The current paradigm of youth development characterized by economic growth-centeredness and Eurocentrism does not lead to inclusive youth development. In the current paradigm, the youth are considered as labor inputs and a focus of youth development is concentrated on how to create a labor force that better suits the contemporary capitalist economic system. As a result, the youth are evaluated with quite a narrow economic lens and their intrinsic values as cultural and social beings are often neglected. Furthermore, a cleavage between the Westernized, elite youth (who went to school, acquired modern scientific knowledge, entered the modern employment system, among others.) and the non-Westernized, nonelite youth (young people who are out of school and jobless) are immense. The cleavage manifests itself as distorted elitism marked by the paternalistic attitude of the privileged elites towards the unprivileged youth. That prevents constructive dialogues between them, with the needs of the marginalized youth being too often unmet. Drawing from the concept of human development, human security and epistemic reconstruction, this essay brings the current paradigm under scrutiny and envisions the alternative one that integrates the hitherto marginalized youth. The youth population in Africa is expected to increase in the foreseeable future, and they will become more and more important actors in development. This process of relocating youth development from the current paradigm to the alternative one is thus urgent and imperative.