Consultation mechanisms
What is a Consultation mechanism?
They are structured processes designed to gather youth perspectives on specific policies, programs, or issues without requiring long-term engagement. These models focus mainly on short-term, issue-based participation, allowing young people to contribute insights without committing to continuous involvement.
Key characteristics
The main goal is not to empower youth as decision-makers but rather to integrate their perspectives into broader governance and policy processes. Can be initiated by local, regional and national public authorities, NGOs, international institutions, or private sector organizations. May be conducted in-person, online, or through hybrid models. They can take various forms, from one-off public forums and youth dialogues to focus groups and structured advisory meetings. They serve as valuable (and flexible) tools for policymakers, institutions, and organizations to ensure that youth voices inform decision-making. Their impact is maximized when they happen regularly, included early in the policy making process, well-structured, and designed with clear follow-up processes.Different types of Consultation mechanisms
Youth meeting or event
Focus groups
Online consultations and surveys
Crowdsourcing and idea competitions
Do NOT establish this model in case
the goal is to empower young people to take on leadership roles or develop their own initiatives you do not have a strategy on where and how to outreach and engage youth in your consultation mechanism when policy input needs to be deeply integrated into complex decision-making processes allocated staff is not equipped already or can not be trained with the adequate competences and tools to implement this process you can not ensure adequate preparation, facilitation or follow-up processes you need to operate in contexts where deeper, sustained youth engagement is required.