International Youth Sector: Overview
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Outlined below are the parameters of the international youth sector as a prelude to the presentation of an in-depth mapping of the international youth sector and the key international texts that provide the sector’s guiding principles.
The international youth sector is a complex web of relationships between nongovernmental and international institutional actors with programs run for, by, and with young people in support of the active contribution young people can make to their societies and of “good governance” in the sphere of youth policy making. In principle, it seeks to promote effective evidence-based action by governments and other relevant actors (e.g., international nongovernmental youth organizations, international institutions, the research community) to address the needs and concerns of young people in terms of human development and civic, political, and social participation.
It is guided by a consensus on certain values, including the promotion of pluralist democracy, human rights, peace, and social cohesion. This consensus has been translated into a series of principles. The international youth sector’s action is intended to be:
- characterized by shared decision making between governmental and nongovernmental partners;
- based on policies grounded in evidence of the condition of young people;
- empowerment oriented;
- considerate of the interdisciplinary nature of the youth field;
- underwritten by a human rights perspective;
- and guided by the belief that young people are a resource rather than a problem.
Widespread international acceptance for these principles has led to the development of some good practices in youth policy development, such as conducting youth policy making in awareness of the fact that youth experience differs from place to place according to recent and more distant social and political developments, irrespective of biological age definitions,[1] and that differing traditions of youth policy making in particular regions and individual countries influence the way that youth is positioned as a political or social theme.
The international youth sector is endowed with a variety of more or less formalized mechanisms for cooperation, policy making, technical assistance, education, and further training of its professional and voluntary staff and research, in different stages of elaboration depending on region or institutional arrangement. These are described in detail for the global level and several regions of the world in the mapping and directory.
The international youth sector has several functions, understood as the objectives that international institutions and the international nongovernmental youth sector have in common in the youth field, even if these have not been enshrined by relevant institutional partners as “common objectives” in all cases.
These functions include:
- Facilitating the active participation of young people in decision-making processes, especially (but not exclusively) concerning policies addressed toward young people;
- Encouraging active engagement of young people in the social, political, and civic life of their communities;
- Easing access of young people to the labor market and supporting policies that put in place conditions for the full exercise of the economic dimension of citizenship by young people;
- Developing access to attractive, useful, and relevant youth-specific information;
- Promoting youth mobility and international exchange among young people by reducing administrative and financial obstacles and encouraging the development of attractive, quality youth-mobility projects;
- Promoting nonformal education/learning and the development of recognition mechanisms for skills acquired through involvement in voluntary work, youth organizations or any other form of free-time activity that is socially beneficial, at all levels of governance, from local through international;
- Supporting human development efforts by providing expertise and technical assistance to non-youth-specialized actors on the specificities of youth in relation to development;
- Encouraging cooperation, coordination, and effective use of resources among child, family, and youth policies at national and international levels; and
- Advocating to national governments for the mainstreaming of established good practices and the implementation of standards in the field of youth policy development and provision of technical support for such efforts.
The idea of quality standards for youth policy development and implementation is relatively new. As a result of international and regional cooperation in the youth field, researchers and policy makers agree that a body of good practice in youth policy can be distilled from multinational experience and used in many different contexts with adaptation to local circumstances and specificity. In generic terms this means that academics, youth-work practitioners, and (governmental) policy makers have established and accept the use of “indicators” for the ways that national youth policies should be made and conducted.[2] This acceptance extends to the use of such indicators as a guide to policy making and a basis for evaluation and assessment, and it has provided the nongovernmental sector with benchmarks for holding governments to account. Although in the youth field these are generally not legally binding, they have become the accepted wisdom of the field.[3]
The international youth sector is also defined by its debates. Some of the most important are:
- Who are young people? Who can be considered young? Should youth be defined by an age range or by sociological perspective? If the latter, how can this be translated into effective programming?
- Who can/should define young people’s needs? Who speaks for whom? Do young people always know what is best for them?
- How representative is representative? Which youth platforms are legitimate partners? What about the so-called nonorganized youth? How can elitism be avoided and inclusion be achieved?
- What is the best approach to involving young people in youth policy decision making? How can principles such as youth adult partnership and co-management[4] be established and institutionalized in participative mechanisms?
- To which extent is the voluntary character of the youth sector its most important feature? How far should efforts toward professionalization be taken before the voluntary character is lost? What kind of mechanisms for the recognition and qualification of professional staffing does the field need?
- What should be the standard that defines “good quality” youth work and youth policy and how should it be assessed? How far should standard setting go? To what extent should this remain a national prerogative? Once standards are set, what kind of monitoring, evaluation, assessment, and benchmarking should be put in place? How should enforcement be organized?
- When establishing indicators for youth policy, what can/should be included? Who determines this (governments, youth organizations, or international actors)?
These questions have consistently determined the content of the work of professionals in the international youth sector and to some extent delineate the directions of the field’s continuing development. Those working in international institutions and in the research community, international nongovernmental youth organizations, and (voluntary or professional) youth workers are involved in such debates in a variety of ways, including through formally organized mechanisms of international cooperation. These are mapped out in some detail in the directory.
Footnotes