How to Make Space for Youth in International Development Work: Up-and-coming Ideas from the Up-and-coming – Workshop

Youth can offer valuable contributions to development discourse and practice. Despite this recognition, youth often experience difficult channels to true involvement in international development practice. Amid a professional world that values years of experience and institutional qualifications, organizations are in need of adopting meaningful and mutually beneficial engagement mechanisms for youth as they step into the development space. In this workshop, we will explore ways in which organizations might be inviting of, rather than discourage youth engagement. This workshop will aim to explore common organizational gaps that may just be leaving out some of the most integral voices in development work. We will discuss the following questions: In what ways have we made space for these perspectives? And in what important ways are these voices left out? Are youth engagement programs well prepared to build the next generation of development leaders, or do they risk falling into recurring colonial cycles? How do we create effective and creative youth channels beyond predetermined spaces that improve PR?

Facilitators: Yasmin Rajwani, Natasha Cortes, University of Ottawa
Technical Chair: Kate Grantham, CASID/FemDev

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIsdeivrzIoHNcwz1Cz8S4PpxRGYvR52jRH