Meaningful youth engagement is a participatory process in which young people’s ideas, expertise, experiences, and perspectives are integrated throughout programmatic, policy, and institutional decision-making structures so as to best inform outcomes. This process requires young people to be involved in all levels and stages of program, policy, campaign, and initiative development, including all stages of design, implementation, and evaluation; this is especially true of those programs that directly affect their lives.
Citizens Summit in Defense of Democracy & Freedom | Lusaka, Zambia
State actors and non-state actors alike, including civil society and the private sector, prioritize the effective participation of young people in governance and economic spaces and that young people themselves must continue to actively pursue effective non-tokenistic participation that allows their voices to be heard and integrated into policymaking.