Giving Youth a Seat at the Table: Considerations from Existing Frameworks of Youth Participation in Public Policy Decision-Making
Abstract
Although decisions affecting the lives and future of the youth are made on a regular basis, their influence over these decisions is limited. Despite the engagement of governments across the globe to address the needs and create opportunities for the youth, this is often done without significant input from them through formal processes especially in higher levels of governments and public service organizations.
Young people tend to be side-lined from decision-making in public affairs on the basis of their preordained lack of experience or familiarity with the public policy process. Nevertheless, we have witnessed in recent times an increased recognition of the potential that youth participation can have in public policy.
This has in turn prompted an increment in research on the subject as well as the development of participation models and frameworks. This study offers a narrative review of scholarly sources and an analysis of the most influential models of youth participation framed through the lens of the policy cycle theory in order to determine the barriers and opportunities of youth participation in the policy process.
The findings indicate a need to redefine power relations between the youth and adults. Moreover, the study highlights the necessity to account for the diversity of youth experiences both in theory and in practice.