Session 1: Empowered Youth and Communities

  • Transcript

    Stephanie: I think we can begin. So thank you very much everyone who's joining us here today. I'd like to welcome everyone to this first session of the evidence to action for young people's well-being, in Southern cities dialogue session. Today we will be speaking on the theme of empowered youth and communities. And we will be hosting a series of sessions which are based on the same evidence to action theme which will cover different themes, moving forward. So please do have a look out for that as and when it comes along.

    [00:07:57] Before we begin our session today, I'd like to do an acknowledgement of country and to the traditional owners of the land from which I'm presenting on that is to the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. I'd like to acknowledge these lands, which you may know as Melbourne in Australia, whenever seated and to pay my respects to the elders, past present, and emerging. And to extend that acknowledgement to the elders in other contexts, where you maybe sitting or where you may be viewing this later.

    [00:08:27] My name is Stephanie Butcher. I am a research fellow at the Connected Cties Lab, and I will be your chair for this session. This evidence to action for young people's well-being in Southern cities, as I said, is the first dialogue of four. It is hosted in collaboration with the Fondation Botnar, which is a philanthropic organization working at the intersection of young people's health and well-being, technology and innovation in secondary cities of the global South as well as with the Connected Cities Lab which is hosted in the University of Melbourne, which is a research Hub focused on producing actionable, knowledge in collaboration with cities and citizens to address global challenges. I just like to mention a brief bit of housekeeping. If anybody wants to do any tweeting during the session, we will pop some handles into the chat that you can use to facilitate that.

    [00:09:19] But before I hand over to our fantastic, facilitator for this session and to our panelists, I just wanted to give a short introduction to the seminar series and the particular issues that are framing our discussion today. And this collaboration has been quite a long time in the making between Fondation Botnar and the Connected Cities Lab really thinking through this notion of evidence, and evidence and action. And really how it is and what are the processes for generating, more inclusive and equitable cities, where young people can flourish. This means that we've been exploring questions such as the politics underpinning who produces evidence, how and to what aims, and thinking through how we can build evidence about our cities not just in traditional research ways but also building on the wealth of inspirational work we already know is happening with local communities, co-producing urban knowledge and really making visible those voices and experiences that might not traditionally have a say in city decision making.

    [00:10:19] As a part of this process of thinking together, we've produced something that we are calling the evidence to action framework, which is a comprehensive evidence building framework to guide meta-learning, reflexive practice and the evaluation of Fondation Botnar funded urban initiatives. The aim of this framework is to support organizational learning on the processes which have worked or which have not worked in achieving a range of strategic outcomes across the urban portfolio and towards the aim of enhancing young people's well-being. This - the ethos of this framework is very much informing this session today. And in particular I might actually share a brief image of that if you don't mind. Here we go. Can you see that all right? Yeah.

    [00:11:18] So what I really like to point out today is this is really a values driven framework and you can see that through the principles which sit across the top of the framework. And what that means for us is that there are a number of values which should underpin the processes of any urban interventions. That means they should be grounded in the local contexts, they should be inclusive and, and by that we mean with attention of course to intersectionality and today will be very much - what always will be very much for grounding age. But also thinking through how age intersects with gender with ethnicity, with ability, etc. It should be focused on building an enabling environment to ensure sustainability. It should be supportive of mundane Innovation as much as it is of frontier technologies. The thinking about the range of ways in which innovation is happening in society, many of them as, I'm sure we'll be discussing today, which are very much user driven, and of course, should be global in reach. So being able to produce knowledge, produce strategies, produce interventions, which are both speaking to localized concerns, but also can draw lessons by informed global processes.

    [00:12:28] So, each of our seminar sessions will be focused, informed of course, by these principles, but focused on a different domain of change, which we see as different dimensions, which underpin and sit underneath this idea or youth well-being. Today, of course, we're looking at empowered youth and community. So really, looking at the idea of what meaningful participation looks like with young people, sitting in decision-making spaces, being leaders in their cities. Our next seminar session which will come in about one month's time will be on Equitable Partnerships. The third one on Effective City Systems and the last one on Transformative Innovation. And of course, one of our key domains of change is Global Learning and that's something that shall be cross-cutting across this webinar series. And let me see if I can just stop sharing.

    [00:13:21] So we hope that this webinar session will be a really exciting place to think through some of these themes that have been introduced to the ETA framework and to really share some reflections and exchange ideas. We have representation here from an amazing range of panelists bringing a lot of different experiences to the table from the NGO sector, from the UN, we have youth leaders, we have academics. And from each of them we will be hearing about different effective, strategies, or sometimes, perhaps some challenges in aiming for a meaningful participation and empowerment of young people, or marginalized communities in citywide planning, agenda setting and decision-making. And with that, I think I'm just going to hand over very briefly to Susanna from Fondation Botnar, the Chief Program Officer, to say a few words on the role of evidence and action for the organisation.

    Susanna: [00:14:10] Thanks a lot of Stephanie and hi to everyone. It's really great to have a very broad participation of many different stakeholders here on this, on this first panel. I just want to, you know, we were, we are talking about youth participation and maybe just a reflection on, like, for Fondation Botnar, how we came to youth, or young people's participation, young people's focus. Looking at the world where there are actually almost 1/4 of the world's population are young people between 10 and 24, and also looking at that about by 2030 there are about 60 percent of urban dwellers are going to be below 24 years old. This already makes quite a clear case to say, like getting there is, there is actually no excuse not to include this very important, this very important group. So it's an imperative to actually really focus on them, and this is what Fondation Botnar has committed to.

    [00:15:19] At the same time, we are also in a in a very fast changing world. We are in a world with new challenges, which are coming. We live in a digital era which has, of course, massive impacts. For example, on jobs, on current jobs but also in future jobs where young people like 64, 65 percent of the scholars entering primary school now will actually end up in a job which doesn't exist yet. So, again here, of course, the perspective of young peoples are absolutely crucial. Then young people are always addressing climate change and destruction of nature as most important focuses. And again, there is a lot of purpose in the young people's beliefs and contributions they would, they would like to make. And we also have a - we live in a pandemic. We see that now as well the actual impact - the incredible impact on the mental health and on the on the violence. And again, it's a lot of young people who are mostly affected.

    [00:16:29] So, actually I asked today my daughter, you know, as I like okay I am - who am I to speak? I'm 55 so I'm an old generation and so I asked my daughter who is 20 years old, what she thinks of youth participation and her answer was absolutely interesting because she actually said, yeah, [she said?], she observes there's a lot of trend, and a lot of fashion, and a lot of like participation, yes. But the real concern, the real concern really does not come to the surface. The real concern neither by the young people themselves can really be expressed and can really be taken into consideration. So what she says, what is needed is to have these spaces - to have new spaces, to have new possibilities, approaches for critical reflection, but also for more protagonism of young people.

    [00:17:26] And I think this is exactly, I mean I was really like touched me very deeply because I think this is what that Fondation Botnar, we are actually really like committed to. We would like to really like foster exactly this in our different cities program that we have where we change. Also, where we want to transform the deep structures, the real young part - the contributions taking them that's into considerations not just tokenistic talk but to have the discussions and also the decisions taken by young people. And this, of course, cannot be done without evidence, and this cannot be done without a culture of participation, which is not just now to ask young people to participate. It is to ask everybody to participate from every stakeholder from the public sector, from the private sector but really like everybody to, to get into this, into this mode of really wanting to collaborate with each other, to meet up with each other.

    [00:18:31] So Fondation Botnar beliefs. Also, there are not quick changes there are not magic bullets that we can just find, like let's say, "Come on young person! Now, you are you are, you can also give your opinion". We would like to change slowly and steadily structures in the cities so that there is real change and real participation happening. That takes time. And, of course, this is also a challenge for the evidence in terms of like, yes, okay, so how do we actually co-create this evidence? How do we actually measure what we are doing? And this is all that comes into this evidence to action and I'm looking extremely forward to hearing from all this about the panelists, but then also the interaction with all these distinguished participants who, who, yeah to get, to get their reflections on this very challenging issue. Thanks a lot. And with that I give back to Stephanie.

    Stephanie: [00:19:32] Brilliant, thank you. That is a perfect transition for me to introduce our panelists here today. And I'll give a very brief introduction because actually as you said Susanna, this is an extremely accomplished panel as so if you want to have a look a little bit later on the Connected City's website, please feel free to see the long list of bios and many activities that are and kind of experiences that our panelists are bringing to us today. But I'd like to say a brief few words. So, first thing with us today, we have Najat Gibreel. So Najat is a Ghanaian youth leader living in Tamale. She really is truly the next generation just finishing school. In fact, I believe just missing a little bit of school to join us here today. So thank you very much for that. Well, she's a youth ambassador in her school club, which is supported by Action Aid. In this capacity, she is also working with the healthy cities for adolescents program, which is a Fondation Botnar initiative as a peer educator.

    [00:20:29] Secondly, we have with us here today Manish Thakre who works as the head of urban program and policy at Save the Children India. He's bringing to us over 17 years of experience in the social and development sector and does work to build and undertake research advocacy and campaigns linked to the issues of urbanization and its impact on children. Next, we have with us, Douglas Ragan, the program management officer for the human rights and social inclusion unit of UN Habitat bringing us, 25 years’ experience, working on issues of Youth Development with NGOs, local and National governments and the United Nations while always centering the voices of young people and marginalized communities. Next, I would introduce Sarah White, a founding partner of the Relational Wellbeing Collaborative - an enterprise dedicated to designing creative self-sustaining solutions with organizations and communities including with Fondation Botnar. Sarah will be drawing on 30 years of experience in social development research, particularly in the context of Bangladesh, India and Zambia.

    [00:21:44] That is our esteemed panel. But I would also like to introduce, very excited here to introduce our facilitator for the session who I will be handing to handing over to after this. So I'm really, really pleased that we have with us here today Kehkashan Basu who is the founder president of Green Hope Foundation - a global social innovation enterprise, which combines grassroots advocacy with high-level policy making towards the aims of just, equitable, peaceful and nuclear weapons free worlds. She is a United Nations human rights champion and the winner of the 2016 International Children's Peace Prize as well as sitting on a number of other influential spaces and occupying a number of other crucial roles globally. She's been recognized since the age of 12 for her work on sustainable development and leadership when she founded Green Hope Foundation.

    [00:22:43] Finally, I'd like to introduce Joyati Das who will be providing some final comments and summation for us at the end of the panel session. Joyati is a senior international development professional, thought leader and human rights advocate with a specialization in child rights in diverse urban contexts. She's also the lead of the Botnar healthy cities for adolescents program, as well as one of the co-authors of the Botnar evidence to action framework. So with that, I think I would now pass to Kehkashan to start leading on the session and really open for us some of her own thoughts from her own work on what it is to - what is empowered youth and communities. Thanks very much.

    Kehkashan: [00:23:28] Thank you Stephanie. And hello everyone. I am connecting to you from Toronto, Canada, which is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. As was mentioned, my name is Kehkashan and apart from being a UN Human Rights champion and founder President of Green Hope Foundation, I'm also a UN Habitat and Fondation Botnar young city champion. Now, we know that more than half the world's population lives in cities, a number that's expected to grow to two-thirds of the human population by 2050 and concurrently our world has more young people now than ever before with this trend to expected to accelerate. So it's imperative that being the largest stakeholder, youths well-being and engagement form integral parts of all aspects of urban agenda setting, policy-making and strategy implementation.

    [00:24:40] Given that cities cover only 3% of the earth's surface we are already witnessing unprecedented challenges and demands on urban infrastructure from housing, waste management, green spaces, healthcare, safety, education, employment to just name some of the issues that need to be addressed. And the challenges are exacerbated in the global South where resource crunch, unplanned development, corruption and a lack of transparent processes and accountability accentuate the inequality and vulnerability of young people, especially girls. Now, at Green Hope Foundation it's these communities that we work with since we believe that the process of rebuilding better must start with those who continue to be on the outer fringes of development.

    [00:25:34] One of our projects is currently in progress in Liberia - a country categorized as an LDC where large parts of their populace are still without electricity and how can any hegemonic smart city practice even reach there where there are no networks, where electrical grids do not exist. Again, young people especially girls in these communities are sucked into a vicious cycle of drugs and crime. So, to bring them out of this morass of exploitation, Green Hope Foundation uses education for sustainable development as a transformative tool to provide them with the necessary behaviors, skills and attitudes to think and act for a sustainable future. However, to provide to students learning in times of the lockdown, right now, we first had to bridge the digital divide. The initial step in our solution was to build a suitable infrastructure through a network of solar panel installations in their homes, in the community center and their school is well as providing solar streetlights. And our local team of youth facilitated and supervised the installations, literally bringing light into the lives of these villagers for the first time. And solar lighting now provides the additional benefit of safe spaces for the girls and youth.

    [00:27:00] Once we establish digital connectivity, our project's next step was to provide computer education to the girls in these areas not only to improve their employment opportunities but also to open the window - the world of digital learning tools, and widen their perspectives, so that then they could give back to their own town and urban environment to make it a smart city. So strategic vision, proper planning, and resource management are now going to be key elements to overcoming the hurdles and really building sustainable inclusive cities, so to enable informed decision making, data availability and evidence which hold the key. We of course, need a clearly defined roadmap that is region-specific, taking into account local dimensions with proper milestones and review mechanisms, which provide and enable space for accommodating the views, needs and aspirations of all residents and stakeholders, especially young people leveraging, their passion, creativity and dynamism to build the cities of today and tomorrow.

    [00:28:11] Today's discussion brings together an intergenerational panel of youth leaders, policy experts and academia that's also representative of how city should engage its stakeholders that will really put forward their insights, experiences, aspirations and reflections on local and global learning and its application to issues relevant to meaningful and substantive engagement and empowerment of young people and communities in the urban context.

    [00:28:43] We shall begin with an interactive dialogue with the speakers, followed by a summary from our lead discussant. And we would request our audience to please put your questions in the Q&A box so that our panelists can respond to them during the question and answer period. So with that we shall begin our panel discussion and the first question that I would like to ask you is, in your work, what does empowerment of young people in cities mean? And I would request you to keep your responses to one minute because we will be hearing from you after we hear this very quick summary of your work. So the first person I'd like to invite is Sarah. The floor is yours.

    Sarah: [00:29:30] Thank you. So I have a more general - I have worked for more on empowerment of women, so my answer is really in relation to that. I think the first thing I have to say, which may not be a welcome thing, is empowerment is a much abused word. It's a word that means all kinds of things to all kinds of people. So it's one that I always use with extreme caution and um yeah, it's - it's one of those kind of fuzzy words to be careful of. To me empowerment has three important aspects. First of all, if people are empowered than they actually should, there actually should be some improved tangible outcomes. They should be in some way in a better place than they were before. Secondly, there should be a change in the in the structural environment and more enabling structural environment. So it's not just that people are those people are better off but that somehow the context in which they are those things that are disabling that might be about gender or might be about youth discrimination that there is some change within the structuring environment and finally that there are expanded horizons of possibility that people can actually think of themselves in a different way and can imagine different kinds of future than otherwise they could. So, three aspects - improved tangible outcomes, a more enabling structural environment and expanded horizons of possibility.

    Kehkashan: [00:31:00] Thank you very much, Sarah. And hopefully, those would be implemented as soon as possible to make sure that our urban environments and really our societies in general are able to create that sustainable, inclusive environment. Thank you. I now give the floor to Najat.

    Najat: [00:31:20] The reasons [?] from Tamale, Ghana and I'm happy to share my perspectives on the theme empowering youth and communities with you. Before I talk about, my, what I think empowerment is, I like to define one's youth. Youth in Ghana is defined as those between the ages of 15 and 35 years. But different countries give different age range to youth which makes the definition very worldwide. However, we can also see that the age ranges given by different countries point to the existing population. So, youth, I will say simply refers to those young people who can contribute profitable decision, economic development of their country. I think empowerment is the process of becoming stronger, more confident and having a degree of autonomy and self-determination, which will help young people to present their ideas in a self-determined way was acting on their own authority. That's what I think empowerment is.

    Kehkashan: [00:32:25] Amazing. Thank you, Najat. And yes it is about that having the self-belief and going it’s that yourself to bring about change at the local level. So, thank you so much for mentioning that. Doug the floor is yours.

    Doug: [00:32:48] Thank you. Thanks and again, thank you so much for inviting me. I do agree. I one hundred [?] percent agree with Sarah that empowerment is an unfortunate shorthand. It's kind of like sustainable development in such I think we really have to drive down into what it means. What I - I think, what I my kind of take of point starting kind of represent my UN self here is the SDGs and leaving no one behind. I think the biggest challenge with the concept of empowerment is that we assume there's just one type of young person globally. And that's not true. For example, for my agency, we focus a lot on those young young people living in informal settlements. So, there's one people - one billion young people who live in informal settlements. When we look at those kind of numbers, especially in the urban context, then the question is well, where do you start there?

    [00:33:45] And if you look again at, Susanna mentioned, I think or, or the the issue of Covid and what's happening Covid, we kind of stripped bare and we see the kind of the bare bones of the inequalities in the world and one of them for young people, is education. And education is critical to empowerment. And when over a quarter billion young people, a quarter million young people globally are not able to access any form of education then we're looking at massive disempowerment. And we really need to act to look at how that is and and look at how we can assure that young people get that basic need. Second, we have to look at them - so that can be a range of young people in terms of age, secondary is jobs, and, and skills and skill building. Young people need to have a future. It's a transitional phase. They move from children to adolescent to youth and they need to, they need to have that ability, that vision, that opportunity to get decent jobs.

    [00:34:47] And the third is, I think we've, we've worked with Botnar Foundation, we've worked with Fondation Botnar and we've worked with Melbourne on the issue of wellbeing and just the larger issue of wellbeing and empowerment. Young people if they cannot make their basic needs, and we're looking again at the poorest of the poor when they can't access basic services, when they can't access proper housing, and, and safe and nurturing environments. Without that they also cannot be empowered, so those are just the different areas. But again, I would come back to the SDGs. We can't - we have to make sure we don't leave anyone behind in this process, that we don't get lost in this word of empowerment, which seems to suggest a coming nirvana that's just around the corner that we really have to get down and look at how that's going to mean for those who can least access it. Thank you.

    Kehkashan: [00:35:40] Yeah, thank you so much Doug. And yes, thank you for highlighting the importance of skills-based education and of course we're stating that yes, young people are not this one, the same - they're not the same everywhere. We have different needs and that has to be understood by the rest of the world. And of course, for that, we need to localize the SDGs and then that way we leave no one behind. So, thank you for that, and I'll give the floor to Manish.

    Manish: Thanks and gratitude to all of you who have joined here and I, I echo with Susan's daughter and that gives me a clue to define empowerment in, in a way which I have written. To me it is to do things, learn, explore, make mistakes, bounce-back, given guidance to be able bodied, to do best for myself, my family, my neighbourhood, my city and my country. Empowerment to me is to give me voice, expression, dignity, and confidence to do what I want to do and I quote here author Paulo Coelho "when you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it". So, it gives a story. I am living in a slum, and I want the entire universe to stand with me, to give me what is essential for me, whether it's pandemic, whether it's not pandemic. So that's it from me.

    Kehkashan: [00:37:11] Thank you so much Manish. And yes, I think the universe has this very strange and wonderful way of working and I think today's discussion is like reflective of that, that we are all connecting from different parts of the world during a pandemic. But we are continuing our advocacy and really working to create that sustainable, inclusive environment for all. So, thank you for that and thank you to all our panellists for your responses and we shall now hear a bit more about your work, where I'll be asking each of you a specific question where you can draw on your experiences and your own work and provide real life examples. And we would request each speaker to keep to their time of 5 minutes. But of course, we want to hear more from you about the amazing work that you're doing. So Najat, I would like to ask you first. What are some of the challenges that you faced as a youth leader and organizer to be heard and respected as a young person, you know, and perhaps in terms of gender, age and cultural context when it comes to influencing change? Over to you.

    Najat: [00:38:27] So, I think youth empowerment involves the youth to a large extent, the government as well as teachers. But in our setting Ghana for a young person to be able to bring out what he or she thinks is really difficult because our elders think that the child is never right. And so, what [?] they say is what we should and their decisions do not concern us even though their decisions will affect us. So, when they take decisions they don't involve us and mostly because we are females we find its really difficult voicing out our plights and suggest and give us suggestions. They feel that females should not be involved in decision making especially young females.

    [00:39:16] But I think that for the youth to be empowered we should first of all educate ourselves and also obtain skills. I think that is the first stage of empowerment. Then afterwards [?] we should also recognize our abilities which will help us know the direction in which we are moving. We should also feel capable of [unclear word] and in recognition of ourselves as having human rights and we should also be able to fight for our rights when necessary. This will help empower us. We should also be able to join groups to have a very strong voices [unclear word] which will help us in achieving our goals 'cause it's not really easy here for young people to voice out their plight. But I think that when we come together as one and we voice out our plights, our elders, will feel that yes, we are serious about what we want and they will give us the necessary attention.

    [00:40:15] Then we should also be able to take risks responsibly and face challenges that comes with them. Because before one can achieve what he or she wants, I think that you should be able to take risk responsibly and you should be strong enough to face the challenges that come with it. Then I also think that strategies that can be employed to empower the youth position, economic developments can be - the governments should empower the youth to promote socioeconomic development. They should include the youth in decision-making. So that we can also voice our plight and suggest, suggest our own solutions. Then they should also provide more job opportunities as well as capacity building, skills training and entrepreneurial training. So that when the job opportunities are not provided for us, we can create them ourselves because we are being empowered. The voice of the youth must also be, must also be [unclear word] once it is heard. And when our demands are deemed unnecessary, they should explain to us in an elaborative manner why did they are not given attention to those demands. Because here when the youth bring out their demands and they think is unnecessary, they don't give attention to it. They just shun in or brush through it, but they don't tell us why it's unnecessary. So, we think, if they, if they do that, it will help us to become empowered.

    [00:41:50] Then we should be able to also understand we should, we should be understood. Yes. And our earnest opinions should be considered and implemented. The adults should also be willing to share their adult powers and privileges. So that the community or the society becomes healthy for both young and adults alike. The neglect of our rights and privileges and we the youth when we bring out when we think we are fighting for our rights, they think that we are disrespectful rather than seen us to be assertive. They don't give attention to us. Then teachers can also play a significant role in youth empowerment. They can help young people to discover their passion by observing what they are good at and what they love doing. This can help we young people to choose careers where they can effectively contribute to the nation's development.

    [00:42:57] We can also, they can also recognize the youth to participate in programs and events and express their thoughts. This can encourage, this can encourage the young people to do more. Then encouragement and discussions and debates will help heighten the confidence of the young people so that we can speak for ourselves. And also fight for our right where and when necessary. [unclear sentence]

    Kehkashan: [00:43:32] Thank you very much and know, I identify with that so much and I faced so many challenges when starting out my advocacy as a seven-year-old girl and, you know, my team and I always say that age has nothing to do with capability and that, you know, capability, as you said, Najat has to be nourished with education, with employment opportunities and of course, with our basic human rights. So, thank you very much for sharing that with us. I shall now move on to Manish and what I'd like to ask you is, can you share an example from your work of how you have supported the capacities of young people and empowered them to meaningfully participate in initiatives that are aimed at generating learning, evidence and actions in cities. Over to you.

    Manish: [00:44:27] Thank you Kehkashan. This is interesting and I echo with Najat. So here in our work, we primarily focus on our theory of change where we focus on four aspects and one of the aspect which is relevant here is how to bring voices to the children who are marginalized and deprived and are living in cities. And I'll briefly take you through one of the child champion from Kolkata city, which is in the eastern part of India and it is under our urban resilience project. We when we were forming the collectives of children's group, then we found, you know, we got this champion where she was basically a daughter of a carpenter who is migrated to this city from another state and she is studying at that time in class 8, now she is in class 10. And now what is important that she is living in a informal settlement where there are challenges to the basic services, the floods, the climate vulnerabilities are evident and how to cope in this situation where the menstrual hygiene issues, sexual and reproductive rights and understanding of the child rights is very important for them.

    [00:45:45] So what we did in our in that intervention area, we form the groups of the children, we call it as a child parliament where the groups from that particular ward have come together and identify and map the issues which are challenging them. Now, they have done their work and this girl was leading all this exercise but getting those evidences from the ground that which are the things which are really necessary for their survival, development, participation and protection. So, in that way Lucy, her name is Lucy, and she is and she took that lead and we - what we did, we connected them to the local level committees where elected representatives and the government officials who are responsible for providing those services. So, in that way, Lucy as a leader of those girls and boys in a group of 20 people, they raise their concerns to the local municipalities and local elected officials, and they listen to them.

    [00:46:52] And, and in fact, some of our interventions, which we were doing for last 3 years, came very handy in this pandemic, because these collectives of children are mapping the households who are having problem in this pandemic times where they are facing food crisis, health crisis and they don't know what to do. So, these girls and boys mapped which are the families they need immediate relief, and our team of relief workers, reached out to them. And I, I must say, I applaud these young group that they give us a vision that things is possible and we use ICT because lockdown is there, so how to connect with them? So mobile became very handy. The WhatsApp video calls are really useful and these girls and boys make great use of this and Lucy is one of our child champion who led this.

    [00:47:49] And another important thing which I bring to the forum is that we are having a disasters, I mean, regularly in this part of the world and Lucy is one of the trained DRR specialist where she has underground [?] that how to react, what to do when disasters are happening. So, in a way, what we try to do - we listen to them, we seek solutions from them what is important in their local context. Because they know the day in and out of the challenges which they are facing. They are aware of the economic condition within their families and they know how to cope and what to, what to suggest when it comes to upholding their rights. So, I will end here. Thank you, Kehkashan.

    Kehkashan: [00:48:41] Thank you very much Manish for sharing that we do have to reach out to the farthest first and I'm really glad you mention all of the challenges from lack of sexual and reproductive health and rights to climate change in these disasters that affect the urban environments. Because that highlights the intersectionality and interconnectedness of the challenges of urban environments. And of course, the local context is so important for that very reason. And that's something that my team and I have seen time and again the importance of localizing the solutions. And it is wonderful to hear about the example from Kolkata of positive rebuilding and I think it reflects what Kolkata is called the city of Joy. So, thank you very much for that. And I shall now move on to Doug. So, Doug, can you share an example of a process in which you co-produced learning and evidence with young people [unclear words] change in policy and planning practices, either locally or globally? Over to you.

    Doug: [00:49:48] Sure. Thank you so much. I think that I mean what I want to start with actually is that one of the things that we did in terms of knowledge which was work, we did work with many, many young people globally, was we undertook a wellbeing survey working with the Botnar Foundation and Melbourne University and in that survey we - one of the questions we asked is what is the main fear? What are the one thing that you as the young, the, over 2500 young people responded, children and young people. And one of the major fears was violence and unsafe cities. I mean, young people felt that this is the one area that, that could harm them. So, in terms of co-creating and working, we also, we worked a lot with young people that deal with this on a day-to-day level in places such as Somalia, South Sudan. And to give just an example in Somalia, we have two youth centers. They're called, we have a, what, a branded youth center called the One-Stop Youth Resource Centers. We've established two of them over the last five, four-five years, one in Mogadishu, one Kismayo. These centers are basically places that young people can come together and the centers are run jointly between young people, adults, and specifically local government. They deliver services that are specifically focused on the needs of young people themselves.

    [00:51:19] So, in that, so that in the one stops we, what we find is this kind of representation of this, co-creation of the services that are needed, as well as the, they really represent what they what their needs are. And again, back to the issue of violence and safety, which has been put there. We did, we also did another survey. Again, it was a participatory action research survey that we did with the World Bank, in which we asked young people in Somalia, like, what is the major issue? And of course, the major issue often times globally is, well if young people get jobs, everything's fine. So, we'll just get them employment and that's great. But what we found when the when these young people went out and they did these surveys and we did multiple surveys across Somalia, the made the yes jobs were critical and education of the usage of [?]. But the other thing that they wanted was respect, they wanted to be engaged. They wanted to see whatever was happening to be reflected in the training and such. So there was so, even even in a space and place, which is under, facing violence that most of us can't even imagine.

    [00:52:32] I've no, I've now, we've now have the center in Mogadishu for five years. I've had many friends that have been killed through bombings there and these are young people - people who put themselves on the front lines, young people, people in local government, I mean, you see that the devastation of what happens, you build a project, you build a project and suddenly things are wiped out. And it's but even in that situation it's not young people saying, just get me a job, I'll be fine. It's young people saying no we need to be heard because we believe that we have solutions for this, the challenges we are facing. So I think in terms of the co-creation in the learning and one of the big learnings we have is that governance, respect, engagement is critical. And then we start - when we start pulling that apart and I reflect back actually and what Sarah has said and which I agreed with which is we can't use just the term empowerment. We have to look at other qualities of that empowerment - the meaningful youth engagement. What is that mean? How do you engage? What stage do you engage young people? And of course, the answer to that is right at the beginning when you're deciding the defining the problem. Young people have to be there and you have to do it in a way that ensures that there are that they are heard in a meaningful way, this not just one person on a board sitting way out there is completely disconnected who was selected because they were friend of a friend of a friend or whatever. It has to be someone who is there.

    [00:54:00] And just to to, you know, to wrap that up. I think and so for to give a really concrete example, just to wrap this up - in Somalia, the biggest issue, of course, what I mean based in being a Muslim country and so on was whether they would have a joint youth center. Men and women or whether it would be two completely separate youth centers. We ask this question, the older folk in the in the from local government and subset, 'oh, it has to be separate'. Everyone have to be separate right down the line. But then when we asked young people, they said, 'no, no, no. We understand. We know that we're different. We know that there's many cultural aspects. They have to come together'. And they created a center in which there was a coming together sometimes and the staying apart some times. So they looked at it collectively. They had a much more nuanced version rather than just know we have to have two completely separate centers that don't ever talk to. And I think this is what we found in the many places we worked and again. So this is where that nuance of how the youth center should be developed impacts the whole center now five years later where there's men and women coming together and learning together and it's a much more deeper and deeper knowledge.

    [00:55:16] So my guess my my leaving here is that coming both from non nonprofit background over 20 years in there. And now coming to the UN, is that we really have to do deep dives into what it means to be meaningfully engaged, we really have to, and we have to be pretty brutal about it because I can absolutely guarantee you that adults who control most of the power do not want young people sitting at their table in any meaningful way. That's my experience. And you need to have people who are willing to stand up, be blunt and make it happen so that they can be meaningfully involved. And the programs that come from what they're doing have that much more resonance with young people and actually have that much for me. Thanks.

    Kehkashan: [00:56:01] Thank you very much, Doug for sharing that. And you know, it is great to hear about how the services are tailored to the unique needs of young people. And I found it very powerful when he said that it's not just about education and jobs, it's about their respect and meaningful engagement and you know if you have a job as a young person that disrespects you because of your age and you know is that disrespect is also exacerbated by other social determinants like gender, sexuality, race, socioeconomic status, etc then that is not a job that a young person would want to stay in. And it does not provide any kind of empowerment. So, we have to understand that, you know, it is about quality skills-based education. It's about jobs that respect us and of course, we also have to understand the cultural context of the places where all of us are working. And in the, as you mentioned, it's not just about looking at it from one lens, where it's one or the other, it's just about that, meaningful engagement. And of course, young people have to be involved right from the beginning. Since, you know, it's at the end of the day, it is our future that we are talking about, and not just our future, but also our present. So, thank you once again. And I would now like to invite Sarah to speak about your work, just answering the question of what principles or good practices are crucial when engaging with research, evidence building and action with young people with the aim of enhancing wellbeing. Over to you, Sarah.

    Sarah: [00:57:40] Thank you very much. Um, so I think the first thing that is really important is to be honest. Because I think there's a lot of there's a lot of research that says it's co-produced or it says that it's collaborative or it's co-created where adults still, really hold the hold the power. So, I think that's the first thing to be honest. And to be honest, with young people about the scope that they will have within different, different parts of the research process. So, you know, are they simply going to be there as, you know, gathering data? Are they going to be involved in terms of the analysis, in terms of the writing, in terms of the critical reflection? So, so it's it's about being honest and obviously being as inclusive as you can be. In the spirit of that honesty, I have to say that my research has been on young people. Not with young people. So, I have researched child rights in the context of Bangladesh. My research approach is ethnographic. So, it's very much about listening to what young people say. But I was the one who came with the research agenda, I was the one who listened, I was the one who made sense of what people said, sometimes in discussion with them. And I was the one who wrote it up. So, I have not done, participatory research with young people.

    [00:59:02] From that experience and particularly an experience of doing an ethnography of a young people's organization. There are a couple of things that seem to be particularly important one that has already been touched on is diversity. So, there is a real danger that you get kind of professional young people. So young people who, who often do come from privileged, privileged backgrounds, but even as in the case, the children's organization that I was doing an ethnography of which was slum dwelling, young people, they didn't come from any kind of privilege, but the position they came to within the organization and the and the donors that funded them wanting to promote them, wanting to promote a particular kind of young people's voice. So, it was those individuals actually became very detached from other young people and that had a whole kind of spiralling effect in itself which was you could see power, power differences that came about actually through the process of young people's participation. Because it became those particularly young people who participated over and over again in different forum, including internationally. And they got more and more detached from the people that they actually belong to in the first place.

    [01:00:24] So I think that, that, that diversity issue, it is, as you've been saying, you know, about race and class and gender and all of those things. But it's also, we need also to pay attention to what power differentials may actually come about through the process of participation itself and, seeking to kind of keep things being knit together. So that young people who get to participate still are accountable to a kind of greater number of young people. I think the other thing that is really important and obviously as a ethnography you would expect this is to listen. And to listen carefully and to listen to the language that people use and what they are meaning by that. And sometimes the things that people say are not what you want to hear and it's particularly important to listen, then.

    [01:01:22] So example that came across that I came across in that ethnography was the organization - it was a young people's organization, so it was very much about them taking the lead, them having a kind of process of critical reflection going out and educating themselves. But also going at educating other younger slum dwelling children. But the, the purse [?] there was an adult who accompanied them and he was particularly strong on, on the need for non-violence. So, there was violence in schools. For example, children being caned or other forms of violence - being beaten. And there was violence more generally in the society. And there was an issue that came up when one of the older boys actually beat up one of the younger boys. So, this was big kind of crisis. They had a meeting, which I was able to attend, in which they were seeking to discuss what had happened, why it happened. And in the process of that one of the boys said, 'we've grown up being beaten'.

    [01:02:32] And he said it in the context of saying, well there were two aspects of that one was it's just normal. Why are we making such a fuss about this? It's normal that my elder brother beats me up. If my older brother beats me, do I come and ask for some sort of, you know, judge to make a judgment about it? It's normal. And the other thing he was saying is that we actually developed through being beaten. So, one of the one of the lines is, if the teacher hits you, you remember. If they don't hit you, they don't care about you. You won't remember. So, what we need to be, we need to listen to what people are saying, particularly, when they're not saying what the development agencies want them to say. We need to understand that people do have different perspectives.

    [01:03:25] And as Susanna's daughter was saying, there needs to be space in which the young people can come together and reflect critically with one another because they don't have everything right any more than any of the rest of us have anything right. There needs to be that process of critical reflection. They need to be critical of the kinds of assumptions that they've grown up with, the culture that they have grown up with. And that they've internalized also. We all need to do this. So there's no, there's no kind of enlightened youth voice that will just come through opening the space for young people to speak. Young people are members of society just the same as the rest of us. There needs to be that process of critical reflection. It's really important to listen and to listen particularly when people say unexpected things and to listen to stories.

    [01:04:24] So there's a great excitement about getting numbers. And numbers are important but it's also really important to listen to the stories and what they reflect of the world's that people are coming from and the way that they see them. So, honesty, diversity, keeping that connection and being aware of how power differentials can come about through the process of participation itself and listening and providing space them for critical reflection because all of us need to learn and none of us has got it right.

    Kehkashan: [01:05:06] Absolutely. Thank you so much Sarah and you know, you never stop learning. It's a lifelong process, you know, that's something that is said by the indigenous peoples of, well, from all across the world and something that is still not been etched into a society in general as yet which is really sad. And of course, I think that what you said about researchers, sometimes hearing something that they don't want to hear. They go in with a preconceived notion of what a situation on the ground is going to be like. That is so harmful to what they're trying to tell to the rest of the world because it portrays a wrong story. It does not portray what is actually going on the ground. So of course, listening is critical in that aspect and especially as a researcher that is so important and as a grassroots crusader, you know, the lived experiences and the stories of people are so powerful. But so often there are not included in the data and that is even worse for young girls because you get in that gender aspect there as well.

    [01:06:15] And of course, we have to redefine what normal means and with, you know, as you said the critical reflections, and I think that connects so well to the context of this pandemic, as well of what was normal, and what, what went wrong with normal, because normal brought us here. But we have to really critically reflect and see how we can redefine moving forward and creating a new normal where it's really taking into account everyone's lived experiences and then rebuilding better. So, thank you so much Sarah. And thank you to all of our panellists for your remarks and for sharing your amazing work with us. It is so important and even more so during these trying times. And I shall now invite our lead discussant Dr Joyati Das to summarize and reflect on the key takeaways from this amazing discussion. So over to you.

    Joyati: [01:07:20] Thank you Kehkashan. And honestly, I'm just so overwhelmed. I have no idea where to start and I'm actually kind of going, 'did I put my hand up for this role? This is just, you know, too difficult now because just, you know, the rich discussion, the amazing evidence of practice, the honesty with which our esteemed researchers and practitioners are talking. And the honesty with the which the call for action from young people is just overwhelming for me. But I'll start with what I'm hearing. I'll start with the threads. So, start with what Sarah is calling for, what Najat is calling for, what Doug is calling for is really, actually a behaviour change. Whether it is honestly, to be honest, it's so hard. When you're driving your own agenda. You are paid to drive that own agenda.

    [01:08:21] Young people, you know, the power of those who are counted and those who are not that huge from those who are within global South cities. Having grown up in New Delhi, you know, those of us from privileged backgrounds, always got the position to contribute, internationally nationally, to those who were almost all, you know, invited to be in that tokenistic space to be used as numbers. And that's what we have to be really, you know, be mindful of. But it is this call for that behaviour change of cultures that do not - it's the same as the gender issue. Young people are not counted. So how do we, how do we create that space that those tools to enable them to speak out? And, you know, that Doug talked about meaningful engagement where they're able to they're able to openly discuss, they're able to disagree with adults, disagree with their own peers and have a rich conversation that brings solutions which are discussed openly but also considered given the different diversity of group, diversity of environment.

    [01:09:50] So let me then from there, going to who said what, And I absolutely agree that the language that people are using as Sarah is talking - language is so important to listen to those reading between the lines, especially in traditional societies is going to is so, so important to ensure that you are not leaving behind those critical elements that actually do not get. You know you don't see it as you walk into a community. So my experience as a - my first job here in Australia with my land rights study was working as indigenous programs manager here with one of the largest NGOs. And it was interesting that many of the people who were working in this space would say, 'you will never hear the real story. You will never hear the real issues of women, of children in indigenous societies. Because they just don't, that's their culture, they do not speak out, they will not. It's going to be very hard, you have to read between the lines'.

    [01:11:10] But one of the things we did was then accepting that. We said, let's begin with what they are comfortable with which was art. And we gave them, we created this community center and we gave them the tools to start with art. They were artists. And, you know, from there started our program. Nobody spoke, nobody was speaking. People were just just, you know, drawing there and and the, the dot painting. And then one person came with a beaten forehead. Another one came with a child broken arm. Another one came with something else and that created, you know, the conversation. Community conversations where bonds were created and people felt that honest that space, that comfortable space to share their experiences. And from there came as Doug is talking about - the wellbeing survey talked about young people are not about just you know, about getting a job.

    [01:12:16] That is important but they are talking about fear that they feel, they're talking about now the violence in the societies they are living in. And that came out of the violence in the indigenous communities within the families with came out after many, many months. So what I would like to bring is the time that you have to invest, the time that NGOs and researchers have to invest, the long-term time, which is, which was, then take me to what Susanna talked about the commitment that there are no magic bullets. Let's invest the time to understand over time the issue and be flexible to revise, to re-, you know, frame our approach to evidence production. This was very difficult to get that evidence of what was going on. Evidence production that would then inform design that was owned - completely owned by those people who were affected by it. They came with the issues. They finally then said these are the solutions in our context that would work and that to some of them, those solutions did not work so we regrouped [?] again.

    [01:13:33] So then, you know, I'm talking about then what did young people do at the empowerment of young people and this is what I hear. The word is respect. Bringing me back to then what Najat talked about. We need to take, we need to be considered with respect and most of the societies we grow up in and it doesn't - it, its traditional societies are of course, in the heart of this issue of not counting young people. Not counting them as, as those who can contribute to societal and their own wellbeing. But it's in the first world society, it's in the global North as well that young people are not necessarily counted. It even if they have the enabling environment and all but our governments and, all you know, they're not, they're not, they're not seen as valid, you know, contributors to local government processes. They're not it is very much tokenistic even here in Australia.

    [01:14:42] So I think for me what reflected was in terms of youth empowerment, which is the theme of this webinar, is we have to be very, really, really cautious of the word empowerment. I am hearing that from everyone because it is this buzzword, it is a word that can easily be. It's pretty much could be tokenistic, could be used very easily by establishing, you know, adult voices throughout. It's important to understand that in some of the majority of the cultures adults are making the decisions. And so, to tick a box and say, I talked to a few youth, I gave them a few opportunities and that's it - we have empowered them. We have to be really careful of that. I think it is important to understand that youth need space. Meaningful participation is about creating those spaces, mechanisms that allow them an intergenerational dialogue, which is what today's webinar we are doing.

    [01:15:51] We've got Kehkashan and you know we've got Najat having this dialogue openly, honestly, talking about what they, you know, feel. And I really like what Najat said that more than that also not just respect. We as young people need to take responsibility. We need to, you know, take collective action. And then I hear, take responsibility, claim the space, suggest solutions, collective action. And I heard Doug saying this, the one-stop youth centers - what about collective action? But collective action, not just with young people, but also with different stakeholders of a society. Young people are not living in the society alone. They are living with all different people - bringing everyone along with them is going to be really important to transform behaviours and space and systems in the environment that we are living in. That brings me to Manish's really good, fantastic case study which I was so excited to hear because I've been involved in those kind of programs is the child parliament where young people - this one leader empowering, if I may say building the capacity, capability of that one youth who then mobilized action with so many different diverse different group. And then identified match [?] issues.

    [01:17:22] They actually created so Save, I think, you know, what they did was created that space where capabilities were built of the young people who made sure that the agenda 2030 principle of leaving no one behind the most vulnerable group were picked out and their needs were highlighted and integrated in the program. Driving more inclusive, you know, driving the point of inclusive city which the SDGs are calling out for. I think I mean I could just go on and on there's just such amazing richness in the experience in this virtual room, but I will get back to kind of conclude with and I wish we had invited Susanna's daughter. Yeah. To speak for herself. What she said. Absolutely right. That we keep saying the usual, you know, there's so much of this normal that and even the youth voice and action, whatever the youth are saying that, there's a lot of normal stuff. Let's create a new normal and what's that new normal is that, you know, fostering that area where no one is talking about - that honest conversation, bringing those who are not included, the LGBT, the disability group, the less [?] less we are leaving so many people behind and those perspectives, the beliefs of those people is so important.

    [01:19:03] It's so important for the overall contribution of health and well-being and, you know, liveable communities that every youth aspires for because it is going to be their future. It is their current and they're going to be left with this planet and the societies to deal with. So on that note, I thank you all. I have been just listening to you all and it has, if I may use the word, because we have used the word as a thematic domain of change is empowerment. I've been so empowered to listen. And then more than these reflections I've got so many questions of how do we do the right thing? What's the right by whom and when, how do we do it? Thanks very much.

    Kehkashan: [01:19:52] Thank you so much. You know, there were so many amazing points that our panellists brought up and you I think you did a wonderful job of bringing it all together and connecting them. And yes, now is the time for us to rebuild into a new normal so that we can leave no, like ensure that we leave no one behind and then ensure life of dignity for all. So, thank you once again and we shall now take questions from the audience. I would request our audience once again to please put your questions into the Q&A box and our panellists will answer. Then I already see some questions that are there. The first one is directed to Sarah. The question is, 'how did you avoid instinctive value judgments or interventions in the scenarios you described? Over to you, Sarah.

    Sarah: [01:20:47] Yeah, thank you, Nick. It's an interesting question. I think, I think part of it is that I was very aware of my own positionality. I was very aware of the whole kind of framing of development having a particular way of identifying, you know what child rights are. And of course, you know, poor Bangladesh yet again needing the white saviours to come in and sort out their situation. Which was very different actually from my own experience because my own experience of having brought my small children to Bangladesh was that they were surrounded by love and support and affection in a way that they never were at home in Britain. So, there was, I was always kind of, I had this - on the one hand, this discourse of development which said, you know, Bangladesh doesn't recognize child rights implicitly we do. And then my lived experience was of something very different in a very different kind of response and centrality of children in many ways in Bangladeshi culture.

    [01:22:04] So I think I was, I was very aware of my white privilege. I was very aware of where I came from and, and the need to sit aside from that and the privilege actually of being able to, you know, sit in that rather darkroom in a in and bustee [?] be with those young men and listen to their realities. So, I don't think for me actually being judgmental was particularly an issue. I was, I was aware of how under judgment I and people like me rightly are. And I was actually very pleased and privileged and that sense of my privilege of being able to be there and able to listen because I had sufficient Bengali to be able to, to understand what they were saying by that point and really kind of open myself to that sense of what reality looked like for them. So yeah, if that makes any sort of sense.

    Kehkashan: [01:23:21] Thank you so much, Sarah for answering that and as someone who does work in the urban slums of Dhaka as well as in the rural environments of Bangladesh, I do recognize where you're coming from, where the lived experiences and what is on the ground is very, very different sometimes from what is said about that particular place that creates harmful stereotypes. And this next question is actually really relates to what you just said and it is directed to everyone. 'How important is it to avoid using the victim tag while dealing with improving engagement of young people and marginalized communities because that in itself is a typecasting that actually pushes them behind instead of, you know, creating that sense of empowerment?' So, would anyone like to answer that? Yes, Manish.

    Manish: [01:24:14] It's a pretty important question because tagging them saying that they are in disadvantaged location is something which I personally think is not the right approach. What we need to do is that we all are human being, we have rights and similarly it's as we as [unclear word] said that leave no one behind, leave no space behind. If you are occupying any space, you have a right. And you are, you have all the, you know, means to access those services which are really useful for your own development. And I also wanted to add one more thing that usually, what I have experienced is that a lot of adults take decision on behalf of children and it's right and it's been reflected in this discussion. Say, for example, okay you do the vocational training because employment is important. But to me what is important is the 12 years of education and plus, three years of graduation and yeah, understanding the circumstances that if the affordability issues of economic issues, but education could not be compromised on the basis of employability, or any vocational training. It is a right, and it gives our respect and dignity to our child who has to be one among us, like Najat and Kehkashan that yes, we aspire to be there in this type of a discussion in future. So, I think what is important at this moment is to recognize everyone as individuals and everyone as equal. Thank you very much.

    Kehkashan: [01:25:55] Absolutely. Couldn't agree more. Yes, Rewa.

    Rewa: [01:26:01] So I just wanted to add something to that thinking, back to what Najat was saying about basically who are the people who would be involved in the empowerment process. And this is tied to something that just happened in India where there was a professor, at a university - a famous university, who use basically just berated a student, and it was a bad situation. It was a cast driven thing, apparently and yeah, it was not good. And it actually sent me back to my childhood when I saw a classmate being called names, used - teacher using casteist slurs and it really reminded me of, you know, back to what Najat was saying that teachers are, of course, the government is involved, the teachers are also involved. And I think, I think like from my memories of growing up in India, that was a big - unfortunately in case of my school or whatever the barrier and what Manish was saying about like that educational period being like so critical and in what kind of decisions get made at that point. Yeah, and I would love if panellists could reflect on that but yeah, I just wanted to something that came to my head from my own experience.

    Kehkashan: [01:27:23] Amazing. Thank you Rewa. Would anyone else like to answer the question? If not, then we can move on to our next question. First of all, thank you for the responses. I think it is important to recognize that people have different challenges all across the world. It's not about you know victimizing or just putting that victim label and the saviour label. It's just recognizing that yes, we have different challenges because we are people who and we are united in our diversity. So that is like really important to recognize. So, thank you for the responses. And the next question I see here and this is directed to all the panelists. What is the biggest or most important thing you have learned in your research or practice? And I see that Doug has said he's going to answer this live. So Doug, the floor is yours.

    Doug: [01:28:20] Thanks. Actually, if I think it kind of goes back to the victimization question. The biggest challenge I think in doing programming as well as research is on one hand you want to reflect the immense challenges people face. So, I mean when you're looking working with someone in informal settlements where you know your point, your point of privilege, as Sarah called your positionality, is insanely different. I mean, you come from a, you know, you're making tens, 20, 30 times more than that to the people you're working with. You're trying to find a space in which one hand you can reflect the challenges they face whether it be how much they make, the basic services they don't access but on the other hand you want to reflect the resilience and the amazing ability just to survive and to move forward and to have, you know, have families and such.

    [01:29:18] But you also don't want to overstate that of because then it can become, you know, that pollyannish. There's lots of, and then the challenge to the lots of the theories that you overlay or you - if you're coming from a research side positive youth development, asset-based community development - a lot of these theories have been developed within the developed world. So, they, when you try to apply them, they often times, for example, positive youth development often times just capacities. All the, if people, all these young people have these capacities, they'll be great young people, but many of them can't even access those capacities because there's just no physical way to get them. So, you need to really start tearing apart a, your frames that you're starting to put together or are you starting to do analysis in. Or if you're if they're the frameworks that you're actually working with people in.

    [01:30:08] And then I think I think maybe the possible silver bullet, if I would ever use that term, is that again, you come back to the participation and engagement of the people you're working with in either determining the programming or determining the research. Because if they are willing to put it forward, if they understand what's being said, if they're able to give that analysis then it at least has their voice there. And it's at least is, is somewhat true, even so it can be seen as by others as being again, if you keep young people in Mogadishu or such you can be so horrific to people that they can't even imagine it. Still if the young people's voices there, at least it gives some level of legitimacy and real realness. That's not the word. But anyways, that kind of veracity that you're looking. Thanks.

    Kehkashan: [01:31:03] Thank you very much Doug. Would anyone else like to take that question very quickly. Yes, Joyati.

    Joyati: [01:31:14] Yeah, thank you. I will reflect on my practice and yes, yes, and decades of it. And really what comes to mind is we could - coming from the NGO sector, we are, you know, so much of the burden is about the program models, the program approaches, the program, you know, indicators and, and as a young professional decades ago, while I was sucked, if I may say that, into it because you want to get it right. Get the approach, right. Get the, you know, you don't want to fail. Whereas when I - doing this tsunami humanitarian response where I was based out of Sri Lanka and then in Aceh, I remember finally there was just no way we could spend time in understanding what's right or what's wrong. We just jumped into action, I think action with communities to just start with those community conversation - conversations with young people because they want to be heard. And I think that's what again, coming back to Susanna's daughter, they want to be heard, they want to be respected as Najat said, they want to be heard. Let's start the community conversations and from that community, I mean, young people, I mean, you know, they're critical stakeholders as the teachers, the parents, the elders. Let's start the conversation, let's get into action. And then the pieces start to make sense. And that's what I learned from my decades of being on the ground. That try to work it out alone for others. It's never going to work. You got to be in the midst of it and start those connections and learn and listen as many of our panelists has said and make sense together. Thank you.

    Kehkashan: [01:33:14] Great. Thank you so much and I will take out another question. And this is in the chat, 'I am a young woman who lives in Kenya, what are the challenges faced by women that are different from men?' I can actually start by answering that in the communities that we work in and also just globally, women have to continuously prove themselves. So, in some of the communities that we work in that our agricultural areas women earn less actually less than half in spite of working twice as hard as the men who work in the field. Having to take care of the home and the outside work as well and trying to balance that because it's not, it's of the mindset that men should not do household chores. You know, that is usually said of the global South, but I've seen that very much in privileged communities as well.

    [01:34:07] Women in general in so many areas don't have access to education and if the choice has to be made between a boy and a girl, the preferences many of the times given to the boy. And we are expected to multitask and still get paid less if at all and now even in privileged environments we face the additional hurdle that comes from the neoliberal white feminism that does not recognize intersectionality that pushes back against black women, indigenous women, women of color. And then we also have the challenge that comes from the lack of gender data that really hides the inequalities that women face as compared to men. So, there are many challenges and if any of our panellists also want to reflect on that and answer the question. No? Then I shall - we do have time for one very last question which is directed to Manish. So how can we replicate or scale-up similar initiatives that you shared about in other cities when funding resources for such initiatives continue to shrink?

    Manish: [01:35:14] Oh, really important and pertinent question at this time when we are grappling with covid-19 pandemic. So where to put our resources in terms of prioritizing the things. But coming to very important, pertinent points in cities, especially in global South is our municipalities, are they really budgeting for the children? Are they really thinking about the adolescence, are they really doing the master planning or city planning exercise in consultation with them if they are doing this then it is, it is possible that we can fund all those intervention in cities where children are resilient not only for their health education and other disasters, but they can voice their views with municipalities in their office sitting with them. So that's a ambitious thing. But yes, I see this will be happening soon. We can have such spaces happening for the children in municipalities. Thank you very much.

    Kehkashan: [01:36:19] Absolutely. Thank you very much, and I'm not sure if Najat is still here. But if Najat is here, could you speak to us about the importance of peer to peer education and how that benefits young people globally? It's Najat still with us? She does have internet issues, so let's see if - Najat isn't able to answer. Would any of our panellists like to speak to this.

    Margaret: [01:37:00] Hello. Yes. Can I have an intervention?

    Kehkashan: [01:37:06] Sure.

    Margaret: [01:37:08] Okay, Najat have a lights off in the city Tamale. So that's why she's off the line, of the platform. Yeah, so there's no light in the city now. So, they called me to say they are off. But I'm still here if you want to ask something. Yeah, it's Margaret.

    Joyati: [01:37:41] Yeah, sorry I'm just going to intervene and say Margaret on behalf you are the program lead for our healthy cities for adolescents in Tamale. Would you be able to speak on for this question? And Kehkashan, would you be able to repeat the question? I think Margaret will be able to explain the peer to peer education program.

    Margaret: [01:38:02] Yes, I can. If they repeat the question.

    Kehkashan: [01:38:06] Yes, of course it's about the - how important is peer to peer education and how does it benefit young people?

    Margaret: [01:38:16] Thank you, very much. Peer education has been one of the greatest means of getting the youth themselves to get empowered. Society may not even want them to be empowered in the first place, especially traditional society norms. So, then the peer educators try to get peer education as a major intervention. So Najat is one of our ambassadors in high school. She belongs to a club and she's able to speak to her colleagues and also help them to come up to a level at which they know their rights and are able to voice out whatever interventions they think should be made on their behalf, especially the girls. So, peer education is very, very important. And in our project, we have peer educators as a club, and they form these clubs in the community and invite young people. And usually, friends would invite friends and all the issues we are discussing fall under that some of their programs.

    [01:39:26] And we invite them to all our programs because right from the beginning, from the launch of this project, we want to involve the youth. Their voices should be heard. And they tell us what we should be doing for to be beneficial to them and through their help even a young girl who was married forcefully was retrieved from the marital home back to school. It takes the teachers, our projects and the young people to do something like that. So, peer education is supreme. It's even in the national policy that clubs should be formed and peers should educate each other. Thank you.

    Kehkashan: [01:40:14] Thank you so much Margaret for sharing that and I couldn't agree more. And my work personally have seen the benefits of peer to peer learning and how that benefits young people. So, thank you for sharing that. And just before I pass it over to our chair, I just like to thank all of our all our audience for your very pertinent questions but also to our amazing panellists for your responses because at the end of the day, we need societal and systemic change. We need intergenerational solidarity. We have to understand the crucial importance of localizing the SDGs in the solutions, and not just a one-size-fits-all solution. But understanding the unique lived experiences and challenges of young people across the world. Young people as was mentioned we're the present and future, we're members of society and it's not about waiting until someone is 18 to involve them because their mindset is already fixed by then. It is about starting at the beginning so that we can grow up to be empathetic global citizens and creating a world where our age has nothing to do with their capability. And of course, the onus is also on us as young people to hold ourselves accountable, not just blame others for our situation but do our bit, add more as responsible denizens of planet Earth. So thank you once again and with that, I still now invite back to the virtual stage the chair of this event Dr. Stephanie Butcher. Stephanie the floor is yours.

    Stephanie: [01:41:44] Thank you so much Kehkashan. And I don't really have anything to add to that to that brilliant summation that you have just done. Just again to echo, my thanks to the wonderful conversation we've had here today. That's really, as has been said before, extremely honest in positioning privilege and really asking the tricky questions around how we're using some of these terms in the qualities and intentions of some of these themes. Also, to you Kehkashan for always building on and adding on many of the brilliant interventions that the panellists have offered and so you've really created a wonderful space for us today. Just to say, as I said at the beginning, there will be three more sessions. So please do follow Connected Cities Lab and Fondation Botnar to see more information on that. We do have the E2A framework, the evidence to action framework, on the Connected Cities Lab website live. So, if you'd like to read a little bit more about that process and that document please do have a look then.

    [01:42:42] And just to say, also, finally, that these for webinar sessions will be followed up by a short report which is documenting many of the rich discussions we've had here today. And that will be launched on August 12th as a part of international youth day. So also you can follow for that information to come. But with that, I think I will wish you all a wonderful day and I hope to see you in the next session.

    [01:43:08] Thank you, everyone. Take care. Thanks sis.

    [01:43:13] Thanks a lot. Bye bye. Thank you. That was nice webinar. Wonderful weather.

This event was held on 28 April 2021

Empowering young people and marginalised communities in cities is crucial to ensuring sustainable futures and the SDGs and entails the realisation of rights, socio-political and economic inclusion, freedom from discrimination and violence, and equitable access to services, opportunities and decision-making processes. Achieving this aim requires enabling systematic processes of learning, knowledge generation, and evidence building on what works and what does not to support young people’s activism and agency.

In this session, facilitated by the youth leader and environmental activist Kehkashan Basu, a global panel of speakers consisting of international development practitioners, youth experts, grassroots youth organisers, academics, and city officials will engage in an interactive dialogue around learning and evidence building on effective approaches, strategies, principles, and actions for ensuring meaningful participation of young people and marginalised communities in city-wide planning, agenda-setting, and decision-making.

The session will be chaired by Dr. Stephanie Butcher, Research Fellow at Connected Cities Lab, University of Melbourne with reflections from Joyati Das, Director, Healthy Cities for Adolescents program, Fondation Botnar. Short comments from Fondation Botnar will be presented by Dr
Susanna Hausmann.

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Speakers

Najat Jibreel

Najat Jibreel, is a Ghanaian youth leader living in Tamale in the Northern region of Ghana. She began school at Kamina Barracks Nursery and Primary School in Tamale and reached up to the National finals in the Spelling Bee Competitions. She held positions as Girl’s Prefect in primary six and the assistant Girl’s Prefect in her final year in Junior High School. She loves story books and English Language is her favourite subject. Her hobbies are watching movies and learning about the world and has interest in promoting leadership and empowerment of her generation. She is a final year student at Tamale Senior High School studying General Arts with courses in Geography, Elective Mathematics, Economics and Government.  Currently she is a youth ambassador in her school youth club formed by Action Aid and in this capacity, Najat supports the Healthy Cities for Adolescents Program as a peer educator.

Manish Thakre

Manish Thakre works as the Head Urban Programme and Policy at Save the Children India. He provides ongoing technical support to the 12 State Project Offices to ensure the quality implementation of urban programs. He oversight regular performance review of the strategic targets in relation to the Urban Resilience programme. Working with Research, Advocacy, Campaign and Communications team to build and implement/undertake research, advocacy and campaigns linked to the issues of urbanization and its impact on children. He is responsible for strategic partnerships, resource mobilisation, and liaising with Government, Corporates, Think Tanks for collaborative work. He has over 17 years of experience in the social and development sector. Heholds a Master and M. Phil. Degrees in Applied Geography from the Centre for Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He is an external mentor (2020-21) to India Smart Cities fellow (an Initiative of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India) on the project “Monitoring of Crimes against Children in urban areas through Data Integration.” Currently, he is working on a collaborative research study with Climate Centre for Cities (NIUA) on ‘Urban Humanitarian Response and Planning’ which is being supported by Save the Children India.

Douglas Ragan

Douglas Ragan has worked in youth development with NGOs, local and national governments, and the United Nations for the past 25 years. Currently, he is a Programme Management Officer for the Human Rights and Social Inclusion Unit of UN-Habitat, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He specializes in urban youth development. The HRSI programme's youth programs focus on urban youth development, including youth employment, governance and participation. Doug has authored and co-authored several research and policy publications on urban youth issues faced by marginalized young people in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. In his previous role as director for the Environmental Youth Alliance from 1991 - 2007, Doug worked with marginalized communities globally such as aboriginal, immigrant and refugee, and street youth to develop livelihood programmes. Douglas has also coordinated multi-year programs such as the Growing up in Cities (Canada) program (2003-2005), Youth Action Effecting Change (2002-2004), the Youth Community Asset Mapping Program (2002-2004), and Get Out! Olympic Youth Legacy program (2005). Doug holds a Bachelors Degree in Latin American Studies, a Masters Degree in Management for the Voluntary Sector and is currently working undertaking a PhD focusing on youth development with a focus on youth-led organizations in slums.

Sarah White

Sarah White is the co-founding director of Relational  Wellbeing Collaborative (RWB-C), an enterprise dedicated to designing creative, self-sustaining solutions with organisations and communities. The relational approach to wellbeing looks beyond individual psychology or behaviour to explore the underlying processes that promote healthy environments and happy lives. It draws on thirty years’ experience in social development research, especially in Bangladesh, India and Zambia, including 13 years joint research on wellbeing with Shreya Jha, RWB-C’s co-founding director. She is also the Honorary Professor of international development and wellbeing at the University of Bath, UK, and have published extensively on wellbeing, gender, participation, child rights, marriage, race, religion and masculinities.

photo of Kehkashan Basu

Kehkashan Basu

Kehkashan Basu is the Founder-President of Green Hope Foundation, United Nations Human Rights Champion, winner of the 2016 International Children’s Peace Prize and winner of the first-ever Voices Youth Gorbachev-Shultz Legacy Award for Nuclear Disarmament. Her internationally acclaimed work on sustainability has resulted in her appointment as a Climate Reality Mentor, a One Young World Ambassador, Honorary Advisor for the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development – New York, Global Teen Leader at We Are Family Foundation, members of World Oceans Day Global Youth Advisory Council and EarthEcho International Youth Leadership Council. She is also the youngest member of Canada’s Women in Renewable Energy forum and the Council Lead at Toronto - St. Paul’s Constituency Youth Council.

Registration: free. Click here to register

Inquiries: Rewa Marathe

The Evidence to Action for Young People’s Wellbeing in Southern Cities dialogue series is presented by the Connected Cities Lab at the University of Melbourne in partnership with Fondation Botnar.