This generation of youth - 1.8 billion strong - are leading change in their homes, communities and on a global scale. From climate change, gender inequality, racism, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and civic engagement, young people across the globe are rising to the challenge. If strength comes in numbers, then this youth population, the largest in history, can drive the social, economic, and political innovation that is needed to solve the world's toughest challenges.

As we celebrate International Youth Day, YLabs invites you to consider the ways young people can be engaged more consistently and authentically in the design of systems, solutions, and structures that will ultimately impact them. If this year has demonstrated anything, it is that we should all be working towards a more sustainable, compassionate, and healthy future - and young people must be the ones to drive this work forward.

But how can we do this, and what does youth engagement look like, practically speaking?

We are so glad you asked!

There is strong support for engaging youth in the design of interventions meant for them. One of the strongest recommendations of the Lancet Commission for Adolescent Health is that we must develop processes that engage “adolescents in the design and implementation of programmes and policies that affect them and their peers.” This is supported by multiple UN bodies, researchers and organizations working with young people. Though approaches that engage youth are recommended widely, there is often a lack of consensus on what this means and how it can be done effectively, equitably and respectfully. You may have seen different terms describing youth engagement being used interchangeably and are not sure how to define and describe your own approach to youth engagement. Maybe you want to engage youth in your work and don’t know where to start?

At YLabs, we have been grappling with some of these complex questions ourselves, and we couldn’t think of a better way to commemorate International Youth Day than by sharing our thinking with you, in the hopes that these guiding principles might help to inform your approach of working with youth.

Use the table below to better understand the differences between Youth-Led, Youth-Driven, and Youth-Centered design

At YLabs, we predominantly use youth-driven or youth-led approaches to guide the process of designing, testing and implementing interventions to support young people's health and economic futures. We believe a youth-driven design methodology puts young people’s voices and perspectives at the center of decisions that will affect their bodies, health, and futures. At YLabs, it has always been, and will always be about creating with, not for, young people.

Gary Layn, 22, Content Strategist in YLabs’ Rwanda studio engages youth in the design of youth-driven content that educates young Rwandans about reproductive health: “I work with young people to understand their experiences with friends, family, relationships, and health issues such as reproductive health, HIV, and gender. My job is to listen and begin to get ideas that will help me write the narrative storylines that are such an important part of CyberRwanda. By thinking like a designer and working with young people, I am able to write content that is more authentic, valuable, and appreciated by our readers.”

When taking on a project, from designing pleasure-based sex education in El Salvador to rethinking safe-spaces for menstrual hygiene management in Uganda to creating mass-media content strategies for historically underinvested youth in the United States, we make sure that our team includes young people with as equal decision-making power, compensated appropriately for their expertise and time.

Young people take a leadership role in working with young participants to seek their opinions, perspectives, and decisions during the research and design phases of our work. They drive the decision-making on what we focus on, and how we can work together to solve those challenges.

Mireille Sekemana, 24, started her career with YLabs aged 20, as one of these Youth Designers embedded in a project team. Now a Junior Designer in YLabs’ Rwanda studio, she says: “Involving, and hiring, youth designers from the very beginning of a project helps to make it more innovative, more cherished, and more sustainable. Young people are already relying on digital resources for sex education information, but most platforms out there aren’t designed with young people in mind.”

As we celebrate International Youth Day, we are grateful to take this opportunity to celebrate one of the many constants in our work; the brilliance, energy, and power of the young people that we work with across the globe. Over the next coming months, we’ll be sharing profiles from youth leaders across the globe who are paving the way to create meaningful change within mental health, HIV, sexual and reproductive health, and financial inclusion for their peers and communities. Have any lessons, tips, and tools on how to work in partnership with youth? Please share them with us, we’d be happy to profile your work in our ongoing series on designing with youth. 

Additional resources for meaningful youth engagement:

We are encouraged by the other design and health organizations that are focusing on meaningful youth engagement. Here are just a few coalitions that we participate in as a way to grow the field. 

The HCD Exchange

YLabs is a founding member of the HCD Exchange, a coalition centered around the goal of incorporating human-centered design (HCD) principles in adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) programs. It allows implementers to offer youth-centered services while generating insights and evidence on human behavior that define solutions to ASRH challenges and facilitate new ways of working. The HCD Exchange hosts frequent webinars and events in partnership with young people. Find out more about their upcoming events here. 

UNICEF: Human-centered approach for health

This helpful collection of resources help anyone who is looking to employ a human-centered design approach with and for youth, including a detailed field guide.

UNICEF: Human-centered design in the field; how might we design with and for young people?

This handbook is designed to illustrate how human-centred design practices at UNICEF have lead to innovative and impactful outcomes for young people

The Commitment To Ethics In Youth-Powered Design

In 2018, led by the HCD Exchange, YLabs joined other industry leaders in drafting a commitment to action surrounding the ethics and integrity in human-centered design for adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health. “When we enter an adolescent’s or young person’s world, we are guests in their experience. It is our responsibility, as a technical community, to ensure that they understand their rights to participate and that when they engage with HCD teams, they are not only protected and safeguarded -- physically, emotionally, and psychologically -- but that their voices are amplified with authenticity and their permission.” This Commitment to Action is framed around three core principles that are well understood within the research and SRH practice communities; Respect, Justice, and Do No Harm/ Beneficence. Find the commitment and additional frameworks for working with young people here. 

The World Health Organization’s Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent & Youth Engagement

YLabs is one of the many signatories of this statement, including experts and leaders in international development, who affirm that young people have a fundamental right to actively and meaningfully engage in all matters that affect their lives. “This Statement seeks to galvanize local and global health and development communities around a common understanding of how we can ensure that young people are meaningfully engaged and participate in the development and implementation of all policies, programs, and processes that affect them.” This statement is a wonderful resource, not only because it reiterates efforts to meaningfully engage young people, value their expertise, and nurture their talent to maximize their potential, but it also gives a helpful checklist for programming done in partnership with young people. Read the full statement here. 

References:

Patton GC, Sawyer SM, Santelli JS et al. Our future: a Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing. Published online. May 11th 2016. The Lancet.