Youth Policy & Young People

How do youth policies affect young people? Which conditions for living and learning are guaranteed, which are provided, which are missing? What is the real-life impact of policies on young people and their rights? These are some of the over-arching questions we seek to ask, and answer – in general through youthpolicy.org, and in this section specifically.

Our Published Articles

June 22, 2019 Youthpolicy Team

Ahead of the World Youth Ministers renewing their commitment to youth policies, let’s look back at 1998

At this very moment, the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth is taking place in Lisbon, Portugal. It's a reunion: 21 years ago, youth ministers met for the first

May 6, 2019 Youthpolicy Team

The Council of Europe celebrates its 70th anniversary – and quietly prepares to sacrifice its youth sector

The Council of Europe is the smaller, older, and poorer of the two European supranational institutions, and is often confused with the

April 26, 2019 Youthpolicy Team

The youth sector gets its first future policy award – and we need your nominations to make it count

“Young people are the future” – how often have we all heard this sentence being muttered and have rolled our eyes? And how often have we pointed out in meetings,

May 1, 2018 Cristina Bacalso

The Youth Wellbeing Index returns, with a range of methodological changes – and cautious optimism

Out from the wilderness and quietly released with little fanfare, the Youth Wellbeing Index (YWI), by the International Youth Foundation and Hilton, is back for its

March 5, 2018 Alex Farrow

Officially tasked to misbehave: introducing the second Youth Envoy Jayathma Wickramanayake

In September 2017, Jayathma Wickramanayake became the second person to be the UN Secretary General's Envoy on Youth. Originally from Sri Lanka, she was the country's first UN Youth Delegate,

What is the story behind this almost comical relationship of the youth sector to its own commitments?

February 25, 2018 Andreas Karsten

Why does the global youth sector fool itself with commitments it fails to live up to?

At the First Global Forum on Youth Policies, held in 2014, the UN co-conveners – the Youth Envoy, UNDP, UNESCO – committed to ten global actions to strengthen youth policies.

February 3, 2017 Cristina Bacalso

REWIND: A look back at the most significant moments for the youth sector in 2016

There is no disputing it: 2016 was a momentous year. Some even call it the “worst year ever”. While there was certainly much that was newsworthy about last year, we

December 9, 2015 Youthpolicy Team

UN Security Council adopts milestone resolution on youth, peace and security

Today, for the first time in the history of the United Nations, the Security Council – one of the six principal organs of the UN. charged with the maintenance of

November 24, 2015 Cristina Bacalso

Prime Minister of Youth: Canada’s head of state is also the country’s new youth minister

You might not have heard – but Canada recently had an election. And it sent frozen shockwaves through this quiet, often overlooked sister north to the USA. Following the election,

An introduction to the redesign of youthpolicy.org

February 26, 2015 Youthpolicy Team

A facelift for youthpolicy.org: rethinking how we present data on youth policy and youth issues

How time flies! Three years of building an evidence-base for youth policy have gone by, with several extensions of our website to accommodate libraries, fact sheets, databases and mappings… Time