Nicaragua should not only be called the land of lakes and volcanoes, but also the land of youths.  The current population of the country is around 5,205,018 people of which 72% are under 30 years of age.  Of this group 1,222,099 are between the ages of 18 to 30 (23.5% of the country), where the majority (613,584) are women.  Almost 60% of these youths live in urban areas and the majority of them face serious problems of poverty, unemployment, school dropout, and scarce access to basic services such as health, culture, sports, etc.

Although important policies do exist, in 1999 the President of the Republic, through his Secretariat of Social Action (SAS), began the process of formulating proposals, unfolding the current public youth policies.  At the same time, the National Assembly and various youth organizations in the Youth Council of Nicaragua promoted the creation and approval of the Law for the Promotion of Integral Youth Development on 4 July 2001, a law that, through the express mandate of Article 7, institutionalizes and

The Youth Secretariat is the organization that is responsible for articulating the diverse programmatic and institutional efforts.  It has ministerial rank and is located within the Presidential Office of the Republic. Within this framework, the Secretariat has played an active role in designing an Action Plan for the National Policy for the 2005-2015 Integral Development of Nicaraguan Youths.  This plan acts as a central guide for the development of actions in this next decade, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) agreed by the United Nations in 2000.

This Public Policy of Youth “understands that youths have rights and are strategic actors in development; they are a key expression to social reality and global culture, with the ability and right to take part personally in their own reality, contributing to a better quality of life and a participative role in the development of their society.” In this sense, the policy operates from a modern and integral approach, easily surpassing the possible risks.

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