:55What is the passion that drives you?
17:57It changes the conversation.
17:59What are you passionate about?
18:00That's what we do in youth work.
18:01We unveil the inherent potential within a young person by asking and guiding and changing the mind.
18:07And so if you can emancipate that mindset from perhaps a job seeker to a job creator, to an innovator, to a creative,
18:15then the economy will respond accordingly.
18:19And now is the best time to do it.
18:20Why?
18:20Because you have now, you know, I'll give you, knowledge is now not the issue anymore.
18:25We are not short of knowledge anymore.
18:26So before you went to school to get knowledge in your head, you need to put in all this history.
18:33Knowledge is not the problem anymore.
18:34You take up your phone, knowledge is at your fingertips.
18:37So where are you going to go now?
18:38What is the relevance of spending millions to create knowledge?
18:41No.
18:42The idea now is to train the person to react, to think, to be critical.
18:47That's the non-formal.
18:48So we have a very clear plan for the non-formal learning as a way to transform economies, which is meaningful.
18:54You ask any big business out there, you know, millions of people have masters and degrees.
18:59So that's not the difference anymore.
19:00The difference when an employer is going to seek an employee, even in the traditional sense, is not the degree and diploma.
19:07Everybody has one or more than one.
19:09Sometimes when I get CVs, I'm blown away.
19:12Some of the young people that are coming, when I look for jobs, five, three, oh my gosh, PhDs.
19:20Because that's not the problem anymore.
19:22The problem is, do I have somebody who can think?
19:25Do I have somebody who can reason?
19:27Who can solve problems?
19:29Who can be a team player?
19:30You get all those skills in the youth work sector.
19:33You get all those skills by non-formal learning.
19:35You play sports.
19:36You learn to be a leader.
19:38You have not done a mathematical equation.
19:40So that's the kind of person we want.
19:42Talk about the future and jobs.
19:43What kind of person do you want for the future?
19:46You want those people with those skill sets.
19:48And every job person is going to tell you that.
19:50The person I want in my employer is the person who can think, create, solve problems.
19:55That's how you get it in youth work.
19:56So it actually has a direct link to the economy in big ways.
20:00But the strangest thing, it's not known.
20:02It's a secret.
20:03It's a secret, isn't it?
20:05Because you spend 18 years in school and all the attention is on that block.
20:10And almost, I can bet you, even in Malaysia, what is being spent on the other block?
20:14It's not there.
20:16I'm going to get a refund on my master's now.
20:18I think you can.
20:20You probably, I think the smart ones, like I think you are a smart one.
20:24You'd have done the master's, but I know you would have done other things, right?
20:27Hopefully.
20:27You'd have done other, engaged in other things that then make that master's 10 times better.
20:33That's the plan.
20:34It's not to take away, it's a package.
20:35So you've done a master's, yes.
20:37We're not saying not to do it.
20:38But you need to enhance that master's with the non-former.
20:40If you can show that you're an excellent musician or a sport person or you're doing this.
20:46What you're doing now is thinking critically.
20:50Hopefully, hopefully.
20:50Now, I do want to ask you, we're talking about how, you know, we can harness the youth better to prepare themselves for the economy.
20:59But there's also, you know, the other side of the coin.
21:02How can the economy then prepare for this influx of, you know, talent and youth?
21:07Because that's not the problem, right?
21:08There is that sort of supply there.
21:11So going back to the Commonwealth, you know, five-year strategic plan, you know, this sort of shift or, you know, slight move towards, you know, looking to the east, looking at Asia.
21:24Is this sort of a central component or being considered in the strategic plan to potentially strengthen Commonwealth trade partnerships in this part of the world?
21:33Of course. I mean, so the Commonwealth is all about creating opportunities.
21:37It's in the name. Common Wealth.
21:40You get it? It's like it's a brand.
21:42Like people want to know what is the common, what is the wealth that this Commonwealth has?
21:46I get that question all the time, being a staff for the Commonwealth.
21:49What is the wealth that you have? It's not money wealth.
21:51It's not necessarily money wealth.
21:53So you're not going to see the Commonwealth having, you know, donating millions of dollars.
21:58No, it is not wealth in terms of military wealth.
22:01No, we don't have weapons of destruction and can command that respect.
22:07No, what we have is opportunities.
22:11What the wealth that the Commonwealth really has is this idea that we have great potential in our countries.
22:16You know, some of our countries are in the global south, they would say.
22:18But it's in the global south that you have imagination and innovation and creativity.
22:23And so in our plan, in the plan that we have, it's about where are the opportunities in the Commonwealth?
22:27And when you look to Asia, with the numbers of youth you have, with the number of excellent ways that you have organized yourselves here,
22:34with the spirit you have, opportunities are being created all over the place.
22:38And what you want to do is to take that opportunity from this region and you want to share that there.
22:44You want to share the one that is, that's trade.
22:46You want to exchange, and that's the beauty of the Commonwealth.
22:48The idea that the opportunities that are in one part of the Commonwealth are not exclusive to that part because we're a family of nations.
22:56And that's the beauty of the trade idea, that you can exchange these ideas and you can cooperate together for the benefit.
23:02And so the idea is the common, so the wealth I've talked about, but that commonality is not the sharing of that.
23:08That I can come here and get to know you and buy into the fact that the food and your culture is so great, I take that back with me.
23:16And I want to bring some of your products with me.
23:19And I can scale that up into bigger trade as well.
23:21And then by doing that, the whole Commonwealth grows and continues to grow with trade.
23:26Going back to the question of youth, what do you think are some of the biggest challenges for Commonwealth countries
23:31to realize this trade-led growth while still ensuring that this benefits and tries to put youth development at the heart of it
23:38and also looking at, you know, marginalized communities?
23:42No, no, so this is a brilliant question because I think if you can solve this question, you've solved the problem, isn't it?
23:49Because the premise here is that with a large youth population, you know, 60%, 70% in some context,
23:57then if you solve that problem, you've solved a lot of your other problems.
24:00So this is where we are having a problem now because a lot of our countries still have youth in a way that is not going to solve the problems
24:07that you're questioning that you're asking.
24:09So if youth remains a silo, meaning you only deal with them as a, you know, in the schools, you're missing it.
24:17Youth must be part and parcel of everything you do.
24:20You should have youth in trade, youth in defense, youth in security.
24:24You have to have that lens that allows you to see the country, the institutions, the sectors from a youth perspective.
24:32That's not happening.
24:33So one of the things that we are trying to do in the Commonwealth is to change that.
24:37If you can do that, if you can just put a, you know, when I take off my glasses, I can't see.
24:41If you put on that youth lens and you look at, okay, I'm looking at, let's look at something.
24:45You're looking at your health system, okay?
24:46Is the health system youth responsive, youth friendly?
24:52I've worked in many countries where the health system is not youth friendly.
24:55So young persons go there, they don't feel trusted, they don't feel like they can share that they're having a problem.
25:02They don't feel like they can bring their issue there.
25:04They feel it's not for them.
25:06Let's look at another thing.
25:07Is your education system, you should be, is it youth friendly?
25:10You talk to students, they hate schools.
25:13How do they hate schools?
25:14It's not friendly.
25:15It hasn't, and I give you an example of how to make your schools friendly, you need to have students in the leadership.
25:21You need to listen to the voice of the students.
25:23So little things, I can take any sector.
25:26You know, you look at your trade here, okay, let's look at some.
25:29Is it, is the trade policies youth friendly?
25:32If you take up the trade, simple, run it through and see how many times have you seen the word youth embedded there or ideas related.
25:39No.
25:39In some parts of the world, what they have done is, you know, in terms of their trade and procurement policies,
25:43they've said, listen, we must leave at least 30% of the things for the young people, of the trade.
25:49They've made, it's not enough, it's a step in the right direction.
25:53So you ask the question, what are the challenges we have?
25:56It's the fact that youth still remains a kind of a siloed concept and idea, when actually it needs to be a mainstreamed idea.
26:03It needs to cut across all sectors and systems.
26:07Even, I'll give you a little example, even with the media, you're in the media, is the media youth friendly or not?
26:13You can tell, because if you watch the news, you know, over a period of time, or you watch television,
26:17and you see over two hours or three hours, how many times has it shown youth as a problem and not as a solution?
26:24You can, it's framing.
26:25So a lot of, you know, a lot of people, they see young people only as a problem.
26:28And so when you, in media, that's a big problem, and I'm saying it, hint, hint, hint, hint, youth are not the problem.
26:34The vast majority of young people are doing very well, and highlighting and showcasing what they do will make a difference.
26:40So the simple answer to your question is, there's a problem here that needs addressing,
26:44and it is the idea of mainstreaming youth or seeing the world through a youth perspective,
26:50given that the vast majority of your populations are young.
26:54You see, I'll give you a simple example.
26:55I know I'm going on about this.
26:57Okay.
26:58What is the biggest, one of the biggest things that our young people are doing right now is e-sports.
27:04Yeah?
27:05Yeah.
27:05You do some sports, and I'm going to bet you, what do you play, Candy Crush?
27:10What do you do?
27:11What do you do?
27:12All sorts of things, yeah.
27:14You play all these games.
27:14We're all into it.
27:15I'm into it, yeah.
27:16But most young people are also there, and they're doing e-sports as well.
27:20But I'm going to bet you, most adults, most of us, are not talking about e-sports.
27:24They have no clue what it is.
27:26It's a lost concept on them.
27:28So you have this dissection between one part of the population, the parents, the older
27:33ones, myself, and a young population who is into something that we don't even know what
27:37it is.
27:37Yeah.
27:38That's an example of game.
27:39So if you put on a youth lens, you begin to see the world, not from our perspective,
27:43which it's easy to do, but from a young person's perspective.
27:46It will solve the problems.
27:47It's very interesting.
27:48Plenty more, of course.
27:50Plenty more.
27:50I'd like to pick your brain on very, very interesting ideas there.
27:53But that is all the time that we have.
27:54No problem.
27:54Thank you so much, Lane, for joining us.
27:56It has been my pleasure to share with you.
27:58And please, on behalf of the Commonwealth and the Global Youth Work Conference, let me thank
28:02you and the audience for hosting us here and receiving us so graciously and demonstrating
28:08that kind of a spirit that we can take everywhere across the world.
28:11Thank you very much.
28:12We're very, very happy to have you.
28:14Unfortunately, no gift ceremony at the end of this show, but perhaps for next time.
28:18Thank you so much.
28:19Call on Agenda Awani with me.
28:21Nala Huda at this hour.
28:22We'll catch you next time.
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