SECRETARY KERRY: Now, the same emphasis on excellence and openness also needs to define
our approach to the second challenge – and that’s meeting the demands of booming youth
populations for economic opportunity.
In Africa, as we sit here today in Davos – a pretty special place – there are 700 million
people under the age of 30.
All of them are seeking opportunity, but they’re also seeking dignity and respect.
And most of them nowadays have a smartphone.
On the other side, we see these people in touch with the world and we know all too well
that there are extremists out there who are totally ready – not even ready – they
count on this, they rely on malfeasance and misfeasance and corruption, because they come
at these guys in an organized fashion to seduce them into accepting a dead-end future.
It’s not just a lack of jobs and opportunity that gives an extremist the opening for recruitment.
They’re just as content to see corruption and oligarchy and resource exploitation fill
the vacuum – because it may look like economic growth on paper, but it is another way to
build frustration and indignity and then seize on the anger of those young people who are
denied real opportunity and turn them into the radical religious extremists of today.
Here again, my friends, we cannot afford business as usual.
We’re not going to win the battle for the minds of those 700 million kids unless they
can go to school, and millions of them need to go to school tomorrow – not 10 years
from now.
A kid 10 years old now is going to be 20 in 10 years.
What are they going to do?
Where will they be?
These swing voters in the struggle against violent extremism – if they grow up without
an education, if they grow up without values, if they grow up without opportunities for
a better life – who knows?
And that’s another reason why the development goals that were passed at the United Nations
last year are so important.
They address all of this.
It is the holistic approach that Klaus talked about in introducing me.
Just go back 14 years to the first Arab Human Development Report.
Do you remember it?
The report underscored – and I quote – “the mismatch between aspirations and their fulfillment
has in some cases led to alienation and its offspring – apathy and discontent.”
That was written way before Syria, way before Tahrir Square, way before a Tunisian fruit
vendor thought he had to go self-immolate himself to address his sense of alienation.
And in one way, that report’s analysis, I have to tell you, remains profoundly disturbing.
Because if we subtract oil from the equation, we are left with countries that simply don’t
produce enough of what the rest of the world wants; they don’t do what’s necessary
to encourage investment; they don’t trade efficiently even among themselves; and they
aren’t always making the wisest use of their capital, their human capital.
Only about one woman in four participates in the economy, and youth unemployment is
at 25 percent.
This leaves millions of young people who – because of social media – are not only frustrated,
but completely aware of what they don’t have in a world where everyone is connected,
24/7.
So what happens to all their energy and ambition?
Who are they going to listen to?
What ideas will command their loyalty?
Now, on the plus side, those same studies show the extraordinary potential of the region
in sectors ranging from farming to professional services to alternative energy development
to tourism.
And that potential is not going to be realized by doing another study; it’s going to be
realized by taking action.
Governments, the private sector, the international community – everybody’s got to do more
to proactively take advantage of the opportunities that do exist.
And that imperative applies all around the world.
Governments everywhere have to remove barriers to innovation; they have make it easier to
start a business; they have to be more open to foreign investment; and focus like a laser
on diversification; streamline bureaucracies; prevent military establishments from crowding
out private enterprise; and above all, give women and girls an equal chance to compete
in the classroom and in the workplace.
This is the only way to provide for the needs of nation and of the modern world.