by Chris Hilburn-Trenkle
At the close of a busy day of classes in mid-November, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work students and faculty were found in the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building auditorium for a lecture more relevant now than ever before.
Thoai D. Ngo, Ph.D., MHS, shared his lecture, “Growing Up in Uncertain Times: Evidence and Action for the World’s 1.8 Billion Youth” on Nov. 13 as the third Michael Sherraden Lecturer hosted by the Global Social Development Innovations center, and the first at Carolina since 2020. Following the lecture, Ngo participated in a discussion from the stage with Associate Dean for Global Engagement Gina Chowa, where the two discussed a range of issues including ways to work with youth to address climate change while answering questions from the audience. A sizable virtual audience included the lecture series’ namesake, Distinguished Professor Michael Sherraden from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, founding director of the Center for Social Development at that university.
“I’m buzzing because I met with so many of you today and the students and the faculty give me so much hope for my work, but also for the future for 1.8 billion adolescents and young people,” Ngo said.
Ngo is the vice president of social and behavioral science research at the Population Council, which was established in 1952 and is “a nonprofit research organization seeking to transform global thinking on critical health and development issues through social science, public health and biomedical research.”
Ngo joined the council in 2016, and one year later was named one of the 120 Under 40 leaders impacting change in reproductive health worldwide. He focuses his work on gender equality and equity, climate change and adolescent transitions at a time when the world is occupied by the largest generation of young people ever — a number that is expected to grow even further by 2030, according to the United Nations.
With all that in mind, future social workers need a plan to help support adolescents, Ngo argued, providing a template for what that support might look like during his lecture.
Ngo shared the need to monitor sexual and reproductive health for the 1.8 billion young people, achieve gender equity and equality, help individuals become better educated, and fight for justice while combating the environmental changes affected by climate change around the world to help make it a better place for young people.
These needs for protection will become even greater, he noted, with the expectation that roughly 70% of people will be living in an urban environment by 2050 and facing threats such as water scarcity, droughts and heat waves.
“It’s estimated that around 120 million young people will enter the labor market each year, but it’s projected that in the coming decades only 60% of them will find a formal job,” Ngo said. “That level of disengagement will erode social infrastructure and progress that we have made around the world.”
Through his work at the Population Council, Ngo has helped develop a formula that gives children a chance to choose their own path while giving them better access to health, education and critical thinking skills that will not only suit them in the near term, but over the course of their lives.
With projects ranging from testing an innovative behavioral therapy program to support individuals diagnosed with HIV in Nigeria to studying the effects of climate change in Bangladesh, Guatemala and Nigeria and researching how COVID-19 affected certain subgroups of youth in India, Kenya and Mexico, Ngo was able to give students and faculty in the audience and over 200 virtual participants from nine different nations a perspective of what it’s like to be on the front lines during a crisis while fighting to create a better environment for young people around the world.
“To navigate the escalating, changing challenges of conflict, climate and inequality, we must leverage all the potential of the 1.8 billion people shaping our future,” Ngo said. “They require competence in education, accessible health care, reproductive autonomy and quality employment opportunities, and women and girls must have full social and economic participation. This proactive approach is the most potent strategy, I believe, in preparing them for a deeply uncertain future.”
Photo Courtesy Dicky Baruah
