What Works in Youth Participation: Case Studies from Around the World

According to Rick Little, President of the International Youth Foundation, youth participation is a crucial ingredient to positive youth development and yet "it remains a subject that defies easy description. What does youth participation mean in different cultures? What inhibits or encourages youth participation? What attitudes do young people and adults hold when it comes to ensuring young people a greater voice in decision making? How does lack of access to technology hinder youth's ability to participate on a national or global scale? What lessons have we learned from existing youth participation programs worldwide? These are some of the questions explored in this paper."

The case studies profiled in this 74-page report are diverse in terms of the local context from which they emerge, the level of "readiness" of each profiled country for youth engagement activities, and the author's life experience. But within that diversity, there are some common themes that emerge on what factors enable and encourage youth involvement in arenas traditionally reserved for adults. Some of the "enabling" factors that encourage youth participation include a shift in adults' thinking about youth; a change in young people's attitudes towards adults; and a recognition that leadership and participation are not a factor of age.

Table of Contents

• Foreword by Rick Little
• Introduction
• A Starting Point: Some Hard Questions
  • An Adult's Dilemma on Youth Participation
    by Oliver Tayo (Philippines)
• Personal Reflections on Youth Participation
  • From Brazil: A Young Activist's Road to Social Action
    by Rui Mesquita (Brazil)
  • Pan's Story
    by Worawut Ngampiboolwet (Thailand)
• Youth Participation in Programs and Organizations
  • Making it Work
    by Jaya Iyer (India)
  • Giving Meaning to School: Youth and Community Participation
    by Sergio Sanchez, Rosa Alba Schroeder, and Susana Lamela (Argentina)
• Youth Participation in the Political Arena
  • Creating a Local Youth Council
    by Thomas Busch (Germany)
  • Youth Network of Medellín
    by Adriana Benjumea (Colombia)
• Mainstreaming Youth Participation
  • Youth Participation in the Balkans: Wishful Thinking or Long-term Reality?
    by Agon Demjaha (The Balkans)
  • Making Youth Participation and Service the Common Experience and Expectation: The Story of Youth Service America
    by Michael McCabe (USA)
• Conclusion

This paper is part of a series of "What Works" publications published by IYF that examine issues in the youth development field. The series aims to provide practitioners, policymakers, and others supporting youth initiatives with insights into effective practices and innovative approaches impacting young people worldwide.

To order a paper copy of this publication, please contact youth@iyfnet.org