Liberia, April 30 -- Summary:

By Joyclyn Wea, gender correspondent with New Narratives

"If they are not feeling it, if you are not making a difference in what they do, then we are irrelevant."

That was the frank concession from Aliou Mamadou Dia, the United Nations Development Program's resident representative in Liberia, to more than 50 young people - including entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, student leaders, and digital innovators - at an unusual consultation session at a conference hall in Congo Town last week. Dia told the group the agency had not listened closely enough to them in the past. So the agency is changing how it works with young people.

In a move widely celebrated by participants, he said the agency would be asking t...