Youth realities

Young people make up a large segment of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean, and one which has formed the subject of much discussion in relation to development strategies in recent years. As mentioned in the foreword to this book, investing in the young generation is one of the key pillars for advancing a development process geared towards achieving equality. Although the concept of youth is socially constructed depending on the historical context and does not necessarily refer to a particular age range, like other research conducted by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), this book treats youth as referring to the population aged between 15 and 29 years.