http://ijba.sciedupress.com International Journal of Business Administration Vol. 13, No. 3; 2022 Published by Sciedu Press 45 ISSN 1923-4007 E-ISSN 1923-4015 From Margins to Centre: Relocating Youth Participation in Radical Politics of International Development Gamel Abdul-Nasser Salifu 1 1 Department of Economics, School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, (SOLASS), Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Achimota, Accra, Ghana Correspendence: Alhaji Gamel Abdul-Nasser Salifu, Lecturer, Department of Economics, School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Achimota, Accra, Ghana. E-mail: sgamel@gimpa.edu.gh Received: November 8, 2021 Accepted: December 9, 2021 Online Published: May 17, 2022 doi:10.5430/ijba.v13n3p45 URL: https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v13n3p45 Abstract This paper focuses on youth participation in decision-making processes for economic growth and development. Very little is known of the effectivity of rural youth participation in the developing world. Drawing on recent empirical evidence of youth participation in economics and development research, the paper identifies the growing interest of policy makers on shorthanded interventions aimed at improving young lives. Going beyond official blueprints and the stated objectives of international development interventions, interventions have widely emphasized the mechanical aspects of projects rather than the direct impact of interventions on young beneficiaries. Understanding this is critical for development as recent projects‟ high rate of failure and unintended consequences for beneficiaries continue to grow. Based on the review of over 100 documented cases of youth participation in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the paper offers a conceptual guide, reinforced by methodological suggestions for studying the representational „afterlives‟ of development interventions. Inspired by the phenomenological works of economic development research, the paper recognizes young voices as repositories of non-hegemonic knowledge with the ability to creatively re-appropriate development legacies. While such conclusions may have been kept under relative control, they come to fore upon the termination of interventions. A grassroots-based approach aimed at studying post-intervention communities would reveal the palimpsest-like multilayers of flagship programmes across the developing world. Keywords: economic growth, development, youth-centred approaches, social inclusion/exclusion, participation, empowerment, projects and interventions, leadership, YALLI 1. Introduction Since the last decades of development research have been characterized by strong disillusionment with prevailing government policies for achieving equity and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa, it is perhaps not surprising that new professionals have looked increasingly to participatory governance and leadership as a providential escape out of the development dilemma (Brett, 2003, Green, 2000). New strategies based on decentralized or participatory development have strongly emerged from the academic landscape. These strategies have gained currency among international organisations (including the World Bank and the European Union) and bilateral aid institutions (Rangel, & Thomas, 2019; Harrison, 2008). They have advocated the development of better approaches to enhancing youth participation in global development work. Youth development programmes have become central to international discourse of economic development in recent times. Youth development programmes have represented multi-level metagovernance approaches to poverty eradication and empowerment of vulnerable households (Salifu, 2021). Youth participation in economic development is favoured by international aid organisations because of the inherent belief in the idea that youth participation can be effective channels for genuine delegation of powers and responsibilities (Rossi, 2019). The point could nevertheless be made that big donor organisations have embarked upon participatory programmes grounded in operational guidelines designed to enhance youth participation in egalitarian societies. The optimism that have accompanied youth participation have nonetheless emphasized the development of youth capacity to address their own problems and to support their community-based initiatives and partnerships for economic growth and development.These initiatives have focused on increasing participation and