‘Gang rape….23 year-old girl…Delhi…hospitalised’

These were the headlines that began to flood the cyber-world. Once news of the young female student’s death was confirmed due to injuries sustained from her five male attackers, there was public outcry and protest in India’s Capital which led to clashes with police[1]. BBC News and the Hindustan Times reported thousands of women and men protesting across India by lighting candles, peaceful sit-ins and marches, some even going as far as a hunger strike[2]. Internationally, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon condemned the attack and offered support to India on addressing gender issues through UN agencies.[3] UN Women also released a statement condemning the incident and highlighted the human rights aspects of violence against women[4].

So when I was trying to decide what to discuss in my ICS article, I couldn’t ignore gender equality issues in India as violence is a product of the inequality that exists there.

Institutional Mechanisms for promoting Women’s Rights

International human rights law has made ground-breaking strides in the advancement of women’s rights in society and combating violence (including sexual violence) against women. If we glance into the past we can recognise much has been achieved including, but not limited to, the first UN Conference on Women held in 1975 which later led to the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1979[5] created to ensure governments take progressive steps towards promoting socio-economic, civil and political equality between men and women in their countries. States such as India, who ratified the convention in July 1993 are supposedly bound by its Articles[6].

Violence against women is specifically defined and elaborated upon in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women adopted by the General Assembly in 1993. The declaration is there to be read alongside CEDAW, to ‘strengthen and complement’ each other as the declaration states[7]. Article 1 defines violence against women to include ‘physical, sexual and psychological harm or suffering’ reflecting the various harms that women are subject to. The declaration reaffirms protection of over-arching human rights for women such as the ‘right to life’ and the ‘right to be free from all forms of discrimination’. The declaration also lists actions that states must take to realise the rights of women such as developing laws, national policy plans and budgets. It explicitly mentions that ‘states should not invoke any custom, tradition or religious consideration to avoid their obligations’[8]. This is crucial when talking about violence against women in India as many see this as an extension of culture and tradition; something that director of Women under Siege, Lauren Wolfe believes cannot be ignored as the “culture of rape imbues whatever space we inhabit”[9].

We have also seen a Special Rapporteur on violence against women appointed in 1994, who operates in a more practical way undertaking fact finding country visits, transmitting urgent appeals to states on alleged cases of violence against women, and submitting thematic annual reports to the UN Human Rights Council. More recently, we have seen these issues integrated into international development frameworks particularly the Millennium Development Goals that contain a specific goal to ‘promote gender equality and empower women’ (MDG 3).

Challenging Social Norms

However, with all these advances, of which only a few are mentioned here, we must ask ourselves are we actually reaching the women, girls, boys and men in the urbanised and rural areas across the globe to sit up and take notice?

Sexual assault is still one of the most under-reported crimes with 54% of rapes going unreported according to the US Justice Department National Crime Victimization Survey (2006-2010) concluding that only 3 out of 100 rapists will spend even a day in prison[10]. The fact that many women do not report instances of rape or violence is often a result of social stigma, fear of reprisal and a self-blame complex perpetuated by social norms. The reaction of Bosta Satyanarayana, the Andhra Pradesh Congress Chief, is a good example this, where in his statement on the Delhi Gang Rape he seemed to blame the victim for venturing out late, and taking an unsafe private bus which sparked outrage and calls for his resignation[11].

The stigma young women face in India is encapsulated by the case of a 16 year-old girl who was raped in the state of Haryana by eight men and video recorded last year and didn’t tell her mother until 10 days after her ordeal. Her mother also remained silent taking the advice of community members that her daughter’s reputation and ability to marry would be severely affected. News of the video recording of his daughter’s rape drove her father to suicide because of the fear of social exclusion and shunning their family would receive from the community[12].

It is obvious that laws and policies have a part to play in the elimination of violence against women, however it is equally apparent that this is only half the task. The road ahead needs to be paved with open discussions between governments, NGOs, Women’s groups, specialised agencies, community leaders and most importantly general citizens to understand the misconceptions of violence against women, challenge cultural norms, take women’s rights seriously and advocate for equality between men and women across all areas of society.

There is still a lot to do…

See the main article, for context, here: Post-2015: The signal from the noise.

Recommendations from 17 reports, consultations, submissions and communiqués from youth focused organisations and events, were manually inputted and meta-analysed to discern the key asks made by young people. The 17 documents are available to view and download here.

Our curation of documents for analysis was limited to a call on the Beyond 2015 CYWG and Major Group for Children and Youth list-serves, twitter and our own knowledge of organisations, events and processes. We are missing reports specifically covering Asia and Central and South America.

For the research, there were three guiding questions:

1. What do global youth want from a post-2015 development agenda?
2. To what extent has the HLP met their asks?
3. What are the key youth issues missing from the HLP report?

804 recommendations were analysed and coded by the illustrative goal headings in Annex 1 of the High Level Panel report to show which recommendations had a ‘natural home’ in the report. The illustrative goal headings are:

1. End Poverty
2. Empower Girls and Women and Achieve Gender Equality
3. Provide Quality Education and Lifelong Learning
4. Ensure Healthy Lives
5. Ensure Food Security and Good Nutrition
6. Achieve Universal Access to Water and Sanitation
7. Secure Sustainable Energy
8. Create Jobs, Sustainable Livelihoods, and Equitable Growth
9. Manage Natural Resource Assets Sustainably
10. Ensure Good Governance and Effective Institutions
11. Ensure Stable and Peaceful Societies
12. Create a Global Enabling Environment and Catalyse Long-term Finance

Where recommendations covered multiple topics, these were coded multiple times by theme in order to capture the spirit of the recommendation. Recommendations were then broken down further in line with the national targets identified in the HLP report.

Recommendations that did not fit under existing illustrative goals were analysed with different coding labels created. This was needed to highlight the gaps in illustrative goals where recommendations did not naturally fit under one of the existing goals. These were:

• Labour/Capital Relations
• Urban Planning and Housing
• Inequality, Universal Access and Equal Opportunity
• Human Rights
• Migration and Mobility
• Other

Each goal was then coded with a second and third theme and additional sub-themes – addressing gaps in the national targets – were created and the recommendations coded. These can be viewed in the data set.

The recommendations were often compounded with multiple themes and this made it difficult to code without any form of attribution or inference as to the priority or meaning of the goal.

Recommendations have not been weighted based upon the number of young people that participated in the consultation, workshop or event. Each recommendations is considered ‘like for like.’

Our publication of the data is on an open-source basis and we welcome further exploration of the data, suggestions for its continued use, and a critical evaluation/suggestions for improvement of the research methodology.

The data set can be viewed and downloaded.

The research was undertaken by two researchers from the youthpolicy.org team in June 2013.

In May, the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda submitted their report (full report, executive summary, annex) to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to cautious optimism^[1] from civil society.

The panel consulted over 5.000 civil society organisations, received over 1.000 written submissions and consulted over 600.000 people from across the world. We have detailed and contextualised the process in our recent post Post-2015 perspectives: included, excluded or diluted?

So, did the High-Level panel listen to young people?

What does the data tell us?

4 out of 5 recommendations have a ‘natural home’

After the High Level panel (HLP) report was launched on May 31^st, the youthpolicy team curated 17 consultation documents and undertook a meta-analysis of over 800 recommendations. The full methodology, limitations and data set is available for download. Each recommendation was coded based upon the illustrative goals in the HLP report.

Based on our anaylsis, over 80% of the recommendations can be categorised using the illustrative goals and 75% of the recommendations link directly to the national targets, indicating that broadly, the HLP report has responded to the priorities and concerns of young people.

While a ‘natural home’ doesn’t mean that the specific details of a recommendation are addressed, it is a positive reflection on the report that so many of the themes raised by youth feature in the illustrative goals and national targets.

The overarching priorities

With a single recommendation possibly having multiple themes, they were coded with a primary, secondary and tertiary label. Young people made 804 single recommendations, but this increases to 966 when they are distributed across multiple themes. The table below shows this:

Table 1: Number of Themes covered by the Recommendations

The table below shows the top 5 priority themes identified by young people. It is ordered based upon the ‘Total’ column.

Note that the final row, Inequality, Universal Access and Equal Opportunity (Other than Gender), is not one of the illustrative goals and was added by our team in order to capture the spirit of a large number of recommendations. It represents a major gap in the High Level Panel goals.^[2]

Table 2: Top five youth priorities

The graph below visually represents the top 5 youth priorities. As before, the sixth column, Inequality, Universal Access and Equal Opportunity (Other than Gender), is not one of the illustrative goals and was added by our team in order to capture the spirit of a large number of recommendations that were not reflected in the HLP report.

The graph shows that while ‘Ensure Good Governance and Effective Institutions’ had the most primary theme recommendations, added with secondary and tertiary, ‘Provide Quality Education and Lifelong Learning’ becomes, by a small margin, the top youth priority.

Other recommendations (beyond inequality, access and equal opportunity, that didn’t have a natural home in the report’s universal goals focused on ‘housing and urban planning’, and ‘labour-capital relationships’. Overall, the analysis shows (1) inequality, (2) non-formal education and (3) minority participation in decision-making to be the main three areas of weakness in the universal goals and national targets from the perspective of young people and the youth movement.

Inequality, Universal Access and Equality of Opportunity

Inequality has been revealed as a major point of tension and disagreement amongst the High-Level Panel and despite its inclusion in the report it is not explicitly mentioned in the illustrative goals and national targets (see table 3 below).

The youth recommendations that focused on aspects of in/equality—among them social justice, anti-discrimination, equity, distribution of resources, minority groups and income inequality—represented 6.5% of all recommendations made. This is more than the recommendations on universal access to water & sanitation and ending poverty combined.

Creating an ‘Inequality, Universal Access and Equality of Opportunity’ goal would make it the 5^th top priority theme for young people (as shown above in table 2) with a total of 57 primary theme recommendations, made across 12 of the 17 reports analysed.

The lack of a specific goal on inequality has been the target of much criticism by a range of stakeholders, particularly given its prominent inclusion in a large number of the submissions to the panel. While the commitment to ‘leave no one behind’ in the 5 transformative shifts provides satisfying rhetoric, the absence of an explicit inequality goal or national target is as surprising as it is disappointing to many. And indeed: Unless inequality gains greater prominence within the disaggregated indicators or is established as a universal goal, this youth priority is at risk of being sidelined.

It is equally surprising that the Major Group for Children and Youth and Beyond 2015 Children and Youth Working Group only note its absence, but chose to not include it in their Youth Response to the HLP report and subsequent list of priorities for amendment.

Inclusion of minority groups in governance

‘Ensuring Good Governance and Effective Institutions’ was the highest primary themed youth priority with 17% of all recommendations focusing on the theme. The graph below shows the distribution of youth recommendations made within this theme:

The analysis of sub-themes reveals the second highest youth recommendation in this theme to be ‘Involvement of marginal groups in political processes’ – again highlighting the commitment to greater equality in the youth recommendations.  However, this theme was not incorporated into the national targets associated with the 10^th illustrative goal. 32% of the recommendations associated with good governance as a primary theme, called for greater involvement of marginal groups in political processes.

The technical notes in Annex II on Goal 10 comment that,

“…every person is born free and equal in dignity and rights. This truth is at the very heart of a people-centered agenda, and reminds us how high we can reach, if we reaffirm the value of every person on this planet.” ^[3]

The spirit of the wording in the report captures the centrality of human dignity, freedom, equality and the importance of ensuring these building blocks of society are reached. But over time, can we trust that the ‘essence of the text’ will be of equal priority as the universal goals, national targets and indicators?

Women, people with disabilities, LGBTQI, indigenous people, migrants, people living with HIV, the unemployed and youth were all mentioned in youth recommendations but barely feature in the text and goals. Indeed, the names of minority social groups are all but absent in the main report (See table 3 below).

Goal 2 rightly focuses on the empowerment and equality of women and girls and on combined themes ranks joint 5^th in youth recommendations. However, the national targets associated with Goal 10 do not fully reflect the priorities expressed by young people in global consultations. From this starting point, civil society must focus upon the disaggregated indicators to ensure targets reflect the wider aspirations of young people on involvement of marginal groups.

Non-formal education

While the focus in the MDG 2 was on attendance and universal primary education, the Post-2015 goal places quality and lifelong learning at the centre. 165 recommendations were made by young people on ‘Providing Quality Education and Lifelong Learning’. In contrast to the HLP report’s focus on formal education and vocational learning, young people have prioritised non-formal education, citizenship education, peer education and global youth work.

These top priorities within ‘High Quality Education’ were key recommendations by young people but were not included in the final report. The words ‘non-formal education’ and ‘youth work’ are not mentioned at all.

The emphasis upon alternative forms of education with a global focus and youth work experiences and opportunities have strong resonance and are powerful tools in supporting the holistic development of young people. Sustainable development and sexual & reproductive health education were specifically noted as requiring non-formal techniques and are often mentioned by teachers who are unable to deliver more sensitive topics – particularly those of a sexual nature – in the classroom.

The Youth Response to the HLP report twice notes its absence and calls for non-formal education to be ‘explicitly included in a target under this goal.’

Meaningful words?

The HLP report splits into a main section with two major annexes covering the illustrative goals and the third annex detailing agreed terminology and understanding. Annex IV is the ‘Summary of Outreach efforts’ which arguably contains some of the most interesting insights into the priorities and workings of the panel. Taking the youth issues that do not feature prominently in the goals, a simple key word search reveals that where the language is present, it is often not in the place young people were hoping to find it.

Table 3: key word search of different sections of the report

The words of youth, inequality and disability are there, but not in the universal goals and national targets. Words associated with minorities are nearly always in Annex IV and non-formal or alternative education are not mentioned.

While great language can be included in in the report, if it doesn’t make it into the goals, targets and indicators, it has little hope of being realised. There is a risk that the welcomed words in the body of the report give the illusion of inclusion when the truth is of relegation to distant annexes. The values and principles affirmed in the Millennium Declaration make inspirational reading, but the driving force has been the goals and targets housed within.

Conclusion

80% of the 804 recommendations made by 17 reports from across the global youth movement can be categorised using the HLP report illustrative goals and 75% of the recommendations relate directly to the proposed national targets. This should be celebrated and welcomed by the youth sector. The youth movement deserves credit for significantly raising the issue and voices of youth with the High Level Panel and through other development agenda tracks. The report is likely better than it would have been without such a concerted youth presence.

However, the issues of inequality within the national goals and targets, minority participation (including youth), and non-formal education are missing, with references in the main text rather than inclusion in goals and targets. The High-Level panel has made some bold choices but the youth agenda is more easily recognised in Annex IV than the goals and main report.

The creation of an inequality-focused goal would ensure that 6.5% of the recommendations, which currently have no place in the report, would be represented making it the 5^th highest priority for young people. Good governance and political processes is in the text but as yet fails to recognise the priority young people give to minority social groups over many of the included targets, though this may be a feature of the proposals for data disaggregation.

The emphasis on a ‘data revolution’ is seen as the answer to crosscutting issue concerns and the disaggregation of data by quintile and social groups has been championed as the mechanism for integrating minority groups into all the goals and tackling inequality. But it relies heavily upon disaggregated data sets guiding the development agenda and policy makers understanding and actioning what the data reveals.

A data revolution will be useful, however does this data even exist? And where it does, does it accurately reflect peoples’ experiences of inequality and discrimination? Whether the emphasis on data can guarantee and fill the void of specific issues – such as minority groups participation – is uncertain at best.

The youth movement’s next steps

While quick responses are needed in our news driven world, from the research presented, greater consideration must now given by the main youth actors for their demands and strategies leading up to the UN General Assembly and beyond.

Many organisations have welcomed the HLP report as a good starting point for the development agenda discussion. But what if everyone’s ‘take away’ from the report is the same? What if civil society groups are happy with the same elements and universally ignore the absence of so many of the previously championed issues?

The analysis shows the three key issues absent and two of those issues – inequality and minorities participation – were barely mentioned in the youth responses to the HLP report. If issues haven’t been included in the universal goals and national targets, no matter how pleased the movement can be with the overall language and select overtures to youth, it will be meaningless come 2020, when our efforts have failed to adequately address the needs and aspirations of young people.

What is the youth movement prepared to give up on? What is it going to fight for?

Footnotes

[1] – See this excellent summary of initial reactions by David Steven. [↩]

[2] – And one that has been commented upon alright, here by Oxfam, fumingly, and here by Dan Smith, more subtly. [↩]

[3] – See Annex II in the Full High-Level Panel Report (pdf, 3.3 MB): page 50. [↩]

Team credits

Written and researched by Alex Farrow and John Muir.

Image credits

Featured image originally by Wychi on Deviantart, slightly modified by Andreas.

The 17 curated documents, in alphabetical order by organisation or country:

1. African Youth Declaration on post-2015 Agenda – African Youth Voices: The Future We Want
2. Beyond 2015 CWYG – Open Letter to High Level Panellists from youth partners in development
3. Child Fund Alliance – Voices of girls and boys in shaping the post 2015 agenda
4. DFID CSO YWG –  Youth Voices on a Post-2015 World
5. Declaration of Mindelo
6. Each One Teach One World – Hear Our Voice: This is the world we want
7. Gambia National Children and Youth Consultation on the Post-2015
8. Generation Development – Our Goals
9. Major Group for Children & Youth – Contribution to the Outcome Document of Rio+20
10. Nigeria National Youth Position Paper – Post-2015
11. Restless Development/UNFPA – The World We Want – Tanzanian Youth Perspectives on Development Beyond 2015
12. Save the Children – Ending Poverty in Our Generation
13. UNFPA – Global Youth Forum Declaration
14. UN High Level Panel Forum – Bali Multistakeholder Youth Meeting – Putting Youth at the Heart of Development
15. UNICEF UK – The World We Want to Live In – UK Children and Young People’s Views on the Post 2015 Development Agenda
16. UN Women & UNCIEF – Global Thematic Consultation on Addressing Inequalities
17. Wada Na Todo Abhiyan – The World We Want – Looking Beyond 2015 – Voices from India

Process, and the lack thereof

The first delusion is that we can have an effective agreement in 2015 without changing any of our processes.  Actually, the negotiations don’t have any official rules of procedure.  The adoption of official rules was vetoed over 20 years ago by Saudi Arabia.  They did so to ensure that voting was not adopted and they could maintain a veto over the climate talks.   Consensus is now used as an informal and undefined term in the absence of voting.

This original sin has never been rectified and has now come back to haunt us.  In Bonn the negotiations on implementation were stalled for the entire two weeks.  Russia used its veto to stop the talks from ever beginning and the next summit in Warsaw suddenly looks much more daunting.

Oleg Shamanov (left) tries to intervene in the approval of the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period at the Doha climate talks in 2012 (Source: Flickr/UNFCCC via RTCC)

Russia held the negotiations hostage, demanding a discussion on rules and decision-making after its objections were embarrassingly ignored during the final declaration at the climate summit in Doha last year in order to create a false consensus.  While Russia clearly does not have pure motives, it did make some valid points at the negotiations.  It is simply unacceptable that we have gone this long without any adopted rules.  Consensus had proved to be a nice idea in theory, but a failure in practice. Now Russia is using the process to highlight its own faults.

As Tuvalu comically stated in the final plenary, it is “crashing the car to prove the seatbelts don’t work.”

Yet, some countries do not want to discuss voting because they benefit from the agonisingly slow pace of the current negotiations.  But, what is worse is that even civil society appears to have fallen prey to this delusion.  The fiasco with Russia provided the perfect opportunity to endorse majority voting and publicly demand negotiators to finally adopt official rules.  This was squandered as civil society groups chose not to do so.  Instead we heard the usual generic calls for urgency.

Rules may not be sexy, but they guide and facilitate our actions.  Without a change in the convention it is highly unlikely that we will reach an effective agreement in 2015.

It’s time for civil society to make a stand and take a strong public position on voting.  Yes, it may seem like we have more pressing issues, but it is truly a delusion to not prioritise an issue which has been undermining efforts for 20 years.  This has never been more obvious than now after the actions of Russia.

Equity without intergenerational equity

The second delusion is that we can talk about equity and moral principles while avoiding the idea of intergenerational equity.    Unfortunately this concept has been completely avoided for the past year of negotiations on the 2015 agreement.

This is a grievous mistake.

The next climate agreement must directly recognise the rights of future generations and it must define ‘dangerous’ climate change as any impacts that violate these rights.   Development and the pursuit of equity now is pointless if it condemns future generations to a 3 degree or warmer world.

Luckily, YOUNGO (the Youth Constituency of the UNFCCC) is helping the negotiations to overcome this delusion.

Youth at the most recent negotiations championed the notion of intergenerational equity.  It became an idea that drew youth together and breathed life into their activities.

At Bonn, almost every action and piece of lobbying work by YOUNGO focused on intergenerational equity.  There were demonstrations asking negotiators to put intergenerational equity on the table, numerous meetings with negotiators and even a press conference with media.   It was a beautiful symphony of effort played around one central chord.

Young people hold a press conference on intergenerational equity. Source: UKYCC

And it worked.

At the closing session of negotiations two separate blocs of countries declared the importance of intergenerational equity and the need to address this principle.   Parties even put forward the idea at a side event on equity.

YOUNGO has now organised a group of countries who are willing to put intergenerational equity on the table and in the text.  This new ‘Friends of the Future’ group includes a number of developing and developed countries from South America, Europe and the Middle East.  We will now be working with the group to help establish an international discussion around intergenerational equity at COP19.

Through unity and the simple power of an idea youth are helping overcome one of the delusions of climate negotiations.  To me Bonn is a reminder that while we are surrounded by persistent mistakes from the past, even the most deeply held delusions can be broken.

Luke is a PhD Candidate at the Australian National University and Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance Project. His current research focuses upon institutional reform of international environmental governance.When not criticizing consensus or writing his thesis he enjoys meditation and plotting world domination.

I don’t know the minute details of what Paris Brown wrote on Twitter.* I don’t want to comment on her specific situation. And of course we have to take responsibility for our actions. However watching the Kent Youth Crime Commissioner story unfold via Twitter and the associated press whilst on a health retreat in Thailand, some of the responses compelled me to take a break from the beach to do this blog. It helps, of course, that it has just started raining for the first time in almost two weeks and that I have just finished reading my book (I recommend it - The Quiet Twin by Dan Vyleta).

My first experience of participating in the community came as a cub in ‘bob a job’ week; then as a companion and weekly shopper for Edith, and subsequently as a volunteer play scheme worker for children with down syndrome. Would or should I have been denied any or all of those experiences if an adult had heard some or all of the horrible things I am sure to have said in the playground prior to or during that time? Even though I never did anything deliberately hurtful I know now I wasn’t always ‘nice’. I was young, and I was learning after all.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides the framework for children’s rights globally. Article 12 provides for the right of children and young people to participate in decisions that affect them. The UK signed up to the Convention almost 25 years ago. Each of the four nations has a Children’s Commission tasked with ensuring implementation of those rights.

Across sectors agencies are on a journey; working hard to build a culture of youth participation and leadership in our organisations and in public life. On that journey we have had fun, insight, innovation, trials, tribulations and disagreements, learning copious lessons along the way.

All the time trying to make sure that participation is meaningful for both young people and the organisations they are influencing to create better outcomes for individuals and communities.

Pioneering initiatives like that of Ann Barnes, Kent’s recently elected Police and Crime Commissioner who created a paid Youth Crime Commissioner role aimed to take the principles of youth involvement and leadership in decision making one step further. This is a sensible idea that is completely workable if adults are sensible.

Young people in substantive volunteering roles and paid internships have significantly influenced Brook’s work for the better – their involvement has required us to look at our systems and approaches in partnership with them, and they have effectively created new platforms for our work. They have also challenged some established organisational orthodoxies, habits and priorities. It hasn’t always been easy or comfortable but it has always been constructive, rewarding and ultimately positive.

Managed well, putting young people at the heart of decision making in organisations and systems influences better outcomes. Participation and leadership has the potential to influence traditionally adult led structures, systems and approaches in ways that can really improve them for young people. Inevitably creating shifts in cultures will bring some challenges as well as opportunities. We must learn from the good, the bad and the ugly. But we have to make sure we learn the right lessons.

I have a few thoughts below in no particular order based on what I have read:

1. The right to participate

Children and young people’s right to participate in decision making and be gainfully employed in the public sector is as Wes Streeting described it a ‘laudable goal’. This is something we must continue to get better at in the new public administration systems including health, education, crime and justice.

To question this aim because young people lack experience does not make sense. Some people have said that wisdom and good judgement comes with age alone. This is simply not true. Ask any employer. Wisdom and good judgement are attributable to experience and to previous opportunities and the ability to learn from them.

We know from school and youth councils, peer education and from the Student Union movement etc that young people’s involvement makes a difference to individuals, to the organisations we work in and the communities we live. Young people’s contributions and talents are too easily overlooked or undervalued. Young people too easily demonised. The work they are doing across the UK shows the contribution they can, and are, making to civil society.

2. The importance of building effective youth leadership

People in positions of power must not start to view employing young people in senior roles in public life as a ‘risk’ and retreat from creating paid roles for young people. Right now adults need all the help young people will give us to create a fair and just society. And young people need good paid employment opportunities more than ever.

Retreating from pushing the boundaries and innovating in youth involvement and leadership would waste the opportunity their involvement brings to do things differently and it wastes our opportunity to ensure that young people have a stake in their community and society. Forging ahead with innovative approaches will help us find new ways to connect with ALL young people more effectively, build healthy communities and develop and utilise the talents of individuals.

The evidence shows youth involvement can provide greatest benefit to some of the most ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘vulnerable’ young people. They may also be some of the young people who have made ill considered remarks or statements at some point in time now mercilessly recorded forever on social media.

I have a particular interest in creating opportunities for the most disadvantaged – it would be self defeating if recruitment systems are designed that could rule out those young people who would benefit most from these experiences, and be the very people with the knowledge, expertise and credibility to help reach those young people we often need to try harder to reach.

3. Demonising young people

We trend towards ever increasing blame on young people for their attitudes and behaviours whilst simultaneously ignoring the adult behaviours they learn from, and failing to create a culture where young people are valued and adults are consistently positive role models. The irony of some of the tweets posted about Paris Brown by adults in respected positions was not lost.

4. Teaching about diversity, human rights and responsibilities, and using social media responsibly

The UK can do so much more to truly embrace the power that diversity brings. We must start early teaching children positively about the value of diversity, about injustice and our shared experience of humanity. Recent parliamentary and public debates will have taught children and young people some of the worst – for example, the hysteria about what schools would have to teach children about same sex marriage if legalised; our Prime Minister telling a woman MP to ‘calm down dear’, some MPs likening same sex love to beastiality and pedophilia, and the tone of the immigration debates. Children learn from what is unspoken as well as spoken, and that which they see around them as well as what they are taught at home, in school and youth and community settings.

5. The value of good PSHE and Citizenship

What they are taught in school is still left too much to chance. Personal, social, health, and economic (PSHE) education and Citizenship is the curriculum subject where children and young people SHOULD learn about diversity, human rights and responsibilities. It is where they critically analyse what they learn in the media and other sources around them, about different beliefs and traditions, about the law and civil rights and where they learn about the law including the potential consequences of tweeting, ‘sexting’ and so on. Without decent comprehensive PSHE education and Citizenship that covers all these areas in all schools there continue to be many many children and young people who grow up learning it is acceptable to be homophobic, racist and misogynistic simply because they have not yet learnt differently.

Our National Curriculum currently out for consultation is not as strong as it could be on Human Rights, and PSHE education will continue to be a non statutory subject.

Youth and community settings also have an important role to play in addressing these issues.

6. Understanding children and young people’s development

Expressed views are based on an understanding, and in young people’s case stage of development at a particular point in time. This is particularly true when thinking about children and young people. We know from our work at Brook, and Diversity Role Models (which I chair), that language and views used by children and young people often reflects a lack of education, lack of empathy or understanding and is often characteristic of peer norms and group think. The evidence from social norms theory shows that young people want to fit in. We have to find ways to make sure that young people know about the consequences of inappropriate use of social media, and ensure they are not fearful of engaging in organisations and public loves because they fear exposure of their ‘past selves.’

If we allow that to happen then we will have failed to harness the benefits of social media, we will have failed to apply what we know about childhood development and the development of values systems and we will allow social media to destroy young people’s chances and young reputations in unnecessary, unhelpful and damaging ways.

We all live and learn, we all make mistakes and we must all be allowed to learn from them. As adults we must search for and ask the right questions about how to make youth leadership work in order to take the right learning from this and other situations. Those questions that need asking may not be the obvious ones – they probably need to focus as much on adult responses as they do on recruitment processes.

Finally I hope that an aversion to risk does not limit creativity in this domain of public life. I hope that it makes us more determined as adults and young people to continue enjoying developing ways of working together to make a difference for all young people. And absolutely most of all I hope young people will not be put off coming forward to get involved because they think adults are hypocritical and worry we won’t keep them safe.

* For audiences outside the UK: Paris Brown was the ‘Youth Police and Crime Commissioner’ in Kent, England. Ann Barnes, the elected Police and Crime Commissioner appointed her to the ‘youth’ post upon election and partially subsidised the role from her own salary. Brown resigned her role after negative comments previously posted on her twitter account were made public.

This article has been widely cross posted but appeared on The Huffington Post on 18th May 2013. It can be viewed here. It is cross-posted here with permission of the author.

Stockholm Riots | May 2013 | Media Coverage.

More than a week of nightly riots, spreading from Stockholm’s migrant suburbs across Sweden, has kept the media blazing for days. Looking back at the coverage, this was hardly journalism’s finest hour: overly smart and with barely disguised malice, fingers got quickly pointed at the ‘Nordic Welfare Myth’. A few contributions ventured further and did the unimaginable: talk to actual young people.

Other than in previous Youth in the News editions, this time we have sorted the articles chronologically. If you don’t have the time to crawl through the articles, or don’t feel like getting angry about the lack of quality and rigour in the reporting, here are the three best features on the ‘Stockholm Riots’ in our humble opinion:

1. Sweden’s youth rioters demand attention, by Randi Häussler for Deutsche Welle. “A week of nightly riots has left Sweden reeling. But many young Swedes are screaming for attention – and they believe they’ve been more successful than they would have been with peaceful alternatives.”
   Link: http://www.dw.de/swedens-youth-rioters-demand-attention/a-16839442
2. How my city went under, by Viggo Cavling for Presseurop. “Son of a Swede and a Dane, journalist Viggo Cavling grew up in one of the suburbs hit by the recent violence. He tells the story of how the buildings that carried the dreams of a progressive society have become ghettos without hope.”
   Link: http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/3829911-how-my-city-went-under
3. The Swedish Riots: The Underclass Has Reacted, by Ritt Goldstein for Counterpunch. “The Swedish riots appear to have ended, but while most of the media fumbles about to understand what happened, the answers arguably seem to have been provided 12 March, over two months before the unrest began. At that time I interviewed Paul Lappalainen, a senior Swedish civil servant who had run the Government’s 2005 inquiry into ‘structural discrimination’. It was a most prescient moment when he said ‘I prefer not seeing riots’, but warned it ‘seems that policymakers are not trying to avoid the conditions within which riots occur.’”
   Link: http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/31/the-swedish-riots/

We have organised our overview of the media coverage of the 2013 Stockholm Riots overview by publishing date:

1. Articles published on May 20
2. Articles published on May 21
3. Articles published on May 22
4. Articles published on May 23
5. Articles published on May 24
6. Articles published on May 25
7. Articles published on May 26
8. Articles published on May 27
9. Articles published on May 28
10. Articles published on May 29
11. Articles published on May 30
12. Articles published on May 31

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 20

Youths burn 100 cars in north Stockholm riots
Article by The Local | Published on: May 20, 2013
http://www.thelocal.se/48006/20130520/

Youths rioted in northern Stockholm on Sunday night, setting fire to cars and throwing rocks at police, in what is believed to be a protest against the fatal police shooting of a machete-wielding man in the suburb last week.

Rioting youths set fires, attack police, in Stockholm suburb, angered over police shooting
Article by Associated Press for the Washington Post | Published on: May 20, 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/rioting-youths-set-fires-attack-police-in-stockholm-suburb-angered-over-police-shooting/

Gangs of youth angered by the police shooting death of an elderly man in a mainly immigrant neighborhood hurled rocks at police and set cars and buildings on fire in a Stockholm suburb early Monday, forcing the evacuation of an apartment block. Around 50 youths were involved in the riots in the suburb of Husby.

Riot police ‘resorted to racial slurs’ in Husby
Article by Oliver Gee for The Local | Published on: May 20, 2013
http://www.thelocal.se/48026/20130520/

Police officers on hand during the Husby riot in northern Stockholm stand accused of using racist language towards people on the ground, with one youth worker in the area claiming it is “not the last time” such scenes will occur.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 21

Fresh clashes as more cars burn in Husby
Article by The Local | Published on: May 21, 2013
http://www.thelocal.se/48028/20130521

Cars were engulfed in flames on Monday night and youths clashed with police in the north-western Stockholm district of Husby for a second night in a row.

Seven arrested over Stockholm’s Husby riots
Article by The Local | Published on: May 21, 2013
http://www.thelocal.se/48048/20130521

Seven people were arrested on Tuesday following the Husby riots in northern Stockholm, with Sweden’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt warning that the unrest may continue.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 22

Riots Erupt in Sweden: The Nordic Welfare Myth?
Article by Antonia Matthews for CNBC | Published on: May 22, 2013
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100757907

With growth rates above the European average and unemployment below EU levels, Sweden’s economy is often regarded as something of a beacon. News that the country’s capital has been hit by three nights of rioting similar to the public disorder seen in Paris and London in recent years has therefore come as a surprise.

Stockholm riots challenge image of happy, generous state
Article by Patrick Lannin and Philip O’Connor for Reuters | Published on: May 22, 2013
http://news.yahoo.com/stockholm-riots-challenge-image-happy-generous-state-234811107.html

Hundreds of youth have torched cars and attacked police in four nights of riots in immigrant suburbs of Sweden’s capital, shocking a country that dodged the worst of the financial crisis but failed to solve youth unemployment and resentment among asylum seekers.

Riots grip Stockholm suburbs after police shooting
Article by Nick Childs for BBC | Published on: May 22, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22622909

Rioters have lit fires and stoned emergency services in the suburbs of Stockholm for the third night in a row after a man was shot dead by police. On Sunday night, more than 100 cars were set alight, Swedish media report. The founder of a local youth group told Swedish media the riots were a reaction to ‘police brutality.’

Stockholm riots raise questions about immigration policy
Article by Richard Milne for the Washington Post | Published on: May 22, 2013
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/stockholm-riots-raise-questions-about-immigration-policy/

The sight of burning cars in a dozen suburbs of Stockholm on Tuesday night has shocked Sweden and shaken its image of tolerance and equality. But the rioting is also raising a simple, devastating question: Is Sweden facing its own Paris or London moment when it is forced to confront long-simmering questions about the integration of immigrants?

Stockholm riots: a view from the street in Husby
Article by The Local | Published on: May 22, 2013
http://www.thelocal.se/48064/20130522/

Following three nights of violence that left cars smouldering in several Stockholm suburbs, The Local travelled to the north-western district of Husby where the disturbances began to see how the riots have affected local residents.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 23

Sweden riots revive immigration debate
Article by AFP for The Australian | Published on: May 21, 2013
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/sweden-riots-revive-immigration-debate/

Rioting has spread across Stockholm immigrant districts in a third night of unrest, raising fears that decades of integration efforts have gone dangerously awry.

Rioting raises questions about Sweden’s liberal immigration policy and its inequality
Article by Associated Press for The Washington Post | Published on: May 23, 2013
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-23/world/39468768_1_sweden-s-stockholm-violence

Many people were shocked when scores of youths hurled rocks at police and set cars ablaze during rioting in several largely immigrant areas near Stockholm this week. For some, the real reason for the unrest is the high unemployment and isolation of youths in the southern and western Stockholm suburbs where the violence occurred — ones who see little future for themselves or access to Sweden’s prosperity.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 24

Schools burn on fifth night of Stockholm riots
Article by The Local | Published on: May 24, 2013
http://www.thelocal.se/48100/20130524/

At least two schools, a police station, and 15 cars were set ablaze in Stockholm on Thursday night as riots in the suburbs of the Swedish capital continued for the fifth straight night.

Sweden sends reinforcements to capital after fifth night of rioting
Article by Deutsche Welle | Published on: May 24, 2013
http://www.dw.de/sweden-sends-reinforcements-to-capital-after-fifth-night-of-rioting/a-16835451

Police in Stockholm have called in reinforcements amid fears that riots could enter a sixth night. Schools and cars have been set ablaze in the capital’s suburbs in five consecutive nights of violence. Police say the attacks don’t appear to be coordinated.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 25

Swedish riots spark surprise and anger
Article by Richard Orange for The Guardian | Published on: May 27, 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/25/sweden-europe-news

As inequality and segregation start to rise, the spread of youth disorder has shaken ethnic Swedes and older immigrants alike. What began in Husby last Sunday has spread to more than a dozen of the city’s other suburbs.

Stockholm riots leave Sweden’s dreams of perfect society up in smoke
Article by Colin Freeman for The Telegraph | Published on: May 25, 2013
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/10080320/Stockholm-riots-leave-Swedens-dreams-of-perfect-society-up-in-smoke.html

A week of disturbances in Sweden’s capital has tested the Scandinavian nation’s reputation for tolerance. Last week, the Husby neighbourhood erupted into rioting, sparking some of the fiercest urban unrest that Sweden has seen in decades, and a new debate about the success of racial integration.

Sweden’s riots: Is the integration of immigrants failing?
Article by Charlemagne for The Economist | Published on: May 25, 2013
http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2013/05/swedens-riots

Hundreds of cars set on fire, a school in flames and angry youths hurling stones at the police. This is not the banlieue in France but suburbs in supposedly peaceful Sweden. Six nights of arson and violence in Stockholm’s poorer suburbs, where a majority of residents are immigrants, have shaken the Nordic country and created international headlines. Now the riots could make immigration and integration the pivotal debate in Swedish politics.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 26

Fire and fury in Sweden as riots spread
Article by Tom Peck for The Independent | Published on: May 26, 2013
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/fire-and-fury-in-sweden-as-riots-spread-8632374.html

Youths continue to fight police in Stockholm as unrest spreads to other cities. The pictures of injured officers and burning buildings in rich, peaceful, egalitarian Sweden have surprised a watching world, but many here feel that it shouldn’t have done. For years the country’s social workers, political scientists, rappers and rising number of right wing extremists have been telling the Tale of Two Stockholms, societies existing side by side in a divided, unintegrated city.

In Sweden, Riots Put an Identity in Question
Article by Andrew Higgins for the New York Times | Published on: May 26, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/world/europe/swedens-riots-put-its-identity-in-question.html

In Stockholm and other towns and cities last week, bands made up mostly of young immigrants set buildings and cars ablaze in a spasm of destructive rage rarely seen in a country proud of its normally tranquil, law-abiding ways. The disturbances have pushed Sweden to the center of a heated debate across Europe about immigration and the tensions it causes in a time of deep economic malaise.

Riots caused by ‘failed policy’
Article by Hu Qingyun for The Global Times | Published on: May 26, 2013
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/784443.shtml

The week-long riots in Sweden that have spread from the capital Stockholm highlights the failure of the multicultural policy in some European countries, said experts, adding that this would probably bring changes in immigration rules.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 27

Swedish riots: if instability can happen here, what might unfold elsewhere?
Article by Aditya Chakrabortty for Comment is Free | Published on: May 27, 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/27/swedish-riots-inequality-stockholm

You probably haven’t seen much about it in the papers, but for the past week Sweden has been racked by rioting. A stark rise in inequality has brought about unprecedented rioting in Stockholm.

Sweden punishes its rioters and its police very differently
Article by Jallow Momodou for Comment is Free | Published on: May 27, 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/27/sweden-punishes-rioters-police-stockholm-riots

The Stockholm riots were inevitable given that Sweden is riven with injustice, not least in how it handles police brutality. Recent debates have exposed the brutal and illegal methods used by law enforcement agencies, mainly against non-white Swedes.

Riots put Sweden’s open-door immigration policy in spotlight
Article by Alistair Scrutton and Simon Johnson for Reuters | Published on: May 27, 2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/27/us-sweden-riots-idUSBRE94Q0E620130527

Sweden’s worst riots in years might benefit a far-right party in elections next year if scenes of immigrants burning cars and smashing up buildings cause voters to rethink their traditional welcome to foreigners.

Sweden’s youth rioters demand attention
Article by Randi Häussler for Deutsche Welle | Published on: May 27, 2013
http://www.dw.de/swedens-youth-rioters-demand-attention/a-16839442

A week of nightly riots has left Sweden reeling. But many young Swedes are screaming for attention – and they believe they’ve been more successful than they would have been with peaceful alternatives.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 28

Trouble in Paradise? What the Riots Mean for Sweden
Article by Tobias Hubinette for the Open Society Foundations | Published on: May 28, 2013
http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/trouble-paradise-what-riots-mean-sweden

Sweden has for decades prided itself on its reputation as the most progressive country in the world. However, Sweden recently also became the OECD country with the highest difference in unemployment between foreign-born and native-born residents. Its large- and mid-sized cities are characterized by probably the most extreme ethno-racial residential segregation pattern in the Western world.

What Sweden’s Riots Say About Europe’s Rising Social and Political Risks
Article by Daniel Wagner for The Huffington Post | Published on: May 28, 2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/what-swedens-riots-say-ab_b_3334501.html

The riots in Sweden last week are a manifestation of the socioeconomic disequilibrium pervading much of Europe, and the level of frustration that is beginning to boil over among European immigrants and youth.

What We Can Learn From Rioting in Sweden
Article by Megan McArdle for The Daily Beast | Published on: May 28, 2013
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/28/what-we-can-learn-from-rioting-in-sweden.html

For Sweden, riots represent a serious breakdown in civil order. And something of a public policy crisis. Sweden has a very welcoming immigration policy, and of course, an extremely generous welfare state. These things were supposed to protect Sweden, but if you get riots anyway, then something in Swedish policy may need a rethink.

Stockholm’s Riots Reveal The Illusion Of Sweden’s Tolerance Model
Article by Magda Fahsi for The Mint Press | Published on: May 28, 2013
http://www.mintpressnews.com/stockholms-riots-reveal-the-illusion-of-swedens-tolerance-model/

Last week, young people in several Stockholm suburbs rioted for six consecutive nights, throwing stones, breaking windows, torching cars, clashing with police and setting buildings ablaze, in Sweden’s worst scenes of disorder in years. Youth from these predominantly immigrant suburbs are very, very angry.

What’s behind Sweden’s youth riots?
Article by Nathalie Rothschild for The Christian Science Monitor | Published on: May 28, 2013
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0528/What-s-behind-Sweden-s-youth-riots-video

Six days of rioting across Sweden last week have laid bare the social isolation growing in some of Stockholm’s suburbs. But Swedes are divided over the root cause, with some insisting they are a result of failed integration of immigrants and others pointing to socio-economic marginalization.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 29

Swedish riots could represent Europe’s future
Article by Bob Taylor for the Washington Times | Published on: May 29, 2013
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/what-world/2013/may/29/swedish-riots-could-represent-europes-future/

After more than a week of rioting, Sweden’s grand experiment in multiculturalism is providing a window into what the rest of Europe could expect if current immigration policies continue. Sadly, the violence in Stockholm may be an indication that the point of no return has been reached.

Failing integration policies sets Stockholm suburbs in flames
Article by Jessica Säll for The Foreign Report | Published on: May 29, 2013
http://www.theforeignreport.com/2013/05/29/sweden-failing-integration-policies-sets-stockholm-suburbs-in-flames/

Whilst the rioting and violence in Stockholm may have subsided in recent days, burnt out cars on the city streets suggest there is a deep issue behind the unrest. The cause of such scenes stems from social exclusion, which has become a state of everyday life for the people living in segregated and less resourceful areas such as Husby.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 30

Minister warns Husby unrest may fuel prejudice
Article by The Local | Published on: May 30, 2013
http://www.thelocal.se/48238/20130530/

Sweden’s Integration Minister Erik Ullenhag warned on Thursday that the unrest in Stockholm’s outer suburbs last week may lead to prejudices about the people who live there.

Unrest in Stockholm
Article by Atle Hetland for The Pakistan Nation | Published on: May 30, 2013
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/columns/30-May-2013/unrest-in-stockholm

When I listened to a journalist from the BBC World reporting about the riots in Stockholm last week, I noticed a slightly malicious tone in his voice. It was as if he wanted to say: “There you see; you clever Scandinavians were not better than the rest of us after all.”

ARTICLES PUBLISHED ON MAY 31

How my city went under
Article by Viggo Cavling for Presseurop.eu | Published on: May 31, 2013
http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/3829911-how-my-city-went-under

Son of a Swede and a Dane, journalist Viggo Cavling grew up in one of the suburbs hit by the recent violence. He tells the story of how the buildings that carried the dreams of a progressive society have become ghettos without hope.

Racist Europe: the root cause
Article by Nathan Akehurst for The Oxford Student | Published on: May 31, 2013
http://oxfordstudent.com/2013/05/31/racist-europe-the-root-cause/

Sweden is often held up as an archetypal Scandinavian utopia. And yet now, there is trouble in paradise – five days of bitter rioting in suburban Stockholm in a set-piece of civil unrest. When and how did we get to this point?

Far-right party seeks to capitalise on riots in Sweden
Article by Richard Milne for the Financial Times | Published on: May 31, 2013
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/34edf422-ca04-11e2-8f55-00144feab7de.html

Sweden is trying desperately to put last week’s riots in Stockholm behind it, and in the past week the capital has remained relatively quiet. But the questions raised by the unrest in the wealthy Nordic country have refused to go away.

The Swedish Riots: The Underclass Has Reacted
Article by Ritt Goldstein for The Counter Punch | Published on: May 31, 2013
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/31/the-swedish-riots/

While most of the media fumbles about to understand what happened, the answers arguably seem to have been provided 12 March, over two months before the unrest began. At that time I interviewed Paul Lappalainen, a senior Swedish civil servant who had run the Government’s 2005 inquiry into ‘structural discrimination’. It was a most prescient moment when he said “I prefer not seeing riots”, but warned it “seems that policymakers are not trying to avoid the conditions within which riots occur.”

At the outset the UN Secretary-General stated his desire to establish the post-2015 agenda through

“an inclusive, open and transparent process with multiple stakeholder participation”^[1] … that sought to bring the “views from all corners of the world together”, using “… innovative new methods to reach out to the poorest and most marginalized people.”^[2]

It was convincingly argued by others that if the post-2015 process did not get the participation of those most affected right, it would fail.^[3]

The UN Secretary-General’s words were followed by a proliferation of online surveys, discussion forums, social media groups, Google hangouts, hashtags and more. A total of 11 thematic consultations and 83 national consultations provided an unprecedented opportunity to contribute to, and track, the development of the agenda. If volume is an indicator of success, then the process appears to have satisfied the UN Secretary-General’s demands – alone the High-Level Panel received more than 800 submissions.

Nearly 600,000 people from over 190 countries contributed to the UN’s Global Survey MyWorld, which invited people to identify six issues from a possible 16 that would make most difference to their lives. The consultation exercise appears to have reached out to the poorest: 78% of the responses were received from people living in countries categorised as low (48%) or medium (30%) on the Human Development Index (HDI) and 73% of the respondents were under the age of 35.^[4]

So far so good? Well yes and no. Whilst the post-2015 agenda has been developed through the largest global consultation exercise undertaken to date, a survey (however global) can barely be described as innovative participatory methodology. Justifiably, some have criticised the bewildering array of outreach methods^[5] and argued that instead of a searching global conversation the process resulted in an anaesthetised debate:

“Something is lacking in the efforts to design a new global development framework. The aim – to set goals for all mankind and the planet – ought to involve all the great questions of the age. Instead, the discussion feels small and technocratic. Despite great efforts, it has attracted derisory attention from beyond the professional development world.” ^[6]

A closer examination of the origins of proposals reveal the global imbalances and organisational dynamics that are likely to influence the final report and its recommendations.

The Overseas Development Institute has developed the most comprehensive, openly available database on the world’s proposals for future goals. Of the 220 proposals included in the database, less than 1% of the worlds’ post-2015 proposals originated from countries ranked in the lower quartile of the HDI, and 65% originated from countries ranked as having a very high HDI. 17% of the recommendations originated from UN organisations.^[7]

So whilst the efforts to engage the poorest and most marginalised should be appreciated, lets not be under the illusion that the methodology was any more than a step in the right direction on what is a very long journey. This was not citizen-led participation, and there remains a huge disconnect between the modus operandi of global governance and the reality of the people they purportedly work for.

The measure of whether this is understood will be whether the report and recommendations of the High-Level Panel lead the global paradigm shift that is required to establish a future orientated, just, and people and environment centred global reality.

Specific to the youth sector, it will be important to truthfully examine whether, and to which extent, the High-Level Panel has taken the youth sector’s views seriously and included their recommendations in the final report. The engagement of the Beyond 2015 Children and Youth Working Group and the Major Group for Children and Youth with the High-Level Panel (HLP) and the Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (OWG) has significantly raised the profile of youth in the debate leading up to the report. But will the report reflect that?

Will the more innovative and radical proposals that aim at the structural and systemic causes of global inequalities be sidelined by vested interests and the kind of ‘muddling through’ and compromise to power that so characterised the world’s response to the events of the triple food, financial and environmental crisis?

Will the calls for a focus on

• inequality;
• tackling the power of elites;
• market regulation;
• sustainable and equitable management of the world’s production and consumption patterns;
• control of illicit financial flows;
• intergenerational inequality;
• the provision of social protection

be included, excluded or diluted?

Will the framework avoid the Western and donor-driven approach to development that became synonymous with the MDGs? Will it include a ‘Global Social Contract’ that is relevant to people in the North and South and that acknowledges the development needs of countries that would describe themselves as developed?

Now is the time to scrutinise. The data is there and enables us to identify the proposals that have been lost in the frenzy of consultation or diluted in bureaucratic deliberations.

Images

All images courtesy of worldwewant.ie, run by Dóchas, the association of Irish Non-Governmental Development Organisations.

Footnotes

[1] – The UN Secretary-General (UNSG) report on accelerating progress toward the MDGs and the issues for advancing the UN Development Agenda beyond 2015 (A/66/126): pdf-version of the report. [↩]

[2] – fb.com/events/267857236670287/ [↩]

[3] – http://participationpower.wordpress.com/tag/participation/ [↩]

[4] – The data can also be disaggregated by region, country, age and HDI ranking, enabling decision makers to understand regional and demographic variations. [↩]

[5] – http://cafodpolicy.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/the-post-2015-consultations-does-quantity-add-to-quality/ [↩]

[6] – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/20/international-development-questions-answers [↩]

[7] – http://post2015.org/2013/05/16/what-do-we-know-about-the-worlds-proposals-for-post-2015-goals-first-analysis-from-the-future-goals-tracker/ [↩]

Youth workers are often presented as mentors and role models for young people. At the same time, it feels like the vast majority of the world undervalues the social impact of youth work. Do youth workers make a suitable role model? Why wouldn’t they?!

A contribution by Chris Ward, Youth Work Manager in London.

‘People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.’ – Oliver Goldsmith

Very few of us can fail to have recognised the significant influence of individuals during our life time, especially at key stages of our own development. Individuals who we held in such high regard that consequentially led us to challenge our own aspirations through a desire to replicate their behaviour and attributes. If we accept the status of a role model in its purest form—a person who serves as an example by demonstrating behaviour and characteristics emulated by others—then one should indeed consider youth workers as a potential source of inspiration. Furthermore, if we assume that characteristics we consider desirable in our profession—those of patience, integrity and creativity—when combined with the values with seek to instil in our practice—those of honesty, trust and fairness—are on show to the impressionable young people we engage with daily, then surely it becomes an inevitable consequence of relationship-driven youth work.

The title instead could read ‘why wouldn’t a youth worker make a suitable role model?’ The attributes I believe I possess has enabled me to work productively and enthusiastically with many young people across a diverse range of situations and communities. I feel my abilities in making strong connections, building emphatic relationships but maintaining clear and consistent professional boundaries should be celebrated. Though it often feels like the vast majority of the professional world is dismissive or undervalues the important social impact of youth work and the significance of investing in young people themselves, this doesn’t mean we should be equally dismissive of our own powerful potential in positively influencing those we work closest with.

Paradoxically, however, I believe that a true role model should never aspire to be replicated. If as a youth worker I consciously try to create a role for the young people I work with to adhere to, having made a judgement on what needs a young person possesses, I ultimately disregard a key value of our profession – to engage with young people by accepting their own starting points. By deliberately trying to influence them in this way, I will not have appreciated the unique nature of their individual characters. Implementing a pied-piper approach, dictating the terms of young people’s involvement in the youth project and actively encouraging the replication of set behaviour without allowing the questioning of need or significance to the young people themselves, would ultimately be a betrayal of principles.

If we understand that the role of a mentor is to encourage people to manage their own learning and development in order to maximise their potential in becoming the person they want to be, then surely there is no room for repetition or ‘character cloning’. This is not to say that I don’t seek to offer individuals opportunities to benefit from our engagement. Certainly I do indeed hope that I can, as both a youth worker and a person, inspire others by my achievements, deeds and behaviour. But this is not born out of a sense of superiority. If people do indeed take something positive away from interacting with me I would see this as nothing more than a compliment.

Young people can often be hindered by the enforced discipline and codes of behaviour that exist within circles of society. The pressures to conform to social norms have as much of an influence on young people’s construction of identity as any one individual. If we accept at times that intervention and support can be justified in order to help young people avoid the long-term consequences of youthful naivety or mis-education, is it right to question the importance of both conscious and unconscious influence at both an individual and societal level?

Forcing someone to replicate the behaviour of another by following strict social behavioural guidelines is straightforward manipulation. For me this is simply wrong. Yet, it should not be confused with the importance of positive influence and support. Giving young people the opportunities to reflect upon actions and consequences of personal choices and to learn from others the benefits of positive behaviour can be a powerful scenario.

Ultimately, the danger comes only from the misplaced assumption that a person needs to be changed. Assuming they have the right to make a change is anything but.

Chris Ward, Youth Work Manager
Castelnau Centre Project in Barnes, London

Photo credits: Daniel Eichenberg from the youthmedia.eu community; Flickr users Jason Wyman & Christian Spanring.

I work for the youth-led development agency Restless Development. About a year ago, we could see that there was this gap in youth voice and leadership in the process, so we identified a couple of things we could do to change this. We ran consultations in 12 countries globally – mainly funded by the EC Youth in Action programme – delivered through our youth partners.  We also pushed for and facilitated youth roundtable meetings at the High Level Panel meetings in London, Monrovia and Bali. Together with Plan International we also set up the Children and Youth Working Group of the Beyond 2015 civil society coalition – largely in response to the high number of enquiries that the coalition was receiving from youth at the start of 2012, but recognising that many were still out of the loop on the process and entry points to influence. Our aim has been to facilitate diverse youth participation from the Global North and South, supporting them to build a unified voice during these key influencing moments.

So… what have we found in all this?

You can download the report Youth Voices on a Post-2015 World here, which details the issues and values that young people prioritised in the youth consultations based on the facilitators toolkit that was developed. This has already been shared directly with UN High Level Panellists and their advisors, as well as being shared widely throughout civil society, youth and UN agencies. But what we’re trying to bring greater focus on in this process is ideas, innovations and youth-led solutions… not just problems. In Bali in March 2013, we launched our own “Big Idea” at a side event with High Level Panellists, think tanks, civil society reps and young people. Our idea – being developed with other partners – is a data revolution driven by young people from the bottom-up. It’s a way to transform government accountability where young people own open-data and use it to monitor progress against development goals in real-time. In the coming weeks we’re going to be reaching out to additional partners to enable us to pilot this in the next 1000 days..

I recently took part in a panel debate at a meeting hosted by the European Youth Forum in Brussels. It was a great opportunity to hear the perspectives of youth from across Europe, as well as other CSOs working on post-2015. We were asked to give our reflections and try as far as possible to be provocative. When it was my turn to speak I offered the following…

Firstly, young people are increasingly recognised (most recently by the High Level Panellist John Podesta) for having the tendency to speak out on the interests of marginalised groups: LGBT, disabled people, ethnic minorities, women…. Perhaps because youth are present in most marginalised groups! This is usually in contrast to other sectors who are often much more focused on their own interests. I think it sets youth apart in the post-2015 space but how can it be used for greater influence?

Secondly, content and policy goals are important – of course! But this must be seen as an opportunity to enfranchise youth and youth organisations by 2015. Issues are important but I think it’s how we’re viewed, recognised and involved in the process that will secure the role of youth as serious and equal partners in development. So, it’s not just the’ what’ but the ‘how’ that should matter to us as the youth sector.

Finally, focus on collaboration – take it seriously, not just as an after-thought. Youth organisations are good at finding a unified voice and putting our organisational egos to one side. We’ve certainly seen this in the High Level Panel meetings. The goal of this process is about finding agreement – if we can continue to do work in this way we’ll be setting a standard for global partnership but hopefully also putting ourselves at an advantage.

Follow the conversation @youthpost2015 @restlessdev #post2015

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This blog was written by Victoria Forsgate, Global Advocacy Manager, Restless Development