Genuine participation gives ... ‘young people the power to shape both the process and the outcome’ UNICEF/Lansdown, 2004

The foundation for this guide is viewing youth as assets: as partners and leaders in development. An asset approach is based on recognising that young people have assets i.e., not simply viewing them as lacking capabilities or being deprived by circumstances, and that they collectively can be an asset to development; at local, national, regional and international levels. Central to this approach is a belief in core principles:

• Recognising young people’s agency and dynamism and advocating for it
• Building youth-adult partnerships and understanding local attitudes towards youth 
• Prioritising excluded youth

These core principles are crucial at all levels of: political strategy (building state capacity, partnering with other agencies etc); programmatic development (achieving standards, good practice etc); and sound management and governance (mainstreaming). Here, youth mainstreaming is understood as working with and for youth in four key areas:

• Organisational development, e.g., formulating youth policy at an institutional level;
• Policy and planning, e.g., integrating youth at sub-national levels, in country planning and in public policy;
• Implementation, e.g., applying the principles and lessons learnt to modify existing initiatives or to start new pilots;
• Monitoring & evaluating, e.g., documenting thoroughly, using the quality standards, and developing them into comprehensive process standards.

It is vital to acknowledge that every age cohort, social group and individual young person is unique and ever-changing. Flexibility and creativity are prerequisites for working with young people. Therefore whatever the thematic focus or operational area the key is always understanding local context.

The strategies, approaches and frameworks contained in this guide are a place to start rather than blue-prints. Youth are diverse in terms of: age; gender; aspirations, levels of emotional and cognitive maturity; as well as socio-economically - ranging from influential elites to the poor, exploited and excluded.

Reinforcing inequalities by targeting youth leaders from well-known visible groups alone must be avoided. Like all other areas of development, understanding inequalities and power relationships is crucial, including in relation to gender dynamics. Social exclusion has been presented as a cross-cutting theme throughout this guide, and the youth sector can learn from gender in terms of appropriate approaches for reaching out to excluded members of communities.

Despite all the promising practice documented in the guide, few partnerships are systematically involving young people at all these stages, and thus excelling. A commitment to tackling the injustice of ignoring young people in development will yield results. Young people are the foundations for effective development, and if engaged they will improve many of the structural development challenges that we face today, including: enhancing the cohesion of families and communities, reducing health risks and advancing livelihood opportunities. They are the bridge between effective policy and valuable practical action on the ground.

‘Once a national focus on youth begins to show results — in poverty reduction and in other areas — a ‘virtuous circle’ is created whereby other countries will begin investing in youth, as well; not because international bodies argue for it, but because countries see it is in their own self-interest. It is in this way that a focus on youth can become truly self-sustaining.’ Mari Simonen, Director, Technical Division, UNFPA 2005