Thank you to everyone who participated in the webinar Nothing About Youth Without Youth: Advancing Decent Work and Social Justice Together. Together, we unpacked a central idea: young people aren’t just beneficiaries of youth employment programmes, they’re essential partners in shaping them. 🤝
To refresh our memory, here are some key points presented by our speakers:
1️⃣ Youth as Rights-Holders and Change Agents
The session framed young people as rights-holders and innovators, not just passive recipients of employment programmes. We heard voices and perspectives from diverse youth, including refugees and forcibly displaced youth whose insights are often missing in decision-making.
2️⃣ Youth Call to Action and Shared Priorities
The webinar also brought forward the Youth Call to Action reflecting the priorities and solutions developed by young people during the 2025 Gyeonggi-ILO International Labour Festa to address the youth employment challenges. This is a strong example of putting youth priorities at the centre of decent work and social justice.
3️⃣ Tools for Practitioners: Meaningful Youth Engagement Package
The webinar also introduced the ILO Meaningful Youth Engagement for Decent Work training package on engaging young people across employment programs – helping bridge the gap between intention and implementation.
4️⃣ Intergenerational Dialogue
The webinar brought together youth voices alongside governments, practitioners and social partners to explore how meaningful youth engagement can be institutionalized and sustained.
Some of the key takeaways from the webinar included the need to invest in youth engagement; strengthen the capacities of staff and institutions to meaningfully engage young people; move beyond one-off, ad hoc consultations towards structured and continuous participation; and ensure the inclusion of diverse groups of youth, particularly those most often excluded.
In this forum thread, we will follow up on questions raised during the webinar, and we also welcome any additional questions or reflections you may have.
⚡Now, on to you: what are the key dimensions of meaningful youth engagement for you and do you have any examples to share from your work? ⚡