At a gathering of 14 divided cities from Baghdad to Sarajevo to
Kaduna, Nigeria, one consistent theme emerged: rising youth
unemployment. Each of the delegations agreed that addressing this
issue is the most important challenge for any city struggling to shift
away from conflict.
It is true in Baghdad, where a disaffected youth – tired of the lack of
opportunity or any hope for a productive future—is descending into
despair throughout an increasingly divided Iraq.
Out of that despair comes a small but steady stream of recruits from
the Sunni population who, tired of the tyranny of a Shia-led
government, are drawn to the apocalyptic, dark vision of the
movement known as the Islamic State (IS).

It is true in Sarajevo and throughout Bosnia, which has the highest youth unemployment rate at 57 percent, according to World Bank data. There, ethnic tensions still smolder from a conflict that ended two decades ago, and an idle and disillusioned youth is left wondering about its future.
An older generation who witnessed the horrors of the war fear that those embers could someday re-ignite hostilities if a better alternative is not presented to young people.
It is true in Kaduna, Nigeria, a city where religious leaders have worked hard to try to heal the divisions between Muslims and Christians. But stemming a tide of violence will only be possible when those leaders can offer a better future to young people through jobs – a distant dream in a country where by some estimates as many as 80 percent of young people are neither employed nor in school.

This rising concern over global youth unemployment was starkly evident at the Forum for Cities in Transition held last week in Belfast. Here, we toured "interface" areas between Protestants and Catholics, places where the lack of opportunity was clearly evident.
Even in Protestant areas where Loyalist paramilitary groups have quieted, resentments still run strong and still erupt into flashes of violence.

Source: http//:www.cnbc.com/id/102169409