Many young people East Asia and the Pacific have become interested and actively engaged in the world development process, and some are continuously making efforts to have their voices heard when policies are considered that affect them. To support those efforts, the World Bank initiated an inter-regional knowledge-sharing seminar, aimed at bringing together youth leaders and policy-makers from the region to discuss development programs by youth.

The first of the two-part seminar, held on April 19, was attended by more than 100 youth and civil society representatives, as well as World Bank staff in the region and in Washington, DC. Youth representative from Thailand, Chalongkwan Tavarayuth (above), presented the Thai experience on "exercising citizenship" -- one of the five crucial youth transitions identified by the "World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation." 

Emmanuel Y. Jimenez, (second left), Director of the World Bank's Human Development Sector, East Asia and the Pacific, was keynote speaker at this seminar. Mr. Jimenez is also lead author of the WDR07.