| Governance, voice and accountability |
Youth structures and leaderships can benefit from cross-party or non-party support. However, too much isolation from mainstream political discourse (or government initiatives) can reduce their impact.
Youth mainstreaming is an ambitious proposition in most countries, but there are no clear alternatives given the cross-cutting nature of youth issues.
Young people can be successfully involved in executive decisions, e.g., budgeting, programme design and management, that go far beyond consultation.
Young people need to be skilled, experienced communicators in order to engage with older decision-makers in government and communities.
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| Post-conflict transitions and livelihoods |
Programmes should address psychosocial needs and protective factors for conflict-affected youth.
There is demand for legal/political literacy work including voter education.
Vocational skills for displaced youth must proceed from a thorough market assessment.
Financing of livelihood interventions for conflict-affected youth has been successfully linked to clients’ outcomes (employment).
Violence prevention work addressing economic, political and cultural factors is also necessary in non-conflict regions such as the Caribbean.
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| Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) |
Young people can make significant improvements to monitoring (methods and data collection), suggesting more appropriate/creative methodologies/indicators.
Gender-aware work in some countries is now addressing young men’s identities.
Community leaders can be successfully mobilised on the issue of adolescent SRHR.
Appropriate broadcast media campaigns can reach a third to over two-thirds of a given youth population.
Peer educators can more effectively communicate with their peers (particularly relevant when young people are disproportionately affected by SRHR issues).
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| Social exclusion |
Development partners are operating with various understandings (paradigms) of youth development, many of which fall short of an assets-based or participatory approach.
Involving young people in policy, planning or situation analysis creates an obligation to involve them in implementation, and to deliver concrete assistance.
Expectations of young people and government alike need to be managed. It can help to commit to minimum outcomes/quality standards at the beginning of a process.
Social exclusion issues call for understanding of the cases of exclusion, cultural sensitivity and imaginative outreach in appropriate languages.
Youth as a sector is itself marginalised; mainstreaming is the appropriate response.
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