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Youth Engagement Plan

“My advice to future implementers—start with the end user from the beginning. And make sure you are with them along the way. That informs your design. And all your interventions are designed with them.” — Rosemary Nazar, A360 Youth Officer, TanzaniaWhat is it?

For youth engagement to be meaningful, it requires intentionality, resources, and training. A strategy sets the direction for meaningful partnership with the young people we seek to serve.

“Meaningful adolescent and youth engagement is an inclusive, intentional, mutually-respectful partnership between adolescents, youth, and adults whereby power is shared, respective contributions are valued, and young people’s ideas, perspectives, skills, and strengths are integrated into the design and delivery of programs, strategies, policies, funding mechanisms, and organizations that affect their lives and their communities, countries, and world.”
—Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Youth Engagement

We’re sharing two resources for your reference: (1) Youth Engagement Template and (2) Youth Engagement Plan Example. We created Youth Engagement Plans for all three countries. The example shared here is from our Ethiopia team.

How did we use it?

To create an actionable roadmap for effective engagement with young people — with processes and activities to help expand our programming perspectives, diversity of staff, and manage our goals. Included in the tool:

  • Goals & definitions
  • Scope of work
  • Recruitment and retention
  • Priorities
  • Budget
  • Management
  • Work Plan

Consider using it to:

  • Ensure youth voices are justly represented in your programs, making your programs more effective, accountable, and relevant to your youth population
  • Build empathy between adult and young staff working in your office and in your community
  • Build leadership opportunities among young staff within your office, furthering youth development and evolving meaningful youth engagement roles
  • Remain accountable to a meaningful youth engagement promise with a clear understanding of the commitments, barriers, and resources allocated
  • Serve as a springboard for creating your own youth engagement plan