A voice for youth in a time of change

There is a sense in much of the world of widening divisions between younger and older generations.

As civic spaces contract, young people have fewer opportunities to make their voices heard or to influence the thinking of national leaders who are often old enough to be their grandparents. While half of all people around the world are under the age of 30, this is true of barely 1 in 35 parliamentarians. Half of all national leaders around the world are 62 or above.

In a world where their voices are not heard, and where many feel locked out of the sort of economic opportunities older generations enjoyed, young people appear increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo. According to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, young people’s lack of trust towards institutions and leaders is at an all-time high. Even more concerning, more than half believe hostile activism – including attacking people online and threatening or committing violence – are legitimate tools to drive change.

In this time of rapid transformation, we must do better.

Investing in the democratic participation of children and young people is a moral imperative. As Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen wrote, true progress is measured not just by economic growth, but by expanding people’s freedoms – their ability to participate meaningfully in shaping their own futures.

Participation of children and young people is also a strategic necessity. As the most educated and connected generation in human history, children and youth bring unique knowledge and experience. Actively and meaningfully engaging with young people strengthens the ability of governance systems to address today’s most pressing problems.  

Participation also has an important role to play in supporting young people’s own development – itself a liminal phase of life: As young people transition from dependence to independence, recognising and hearing their voices acknowledges their growing potential as drivers of societal change and economic prosperity.

From dependence to independence – a liminal age

Child and youth participation is enshrined in global law and policy for good reason. Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees it; the SDGs recognise it as crucial to sustainable development; and the UN Pact for the Future adopted last year makes meaningful youth participation no longer the exception, but the norm. We know this works – but what does it look like on the ground?

Despite considerable efforts and investment over the years, young people too often find their participation in international events unequal, unrepresentative, exploitative and unimpactful. More than four out of five youth who took part in research by UNICEF Innocenti described such participation as often tokenistic and said their ability to impact policies and decisions was limited. Young people are telling us loud and clear: we must do better.

Why we need to listen to young people

Young people are critical to advancing the child rights agenda, especially in a period when we’re witnessing growing hostility to rights in general. While the child rights agenda is legally defined for those under 18, integrating youth development, participation and mobilization of 15- to 24-year-olds strengthens the intergenerational continuum of rights.

Intergenerational governance models where young people and older generations co-create policy solutions are essential to restoring trust and fostering social cohesion. Studies show that youth-inclusive governance leads to more resilient and innovative policy outcomes, as diverse perspectives contribute to more adaptive and responsive decision-making.

Challenging the status quo is where youth foresight comes in. In contrast to short-term, reaction-led policymaking, foresight can allow all generations to engage as strategic co-creators of future governance models, ensuring that responses to today’s crises are not dictated solely by those in power, but informed by intergenerational dialogue and long-term thinking.

By giving young people the tools to analyse trends, map potential disruptions, craft future scenarios and develop anticipatory recommendations, foresight provides them with the capacity to surface leverage points for change and propose alternatives that can benefit institutions and society.

Enabling a new era of meaningful youth participation

At the systems level, governments need to actively create effective mechanisms for youth participation in formal political processes. Multilateral organizations must move beyond symbolic youth consultations and embed youth co-leadership within decision-making bodies. There is also an important role for NGOs and the private sector in this agenda.

What might this new era of meaningful youth participation look like? Building on UNICEF’s experience and drawing on Nancy Fraser’s theory of social justice, three interconnected dimensions need to be met – recognition, representation and redistribution:

• Recognition is about valuing young people’s perspectives as central to governance processes, not as secondary or advisory, and certainly not through tokenistic, performative or box-ticking exercises.
• Representation is about institutionalizing inclusive youth participation including youth foresight in governance structures and systems, such as setting youth quotas in parliaments, national youth councils with legislative power and formal youth advisory roles in multilateral institutions, with a clear mandate and mechanisms to hold institutions accountable.
• Redistribution refers to the social and economic policies that prioritize youth employment, education and social mobility, closing the social and financial gaps that contribute to feeling disenfranchised and distrust, with a focus on marginalized and or disadvantaged groups.

Every era of transformation is anchored in a new story. In a time of fractured governance and short-term thinking, youth empowerment and youth development become critical. Meaningful youth participation and foresight can provide what our systems need: fresh perspectives, redefined power and a long-term, intergenerational approach to decision-making.