From Rhetoric to Action: Towards an enabling environment for children and youth development (Research Report)

The Case for Space was a global research and advocacy initiative that sought to understand and strengthen the enabling environment for child and youth development. This research report of the initiative, entitled From Rhetoric to Action, investigates and analyses current conditions, documents the project’s youth-led, youth-developed and youth-targeted research, and presents considerations for future action. The research was commissioned by the three organisations of the Case for Space initiative ― Restless Development, War Child UK and Youth Business International. The project set out to investigate, understand and present considerations for future action on how to improve the conditions and structures affecting child and youth development. The central research question was: “What is the enabling environment (neces- sary conditions and structures) that ensures children and young people have access to their rights, can influence decisions, and have improved livelihoods?” The research intends to provide food for thought and action for the child and youth sector, and stimulate discussion and action by decision-makers on the space and structures for child and youth development. Crucially, it provided exploratory tools for emerging young researchers, from five regions around the world, to allow their voices to be propelled from the national to the global stage. A policy summary of this full research report is also available at https://www.youthpolicy.org/library/documents/from-rhetoric-to-action-advocacy-report/.