Calling on the United States and international donors to prioritize investments in children and youth in development and humanitarian assistance policies, programs, and activities.

Bill: 118-hres-715
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Mace, Nancy [R-SC-1]
Introduced: 2023-09-21
Policy area: International Affairs
Latest action: action_date: 2023-09-21
text: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Summaries:
action_date: 2023-09-21
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p>This resolution urges U.S. agencies working abroad to ensure that U.S. foreign assistance directly addresses youth needs and youth engagement. Specifically, it (1) urges the Department of State to coordinate with all agencies managing foreign assistance to develop a strategy that directly addresses youth needs, (2) calls on those agencies to improve tracking and disaggregation of funding benefiting children and youth, and (3) urges those agencies to reimagine development and humanitarian assistance diplomacy to prioritize youth programs.</p>

tv_txt: IV 118th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 715 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 21, 2023 Ms. Mace submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs RESOLUTION Calling on the United States and international donors to prioritize investments in children and youth in development and humanitarian assistance policies, programs, and activities.

Whereas globally, 90 percent of the world’s young people live in the developing world; Whereas children and youth bear the disproportionate burdens of poverty, which have been exacerbated by the COVID–19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis; Whereas half of the world’s population is under the age of 30 today, and thus engaging youth and emerging leaders is essential to achieving the United States most important foreign policy objectives; Whereas the perspectives of children and youth are frequently not prioritized in foreign assistance responses; Whereas the world’s countries with the greatest population of young people are vulnerable to the influence of donors whose funding does not align with American values; Whereas research has demonstrated when countries invest in their young people, substantial benefits can result, including reduced reliance on foreign assistance from governments like the United States, and boost national economic growth and global economic stability; Whereas, according to the National Security Strategy, the United States should not leave our future vulnerable to the whims of those who do not share our vision for a world that is free, open, prosperous, and secure. ; Whereas harnessing the potential of children and youth can create prosperous, safe, educated, stable, and resilient families, communities, and countries as well as reduce dependency on donor assistance; Whereas in contrast, inaction has the potential to cost the global economy $21,000,000,000,000 in lost lifetime earnings of today’s student generation as a result of pandemic school closures, compounding inequality and shortfalls leading to skills mismatches, and persistently high levels of young people not in employment, education, or training (the youth NEET rate) that threaten gross domestic product and economic growth; Whereas United States foreign assistance approaches have already yielded strong returns for young people, as well as the American taxpayers; Whereas, since the year 2000 alone, United States foreign assistance has, for example, contributed to cutting global maternal, infant, and child mortality rates in half and to cutting the number of children in child labor by one-third; Whereas, in fiscal year 2020 alone, United States development programs reached over 25,400,000 learners in 57 countries, according to the United States Agency for International Development; Whereas because interventions for children and youth are spread across programs, agencies, and bureaus, tracking the return on United States investments is difficult; Whereas greater coordination within and across agencies is necessary to ensure that young people are supported, and United States taxpayer dollars are maximized; Whereas for example, the McGovern-Dole school feeding program coordinates across global food security, international education, and the water and sanitation sectors; and Whereas the program, which American farmers are at the heart of, has provided 5,500,000,000 school meals, supported more than 31,000,000 children and families in 48 countries, and donated more than 1,300,000 tons of United States agricultural commodities: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1) urges the Secretary of State to coordinate with all government agencies managing foreign assistance to develop a strategy that directly addresses youth needs and youth engagement as was required in the bipartisan fiscal year 2022 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs) appropriations bill; (2) calls upon the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the United States Development Finance Corporation, and all other relevant agencies who support children and youth abroad to improve tracking and disaggregation of funding benefiting children and youth by— (A) compiling data that should be collected against dedicated indicators on an annual basis, and reported to the Office of United States Foreign Assistance Resources; and (B) ensuring that these indicators should include a common understanding of what constitutes a child and a youth and develop more consistent approaches to track disaggregated data ongoing and disaggregating by age, sex, disability, etc.; (3) urges all agencies working abroad to improve outcomes for children and youth to engage directly with young people as key stakeholders, and United States foreign assistance that targets, engages, or otherwise reaches and impacts young people, especially those most marginalized, should strengthen mechanisms and platforms, such as youth advisory councils, to facilitate the direct participation of young people on issues affecting them most intimately; (4) urges relevant agencies to increase inter- and intra-agency coordination mechanisms and funding responses to reimagine development and humanitarian assistance diplomacy, policies, programs, and activities, in order to ensure that the United States foreign assistance integrates multiple issues facing young people and is flexible for local needs, such actions would allow for more youth-led organizations to receive funding, and for greater multisectoral interventions that effectively account for the entirety of a young person’s life stages to support them and address their safety, education, health, nutrition and food security, economic participation, and civic engagement; and (5) calls upon the leadership of relevant agencies to review existing positions and structures in order to elevate children and youth in foreign assistance across all agencies implementing work that impacts them, including ways to better operationalize solutions led in both development and humanitarian work that allows for meeting the needs of children and youth, including those living in crisis, conflict, and disaster-affected settings, which would require increased opportunities for collaboration across bureaus, divisions, offices, and missions to address the needs of children and youth, including identifying any authorities or funding needed from Congress to increase the effectiveness of such efforts.