In critiquing and assessing the impact of events and processes,youthpolicy.orghas sought to provoke action, dialogue and honest reflection to ensure the inertia of global governance ends and a new approach to international decision making reflects the modern world and not the post-World War II world in which many institutions were founded.At youthpolicy.org/participation,we must move this conversation forward.
Throughout last year, this website critiqued youth and civil society events and global governance structures fromRio+20,Y21,CIVICUS World Assembly, theGlobal Youth Forum,Y20, and otherUN youth participation initiatives.Read our key comments here.
In critiquing and assessing the impact of events and processes,youthpolicy.orghas sought to provoke action, dialogue and honest reflection to ensure the inertia of global governance ends and a new approach to international decision making reflects the modern world and not the post-World War II world in which many institutions were founded.
At youthpolicy.org/participation,we must move this conversation forward.
Whether it is the inertia of international institutions, outdated civil society organisations, disillusioned youth or weak political will, the failure to agree solutions to problems echoes through conference centres around the world.
Global governance, with its outmoded systems and archaic processes for multilateral decision making, is now woefully unable to take decisions on global issues, civil conflicts, economic endurance or sustainable development.
“A crisis that’s severe enough will help to overcome social and political inertia. - The key question is then: is the global governance crisis severe enough for civil society to successfully redefine it?”
“A crisis that’s severe enough will help to overcome social and political inertia.
- The key question is then: is the global governance crisis severe enough for civil society to successfully redefine it?”
The inability to act only weakens people’s trust and belief in global institutions. Formalised, bureaucratic institutions are disconnected from people’s lives and it is through the mass mobilisation of citizens around the world that we now see radical change achieved and celebrated.
Though youth participation in international decision making is, from the start, flawed by the system, it cannot excuse our on-going ineffectiveness and failure to bring about the policy change we lobby for and ‘demand’ from our leaders.
“We need to stop our amateurish approach to young people’s voice and influence in global decision-making and get real about why we’re there, what we want to achieve and how we’re going to get it.”
/participation will act as a resource and knowledge hub for national and international youth participation and will:
Young people can, and should, play an important role at internationally. But the ‘global governance breakdown’ is offering little hope that our current international institutions are capable ofdeliveringthe policy andpoliticalchange required. If we’re to change the system, we must change our approach. Flying around the world to the next ‘youth summit’ is pointless unless we’re clear what we want and how we will get it.