White Paper: Meaningful Youth Engagement in the Intergovernmental Energy Space
Introduction
It is clear that in order to ensure a rapid and equitable energy transition, the youth must be a key group
involved in planning, decision making, and implementation. This summary lays out the main points of the
white paper on meaningful youth engagement in the events and processes in the intergovernmental
energy space. The recommendations are built upon the principles and barriers for meaningful youth
engagement developed through consultative processes by the United Nations Major Group for Children
and Youth (UN MGCY). This document was developed by the SDG7 Constituency (SDG7 YC),
which is the formal and dedicated youth engagement mechanism in UN sustainable development
processes focused on energy. It is associated with the UN MGCY. It also promotes youth engagement in
other energy-related initiatives in the multilateral system.
General good and bad practices for meaningful youth engagement
To enable meaningful youth engagement, organizing entities are encouraged to utilize global and
regional platforms – such as the SGD7 YC – for gathering inputs, recruiting speakers, and sharing
information, instead of creating ad hoc discretionary youth bodies. It is crucial to create a safe and
all-inclusive (gender, disability, location) environment and provide translation to allow for active
participation and contributions from diverse youth (including indigenous groups). Furthermore, it is
important to create equitable opportunities for engagement for youth who may be left behind due to
technical issues and the digital divide. To mitigate this and other forms of exclusion, organizing entities
should allocate necessary resources to cover the costs borne by youth participants and contributors. For
in-person events, it will be important to maintain broad access facilitated currently by virtual events.
Engagement of youth must be conducted in a transparent and genuine manner in regards to project
timelines, the amount of commitment and input expected of youth, and potential reasons for not
implementing youth inputs. When gathering youth inputs, it is crucial to create a collaborative
environment as opposed to creating opportunities that entice unhealthy competition between youth and
undermine their self-organization and collectivism.
When creating youth-focused events, organizers should ensure that at least 50% of speakers are young
people and that these sessions are moderated by youth. Organizers should avoid structuring processes
and events where youth are the subject of the conversation but do not have a space at the table. This
directly leads to the tokenization of youth. Nothing about us without us.
Co-creation and preparations
Effective co-creation with youth, including agenda and goals setting and format selection, requires a
rights-based and designated approach that guarantees diverse representation and enables universal
access. This can be achieved by conducting regional consultations that reduce barriers due to language
and time zone differences and unveils region-specific needs. Organizers should refrain from seeking
youth inputs only at a later stage when details and desired outcomes have already been set and are
guided by the institutional goals of organizing entities. The involvement of youth employees of the
organizing entity should not substitute for meaningful co-creation with youth.
Metrics of equality and inclusion should be the key indicators of success, and the results and impacts of
youth inputs should be reported. Failing to implement the inputs from youth and lacking the tools for
successful follow-ups risk alienating youth from engaging with organizers in the future.
Run-up activities can be leveraged to create a wider engagement beyond the usual target audience and
strengthen the participation of youth. In promotional efforts, it is best to utilize the full range of available
communications channels and adjust the message to fit the culture of young people, which will
sometimes mean having more casual language.
Content and implementation
Global convenings need to provide a platform for youth to further escalate pressure on countries to raise
their ambitions. Enabling youth to self-organize, internally coordinate, and offer a transparent selection of
speakers for advocacy opportunities are ways to ensure meaningful youth engagement. Youth should be
allowed to make their advocacy statements without prior review of their interventions as well. There
should be a clear distinction between interventions of young experts speaking in their individual capacity
and collective advocacy statements. There should be dedicated spaces to showcase the work of youth
practitioners, as well as leverage their expertise and insights in exhibitions, panels, and talks. At the
same time, individual youth speakers should not be treated as representatives of their entire generation.
Expecting them to be knowledgeable about all youth-related issues directly undermines their standing as
thematic experts and dismisses the complexity of issues faced by youth as a non-monolithic
constituency.
Putting youth in formal or informal spaces with the mere goal of talking about youth engagement, in
particular when there are no tangible outcomes or decision-making power of the conversation directly
leads to tokenization of youth. Rather, young people should be given a say on the substantive matters
and a fair share in the decision-making process. While separate youth-focused events are important for
the exchange of ideas, the outcomes need to be streamlined to the main events. These outcomes and
youth advocacy statements need to be incorporated in the main outputs of the events and processes,
such as policy reports and strategic plans.
A critical component of events and processes is mobilizing resources. Focusing on networking rather
than investment or other forms of tangible support may discourage market-oriented youth from
participating in the processes and events.
Follow-up
Ultimately, event organizers, partners, and attendees must discuss what can be done to turn events into
effective long-term action, since the purpose of events is to act as catalysts for long-term impact.
Engagement of youth should be consistent all year and different entities should coordinate concerning
their events to avoid repeating the same topics and discussions. After the closure of each event or
process, there should be a collection of feedback and a debrief on successes and failures.