The MYP toolkit is put together with great care by the team for Youth, Education and Work in collaboration with colleagues and youth. The background information as well as suggestions for tools and methods will guide you in ensuring that youth voices are heard within our policy and programmes for international cooperation.
Why
Countries in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, have very young populations. Much can be achieved if we gear policies and interventions towards the specific challenges and opportunities of the youth.
For that to happen, we need to make sure youth voices are heard and integrated. After all, young people can tell best what works for them. This is why enabling young people to strengthen their voice is one of the central ambitions in the Youth at Heart Strategy.
What
Meaningful Youth Participation (MYP) is about ensuring that young people have the opportunity to be involved in processes of decision-making on policies, strategies and programmes that affect them. This implies working with them as leaders, partners and beneficiaries, and listening to what matters most to them, with the aim of taking their views, concerns and suggestions into account in our policies, strategies and programmes.
Youth participation is not just about working with young people on matters that are high on our agenda. Young people should have the opportunity to speak out about their own agendas as well. A vital part of the participation process is to ensure young people are properly informed about the issues at hand and the processes they are engaged in.
How
In this toolkit, we distinguish five levels of participation, from Informing
as the lowest level of engagement, to Empowering as the highest level of youth engagement. In different contexts and roles, different levels of participation may be required and applied. Sometimes it may be appropriate to only consult youth, but in other cases it is important to actively collaborate. The goal and the promise are different at each
level.
Please note that there is no blueprint that determines right of wrong MYP. Rather, there are recommendations that help you evaluate your position and context.
Reader’s Guide
The MYP toolkit is put together with great care by the team for Youth, Education and Work in collaboration with colleagues and youth. The background information as well as suggestions for tools and methods will guide you in ensuring that youth voices are heard.
The MYP toolkit consists of four parts and takes about 1 hour to read.
It is not a blueprint, rather an inspiration and guidebook.
The Meaningful Youth Participation Toolkit (English)