YouthLoom
As a development practitioner who has closely worked with adolescents and youth, I have always wondered whether our programmes and projects are truly meaningfully engaging young people. Are we genuinely ready to co-design youth policies and programmes with them, rather than primarily designing for them? After all, they are the ones who will ultimately experience, access and be affected by them.
I believe youth participation should go beyond inviting young people to events or asking them for their opinions after decisions have already been made. Meaningful youth engagement means involving young people early, respecting different perspectives, and allowing them to contribute to the decisions that affect their lives. It also means creating opportunities for them to help identify problems, shape priorities, contribute to solutions and reflect on what works.
Policies and programmes may be designed for young people, yet their everyday experiences, concerns, and ideas often remain absent from the conversation.
There may be many factors which may act as constraints to making co-designing feasible, like limited time and resources. But we can try to make an attempt to include young people at the early stages of designing any project/programme related to them. In the words of H. Stanley Judd (1978), “A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.” This approach will ensure that, right from the beginning, a youth-centric approach is embedded rather than mid-course corrections, which is also a judicious way to optimally use time and resources.
It’s about time that we acknowledge the reality that youth is not a homogeneous group. They come from different strata in society and with varied life experiences. It is paramount to be mindful of this while designing youth programmes and policies, and ensuring that young people are treated as co-designers/collaborators rather than just beneficiaries. Their active participation and contributions help bridge the gap between policies and meaningful impact. Their unique ideas, strengths, and skills also encourage new ways of thinking and designing that may be valuable.
My message to organisations and decision-makers is simple:
Youth must be involved at every stage of projects and programmes, especially those that concern them. This means creating meaningful pathways for their participation from identifying problems and designing interventions to implementation, monitoring and learning.
For this, we also need to ensure there are no barriers to their participation, and they have the safety and space to voice their ideas. Young people need accessible and inclusive spaces, adequate information, respect for their perspectives and the freedom to express what they genuinely think, including when they disagree.
Leaving you all with the question which consistently haunts me:
How willing are we to ‘Walk the Talk’ when it comes to treating young people as partners?
