Background

In 2016 following the launch of the Compact for Young people in Humanitarian Action at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul,  the initial member organisations came together in New York for a face-to-face meeting to understand what member organisations identified as priorities for the Compact and to determine how the group would begin to frame work around these priorities. The membership is made up of organisations from the UN and NGO communities including youth organisations, with the private sector and states constituting the final members.  The face-to-face meeting resulted in a broad plan of action being agreed, with many questions still to be answered. The face-to-face meeting resulted in a broad plan of action being agreed, and some further questions, that were further discussed during the virtual and then at the 2017, 2018 and 2019  face-to-face meetings.

This document prepared by task force 2 of the compact on youth participation seeks to draw on The Principles and Barriers of Meaningful Youth Engagement and Compact Guidelines on Engaging Young People in Humanitarian Settings, and suggest a way forward to operationalise meaningful youth engagement and take stock of the current situation of youth engagement in the compact.

In addition some key themes identified during this process were- 1) Mentorship, 2) –Long term substantive engagement-not only feedback consultation,– 3) recognizing agency of  young people- “FOR and WITH Young People”, –4) ‘Youth’ as a diverse group including in ‘AGE definition’, 5) –Special considerations- non homogenous grouping across many factors, –6) Co-design and implementation.

The members of this task force include- UNMGCY, Gooddler, Mercy Corps, MYAN, WOSM, UNFPA, while there is interest from NRC, Action Aid, ROTA, Restless Development, Save Youth Future Society organisation, CAYC.