Our Story

After 25 years as SPW, we have launched a new name and brand to better capture our youth-led mission and ambitions – Restless Development.

If this is news to you, and you want to understand why we changed our name and brand, we’d love to tell you all about it in this video, or you can download a summary presentation to read. Even better, why not listen to our spirit in a song developed and sung by a group of our young leaders.

We are now Restless Development, the youth-led development agency.

Our story is simple and powerful. 

What do we know?

Young people make up more than 50% of the world’s population.

That’s a lot of energy. A lot of talent. A lot of skills.

And yet we are often seen as helpless, or dangerous, or unimportant – frequently overlooked as part of the solution to the persistent issues facing the world.

What do we believe?

Young people can and must be part of the solution.

Not tomorrow.

Today.

We are the largest, most energetic group of people in the world. When we work together with a common purpose, anything is possible.

What are we here for?

To channel the indisputably positive power of young people to bring about real progress.

How do we do it?

In the simplest terms, we train, educate, support and inspire young people to lead development in their countries and communities. We help young people make responsible choices about their own lives. We equip young people to contribute positively to their societies. We create space for young people to play active roles in policy and decision-making.

We are restless because the problems of the world persist and we want to resolve them.

Young people around the world share this restless determination to make things better.

When we channel this energy into development work anything is possible.

Read more about how we do our work, where we work, or come work with us yourself.

Or if you have more questions about our rebrand, check our FAQ section.