Global Forum on Youth Policies

In 2014, of 198 countries, 122 countries (62%) have a national youth policy, up from 99 (50%) in the previous year. These numbers show that governments are increasingly aware of the need for legal and policy frameworks that respond adequately to young peoples’ needs, aspirations and demands.

Despite these advances, however, a number of challenges affect both the efficiency and inclusiveness of youth policies, from fragmented responsibilities and challenged structures to the lack of reliable knowledge and the absence of appropriate resources.
How to address the needs of the world’s young people and shape more meaningful youth policies that resonate in the post-2015 development landscape was the central question explored in a major international meeting that took place in the Azerbaijan capital, Baku.

It was an opportunity for 700 participants to examine the social and developmental role of youth policy in areas as diverse as health, the environment, housing, education, employment and the justice system. They also discussed the need to pursue multisectoral approaches to such policies, looked at the key ingredients for policy development, debated regional strategies to take youth policy forward and shared experiences of interventions in action. 

The 1995 World Programme of Action for Youth, the original global framework for youth policies, was a springboard for the debate. It was argued in the meeting that while progress has been made in the past 20 years, with 122 countries having current youth policies and a further 36 updating theirs, much more needs to be done to design well-resourced and inclusive policies catering to young people.

Concrete ways of taking youth policies forward over the next five years and actions and strategies needed to build on the first global forum were explored at length and participants agreed to redouble their efforts to make sure that young people’s voices are heard.
The First Global Forum on Youth Policies was co-organized by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth, UNDP, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. It was hosted by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Youth and Sports and the youthpolicy.org team.