Interview with Yasmine and Damilola from the Youth Advisory Committee

News item | 13-11-2024 | 14:06

In this interview, the Dutch Ambassador for Youth, Education and Work interviewed two of the YAC members on their experiences during the meet-up week, motivations for joining the YAC and the youth agenda more broadly. Below you find the interview between Damilola (a returning member), Yasmine (a new member) and the ambassador.

Ambassador: How do you look back on your first meet-up week (Yasmine) and your third meet-up week (Damilola)?

Yasmine: ‘It was very interesting and inspiring, although it was a packed week! But I’ve heard it was less packed than previous meet-up weeks, so I can’t really complain. I’ve explored different topics within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but we also visited interesting organizations, like the National Institutes for Human Rights and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.

We met a lot of people, but especially the two days at the ministry were really eye-opening for me. I spoke to policy officers from two different teams: the ones working on migration and the ones working on inclusion of women. I was really inspired by the work that you do and I’ve gained some valuable insights.’

Damilola: ‘I’ve also had an amazing week, with various activities. It was my third meet-up week and it’s always good to be in this vibrant group with people from different countries, exchanging experiences and inspiring each other.

This week in particular was quite substantial, as we came at an important point in time. The ministry is currently formulating a new policy direction for the government, which gave us an opportunity to contribute to the new outlook on development and how it will look like it the near future. We had an interesting session with the Deputy Director General of the International Cooperation department, and the YAC was the first group to contribute to the process of developing a new outlook. So it really shows the importance of the YAC and how it is valued within the ministry.

During the session with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), we designed a particular project and they’re interested in further developing it and implementing in any of the focus countries. Really motivating!’

Ambassador: What was the most exciting part of the week?

Yasmine: ‘Well, I actually have three, if I may. The first one is the policy consultation, like Damilola said. Our perspectives were discussed, and the ideas that the policy makers had were tested against a group of young people from the current focus countries. It was really a conversation: both sides provided input and both sides reflected on everything that was said.

The second highlight would be the YAC itself. We are from different countries, and from different backgrounds. So spending time together was very fruitful, I got a lot of diverse experiences and interesting points of view. Some old members and some new members; really enriching to learn from each other. We identified a lot of similarities, and also a lot of points on which we can support each other.

Lastly, meeting with the policy officers from the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Task Force was really inspiring, I wanted to learn about that: what they were doing and how I could potentially contribute to that.’

Damilola: ‘There were two major highlights for me. First, also the policy consultation, but the second one for me was to meet with the policy officers from my country. Normally, we work through tracks and sprints and give advice on certain policy areas that arise from particular departments. But I was already thinking that there could be some extra collaboration with the desk officers that focus specifically on, in my case, Nigeria.

I really see opportunities to talk more about what is happening in our countries, for example on the topic of migration. This time, I spoke to several people that were working on Nigeria as a country, either as a sole focus or as part of their portfolio. The meeting with several of these policy officers provided new perspectives and new venues to contribute.’

Damilola: So if I may ask a question, why did the Netherlands decide to invest all this time and resources into meaningful youth participation?

Ambassador: ‘Already five or six years ago, the minister at the time realized that youth is such an important part of the population in all of the countries that we work with. That makes them our most important stakeholders. The good thing about youth is: you can actually work with them. Young children, or future generations for example, you can’t work with them in a constructive manner.

Youth is innovative and have interesting points of views, so once the minister saw this she wondered why our most important stakeholder is underrepresented. This was the start of Youth at Heart. After this, a consultation with youth in Africa and the Middle East followed, where we consulted more than 1200 young persons from the region.

So in this sense, youth really gave us their dreams and opportunities, but also what is preventing them from reaching those dreams. Naturally, that’s also what is interesting for the Netherlands to work on. To this day, it is an investment in supporting job opportunities, entrepreneurship, and decent education that is fit for purpose.

Another priority was providing a voice for young people: meaningful youth participation. We’re still doing that as well, and the YAC is an important part of doing so.’

Damilola: So about the YAC, what has been the influence of the YAC at policy making for The Netherlands?

Ambassador: ‘First of all, it’s a realization both within the ministry as well as the embassies that, if you want to work for youth, you have to involve them in the process. And you also have to do it in a meaningful manner. That realization throughout our organization has been the biggest impact, I say. The YAC has shown that input from youth is relevant on any topic.

Meaningful youth participation is relevant for new programs, as well as the policy currently drafted. To consistently consider youth from the beginning and ideally through the entire life cycle is imperative for effective policy. Of course, till what extent this happens differs per colleague and embassy. Some embassies really take youth into account from the beginning to the planning phase, to the implementation phase but even in the evaluation phase.

For example, some embassies have members from their local Youth Advisory Committees with them on evaluation trips. Some do it more than others, but overall the awareness has really grown over the last years.’

Yasmine: Do you have any advice to young persons that want to be meaningfully involved?

Ambassador: ‘I would say that you have to be fully aware of the attention that is currently given to youth approaches, or youth affairs more generally. Investments are rising, also specifically for the practical education programs and jobs of the future. This wave is relatively new, although the Netherlands have been working on it for quite some time now.

The same goes for meaningful youth participation, it’s really a topic on the rise in today’s day and age. It’s true that some initiatives fail to make participation actually meaningful, and we are – quite literally – the first to admit that it is a learning process all throughout. But it’s important to be aware of this increasing attention, and that there are growing opportunities to make use of this.

So my advice is to understand your worth and be able to communicate this worth adequately towards the venues that are opening up daily.’

Ambassador: You were the ones that were very aware of these opportunities. What were your reasons for joining the YAC?

Damilola: ‘For me, I was really curious when I saw the vacancy. There are several youth groups, but in my previous experience they were all quite tokenistic: you joined them but there is really no meaningful impact. Nothing was done with your input. So I talked with the former YAC member from Nigeria to find out about the experiences with the committee, and whether it was just a marketing strategy or genuinely impactful.

What stood out for me was, although it’s a learning process like you indicated, the team that coordinates the program really does their utmost best to make it impactful. So any feedback you give is taken seriously. This is, of course, in line with the reasons why they wanted the YAC to begin with: the input of youth is an opportunity to make policy more impactful. As such, it’s an opportunity for me to amplify my own impact and work with a team that is ready to work with you.’

Yasmine: ‘For me it’s a bit more recent. I saw an opportunity on LinkedIn through a former YAC member. It was for me a question of: how much do you want to have influence on the policy that impacts you on youth? So I researched a bit further through the Youth at Heart website and also reviewed profiles of former members, which quite aligned with my own interests.

The topics that were important to me are also important to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that was a big drive for me. In my experience, most of these types of committees haven’t had the impact I hoped for—they often feel more like exercises on paper. You participate in consultations and dialogues, but your contributions rarely lead to tangible outcomes.’

Ambassador: On that note, what can we do better?

Yasmine and Damilola: 'Providing structured feedback on which advice from the YAC was most relevant. Some of our advice is implemented, while others are not. It’s important for us to understand why certain advice is utilized and why some is not.

Of course, we understand the complex nature of a big and bureaucratic organization like the ministry: all of our advice might not be implementable. But understanding why certain advice doesn’t work is relevant for us, because we can then adjust our form of communication, or simply refocus our efforts within the research we do.’

Ambassador: What was the most impactful advice that you worked on last year?

Damilola: ‘The one that is closest to my heart was the one we did for the Orange Corners program. The program works in a variety of countries, but the challenge was to understand the different people that were participating in the program. So our task was to make different persona’s.

Youth is not a homogeneous group, they’re highly diverse and we have to be able to interact with people in their diversity. So we had to make persona’s and see how impactful a program like Orange Corners can actually be on a diverse set of persons. I was quite significantly engaged with this project and had the opportunity to see it implemented through the program.

There are a couple of things really, but this one was specifically interesting because the Orange Corners team followed up with our input very passionately. This indicates that we’re doing something good as YAC members, but also that the teams we interact with are very keen on using our input.’

Ambassador: ‘For me personally, the highlight of last year was the interactive session working on the Middle Eastern peace process. It was a topic so dear to all the YAC members, and the team is extremely busy whilst not wanting to be influenced significantly by the opinions of other policy officers. They’re focused on peacebuilding, and it’s quite hard to speak to them on topic.

We mentioned that you, the YAC, was concerned about the whole situation and they immediately jumped on it. ‘Is it the YAC? We can certainly make time!’ they said, so they brought the whole team together – again, a team that’s extremely busy with parliamentary requests and instructions and what not – and sat down with you for a full two hour session.

Everything was discussed, open and honestly, partly because they wanted to explain the more nuanced decision making that is going on. They really took you through this process and also wanted to make use of your presence, asking what to differently in terms of our image in the reason; why is it we are perceived as such.

So it was a really valuable exchange and is, for me, almost the epitome of meaningful youth participation, in the sense that it is a topic so important for Dutch foreign politics and still the most important people working on it took the time to talk to you.

So that was one, but I also have to admit that it’s always good to see old YAC members at the conferences and events I go to, like One Young World and the COP. It’s not the main objective, but it’s good to see that the YAC can really be a sort of steppingstone for members. So that’s good as well.’

Damilola: Speaking of the alumni, how can we engage them better in the current YAC?

Ambassador: ‘If you have a good suggestion, we will certainly work on it. It has been in the pipeline for quite some time, and we have made some strides. But it certainly needs more attention. Maybe something like a LinkedIn group can already work. We really want to work on it, but sometimes we run into the limitations of a bureaucracy like the ministry.

Ideally, we turn the website Youth at Heart into a platform where we link not only the YAC and the alumni, but also local YACs, the West Wing and other youth initiatives.’

Yasmine: ‘I was also thinking about it. The idea that a lot of people already worked on tracks before garners a lot of experience and expertise on the process. So it would be really valuable if it can be brought together and presented to newcoming members. The buddy system certainly works, and it would be good to supply it with something like this.’

Damilola: 'Also, advising on the structure of the YAC as well as its processes would be of value'

Yasmine: So how does it feel for you, Damilola, to be involved for the second year?

Damilola: ‘At first I wasn’t sure about being with the same group for only one year at the time, since every year the ones who are sitting in the YAC for two years leave the group and new ones come in. However, now I really see the value since it’s a great mechanism for continuity, which is important for a young groups like this.

It’s good also for the new members, since it gives you a direct insight into how to make the work of the YAC impactful. Also, it gives you awareness about the organization of the ministry; it can be quite confusing sometimes just coming in here. And it’s true that everyone experiences it: I had the same questions when I came in as a YAC member.’

Damilola: How is it for you, do you feel supported by the older members?

Yasmine: ‘Definitely! We had a lot of online meetings, and everything was explained, everything. Even things that I didn’t even think about. But also, the general support from the returning members is really valuable, including the buddy system.

I was basically given a buddy with whom I can talk about things; anything really. Personal, logistical, anything. Also to understand whether a question is appropriate, or whether it can be asked to the specific person in front of me.’

Ambassador: What are the priorities for the YAC for this year?

Damilola: ‘For me it really links to understanding the new direction of the government and to emphasize the alignment with many of the values that YAC members hold. So to understand how to be effective in this new political landscape.

Additionally, it’s also important to engage more with organizations like The West Wing. We had our first meeting with this Dutch youth committee just yesterday, and it is really the next step in meaningful youth participation. It widens the platform of youth within the ministry, and is now also something for us to expand upon.’

Yasmine: ‘I think I have two priorities. The first is a bit more personal, whereas it relates to my personal expertise on gender and women’s rights. To make sure this lens is adopted within our advice is important to me, whereas it is a struggle I see within any context of the countries of the YAC members.

It’s somewhat similar to the track kick off we had, which is also a focus for the upcoming time. It had to do with a generational assessment, in which every policy has to be tested for its impact on future generations. We are asked to provide our perspective on this generational assessment, including the development of certain tools for a toolbox for policy officers to use.

Besides, I think it would be intriguing for me to promote the YAC into the Middle East. While many embassies have a local YAC, the one in Egypt doesn’t have one as of yet. They do a lot of things on youth and on other topics too, and the YAC would really be able to expand the reach to their network.’

Ambassador: As a last question, why is it so important that the Netherlands has a focus on youth?

Damilola: ‘For you to be a successful country you need solid partners. The youth is going to be the ones that eventually become minister, CEOs and all that. Especially in Africa and the Middle East, where over 60 percent of the population is currently youth, it’s important to maintain good relationships with youth. It’s quintessential to engage with them for a country like the Netherlands, simply because you’re building partnerships with the leaders of tomorrow.

Besides that, it provides benefits for everyone involved. Youth has shown to have the most innovative approaches to modern day problems. So empowering youth to harness this creative mindset is not only good locally, but it’s also important for you, as you are positioned to benefit from the newest creations. If you invest in youth, you’re simply investing in yourself’

Yasmine: ‘I could add that it’s always told to us that Europe is the aging continent. So when you have Africa and the Middle East with these vast numbers of youth, you are also investing in a cross-country partnership with the group that is increasingly absent in your own society. Partnering with youth doesn’t mean to partner with just one country: it’s partnering with a whole group of people across cultures. The investment is imperative for continuous support from a big region.’