Young People's Views on Development Cooperation 2012

The survey studied the views of young Finnish people on development cooperation and their interest towards it. The survey aimed to chart young people's willingness to participate in development cooperation as well as their knowledge about the goals of development cooperation and whether these goals had been reached. A set of factual questions relating to development cooperation and policy were first presented (e.g. "How many people in the world live in extreme poverty, i.e. living on less than one euro a day?"). The extent to which the respondents agreed with a large number of statements relating to developing countries and development cooperation was canvassed (e.g. "The problems of developing countries are mainly the Western world's fault", "Development cooperation is an efficient way of solving challenges of developing countries"). The respondents were asked whether they had foreign friends or friends with immigrant background as well as what their opinions on a more multicultural Finnish society were. The forms of civic engagement and activities relating to development cooperation the respondents had done or thought they could do were investigated. Frequency of discussions about development cooperation at school was charted as well as the sources from which the respondents had received information about developing countries. The respondents were requested to list organisations for development cooperation they had heard of. Finally, the respondents were asked how important they regarded various values and ways to act (e.g. "How important is it to you to help people around you?") and to what extent they thought various descriptions applied to them (e.g. "To what extent do you like surprises and trying out new things?"). Background variables included the respondent's gender, year of birth, major region of residence, economic activity, level of education, religiosity, membership of associations/voluntary organisations as well as the number of inhabitants in the place residence and whether the respondent lived with his/her parents or guardians.