Youth development and participation - a Pacific context

Paul Peteru, of the Commonwealth Youth Programme - Pacific Centre, made an interesting presentation on youth development at the recent regional youth stakeholders meeting. The paper focuses on some of the dilemmas and short-comings of programmes and projects that focus on youth participation and the possibilities for abuse and misuse of participation when it comes to youth development. There is much useful information in this document that should guide ways to improve youth participation in strategies aimed at improving their inclusion in agriculture and improving livelihoods in general.

There are a number of typologies or ladders of participation that have been developed as a means of assessing the level or quality of participation. Many of these have been developed in a more general development setting. However, Paul has brought to our attention a number of typologies and ladders that have been developed in the context of youth participation and development and could be useful in guiding and ensuring that what we talk about in terms of youth participation means exactly that.

These ladders include Roger Hart's Ladder of Young Peoples Participation. Here is an example of how Hart's ladder may be used in assessing the quality of youth participation in a gardening project. Westhorp's participation continuum is another example and a useful guide for developing a youth participation strategy can be found for download at the Foundation for Young Australians website. Just scroll down to the bottom of the page and click download Youth Partnership and Participation. Other similar models have been developed by Harry Shier and Elizabeth Rocha and details are available on the Internet. All are useful for reflection on what we mean by participation and what we are trying to achieve. By employing such diagnostic tools it is not to suggest that we have to be "at the top" rung, but rather, that we should be striving to get out of the lower rungs of non-participation, and think of ways to genuinely engage children and youth.

As Paul makes clear, the challenge for all of us is to consider what meaningful youth participation is and what it is not.