Youth Day in Cape Verde Date in the current year: June 1, 2024

Cape Verde is a small island country in the Atlantic Ocean, situated several hundred miles off the western coast of Africa. Its population is about 540,000 people, and nearly half of all Cape Verdeans live on the archipelago’s main island of Santiago.

The most peculiar feature of the population of Cape Verde is that it is very young. As of 2018, 28.7% of the country’s population were aged 0 to 14 years and 19.64% were aged 15 to 24 years. The median age of the population of Capo Verde was 25.8 years (25 years for men and 26.7 years for women). Therefore, it is not surprising that it was decided to declare Youth Day as a public holiday: young people make up more than half of the country’s population.

Unfortunately, due to the difficult economic situation in the country, young people in Cape Verde have to face a lot of challenges. For example, the overall college education rate in the country is only about 24%, in relation to the local college age population, and the youth unemployment rate has exceeded 20% in recent years.

Another major problem in Cape Verde is a high crime rate among youth and even children. Petty theft and burglary are very common, especially in crowded places. The perpetrators are often gangs of street children. Drug-related crimes are also a frequent occurrence.

To solve these and other problems, the government of Cape Verde adopted a national youth policy in 2009. It is a series of programs and policies in various areas, including healthcare, economy, sports, culture, housing, and others, aimed at improving the well-being of children and young people.

The Directorate of Youth of the Ministry for Youth, Employment and Human Resource Development is responsible for coordinating and implementing the national youth policy. Its main task is to create optimal conditions for the participation of young people in the political, economic, cultural and social life of the country. A number of youth organizations, such as the Youth Federation of Cape Verde, aid the Directorate and promote the participation of young people in the decision-making process.

Youth Day in Cape Verde was created to raise public awareness about the problems young people face on a daily basis and to emphasize the importance of working together to find ways to solve them, such as providing access to vocational training, creating jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people, facilitating access to housing credits, etc.

Since Youth Day is a public holiday, it is a day off for students and government employees, although many businesses opt to remain open. The holiday is marked with various cultural events aimed at children and youth.