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• Governance, Development and Youth Networks (GDYN)

Governance, Development and Youth Networks (GDYN)

Young people have a fundamental right to determine how power and resources are used in their societies.

"Public policies don't seem to take on board the views and opinions of young people. These decisions affect my life and I want my voice to be heard."

Young people have a fundamental right to determine how power and resources are used in their societies. By not including them in decision-making processes, either in the public or private sector, countries lose a crucial resource base. Young people can contribute a great deal through their perspectives and experiences; no governance structure can be truly successful without them.

Through the Governance, Development and Youth Networks (GDYN) programme, CYP works to enhance policy development and implementation through the active participation of young people in youth networks, governance and other decision-making forums. Our goal is to create and strengthen networks of young people, which they will use to influence decision-making processes and bring about change in governance in their countries. This will also help them engage more confidently in all aspects of their societies and become more active citizens. This will be achieved through the following two programmes:

1. National Youth Policy and Action Plans
   With technical and financial help from CYP, 53 Commonwealth member states have National Youth Policies in place and an increasing number have established National Youth Councils.
2. Strengthening of governance structures

In an effort to enhance young people’s involvement and participation in governance and democratic processes, CYP has collaborated with the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Political Affairs Division (PAD) to ensure the participation of young people in election monitoring and observer groups in member countries.

We believe that this programme area provides a number of benefits:

• Accountability and Transparency: By involving young people in governance, they understand better how these processes work. This means that young people can use their influence to ensure that youth development issues are properly addressed. It also means that young people are directly responsible for these processes and that the processes must respond to the demands that young people place on them. 
• Ownership and Legitimacy: If young people are involved in formulating public policy, then they will have a sense of ownership and will view those policies as legitimate. They will also be fully involved in making them work. Furthermore, their involvement also attracts the participation of other young people, which makes programmes more sustainable. Ownership enables young people to become active in their society - and gives them a better understanding of what they can do to ensure political and social progress in their communities. 
• Sustainability and Relevance: If young people are not part of policy-making processes then those policies will not be relevant to them and will not attract youth contribution to national development. This means those programmes will not be sustainable. Governance without young people's involvement will likely lead to further policy failures and another generation of young people immobilised by poverty.     

The overall impact of the GDYN programme will be youth involvement in governance processes at all levels. Youth structures, ministries and development agencies should all become more effective in forming and implementing policies as a result.