Responding to the Youth Crisis Developing Capacity to Improve Youth Services: A Case Study from the Marshall Islands

Abstract

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) is a relatively new nation, with half of its population under the age of 18 years. Responding to the Youth Crisis tells the story of how the RMI government, with assistance from ADB, set out to strengthen domestic capacity to improve services for youth in the Marshalls. The case highlights the importance of participatory processes and describes how an innovative approach to outsourcing youth welfare services to civil service providers was introduced. It also underscores some of the challenges of sustaining reforms with weak institutions and leadership. This sub-series is published by the Asian Development Bank to provide the governments of its Pacific developing member countries (PDMCs) with analyses and insights on key issues and lessons learned with respect to capacity development. Cases studied highlight a range of experiences throughout the region by sector, theme and source of external support, revealing approaches to capacity development that work best and the conditions that have been conducive to their success. They also explore the unique challenges faced by PDMCs in addressing capacity constraints as well as some of the opportunities facing governments and the people in the Pacific islands. Among other things, the case studies underline the importance of PDMC leadership, engagement of local partners, strategic attention to long-term capacity issues and effective use of external resources. It is our hope that the findings in these reports will help to guide future capacity building efforts in the Pacific.