Thursday 26 March 2015

Wikiprogress Online Consultation on Youth Well-being


From the 30 March to 8 May, Wikiprogress will be running a 6-week online consultation on Youth Well-being in co-operation with a number of partners. This consultation will be quite different from previous discussions held on Wikiprogress, and the aim will be to cover a very wide range of topics in as much detail as possible in order to produce a report for policy makers and practitioners. We intend for the results of the consultation to be presented at the OECD Forum in Paris in June – and we are counting on your participation to make sure we have as wide a range of contributions as possible.

Register for and access the consultation here.

There are more young people living in the world today than at any time in human history and there is an urgent need to better meet their needs through more effective policy-making and societal action. Last December, Wikiprogress held a 2-week online discussion on Youth Well-being Measurement and Policy. We were overwhelmed by the reaction to this topic, and it was quite clear that there was much more to discuss than the usual format allowed.

A new tool for online consultation

From Monday 30 March to the 8 May, we will be running an online consultation to explore in more detail the many questions raised by the December discussion. In order to this, we are experimenting with a new open-source tool, which will allow us to bring more structure to the conversation, and keep track of the key ideas that emerge over its 6 weeks.

Those who have taken part in previous Wikiprogress discussions will notice that this consultation looks quite different from our usual discussion pages. The idea is that by using a tool that has been specially designed for large-scale online debates, we will be able to organise contributions by theme and by question, making it easier for people to participate in the areas that most interest them. It will also make it easier to highlight key points and summarise pertinent information when it comes to communicating the knowledge gathered to policy makers. Every week we will produce a short summary of the key points of the consultation to help participants keep track of new contributions.

Anyone is free to take part, and we are especially interested in hearing from:
  • Practitioners, researchers and representatives of organisations that have a particular interest in any aspect of youth well-being and youth participation.
  • Young people themselves, who want to have a say about what matters most to them.

An evolving discussion

 The principal objective of the consultation is to gather knowledge from as wide a range of informed people as possible about how to better understand the needs of young people and how to implement policy and other actions that can improve their lives. The consultation is designed so that it can evolve, with new questions and ideas emerging as more people contribute. However, the consultation will open on Monday with a number of starting questions, in the following areas.

First, what does “youth well-being” really mean? Or in other words, what are the key drivers for their well-being and how do the needs of the under-25s differ from the general population in key well-being policy areas (health, employment, personal safety, etc.)? What resources can we use to get an accurate picture of young people’s well-being and where do data gaps exist?

Second, what actions can we take to make young people’s lives better? What do we know works and what lessons can we learn from successful examples of policy and grassroots initiatives? What are good case studies and where do we need better approaches? How can we move from rhetoric to making a real impact when implementing the Sustainable Development Agenda and other commitments?

Third, how can we improve the process of designing and implementing effective policy for young people? How can we ensure that young people’s voices are heard in the policy process, and what changes are needed in government mind-sets and institutions to improve the lives and opportunities of young people?

What will be the outcomes of the consultation?

We intend for the findings of the consultation to be presented at the OECD Forum in Paris in June, and for a report of the consultation to be made widely available for policy makers, foundations, civil society organisations and others in the Wikiprogress network.

Partners

The consultation is being held in partnership with a number of organisations working on youth well-being issues, currently including:

·        Restless Development
·        Youth Policy

We are also be adding more partners throughout the consultation. If you work for an organisation that would be interested in partnering with us, please email info@wikiprogress.org

And to all Prog Blog readers, we hope that you will join us in this exciting experiment! Sign up now, and we look forward to your contributions in the coming weeks.

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