Approaches to developing agency should meet youth where they are, recognizing different needs and interests based on identity, gender, location, culture and other contextual circumstances. Building agency also requires experiential learning opportunities that strengthen key assets for political participation, including knowledge, technical skills, and soft skills, and fostering youth-led collective action to address issues they care about, which helps motivate youth to participate politically. Finally, assistance should focus on expanding youth engagement across political entry points to occupy available space and demonstrate the interest and ability of young people to play multiple political roles.  

Youth may have different starting points and needs based on identity (gender, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and other characteristics), location, experience and other personal circumstances. For example, different youth may have varied levels of education and political exposure, or face different social norms or logistical challenges, that affect their ability to fully engage in or benefit from an assistance program. Programs must recognize this diversity, and intentionally adapt to meet the particular needs of youth involved.

The following recommendations can be helpful for structuring a program to account for diversity:

• Include young women and men on the program team: Recognize young people as assets who can inject youth voice into program design, planning and management. Young team members  who represent the communities involved in the program can make it more authentic, help establish trusting relationships between the program  and participants, and foster a safe space that encourages their more active engagement. For example, including young women on the team is an important way to encourage the participation of young women, particularly in rural or other environments where young women may be hesitant.

• Plan around sociocultural and logistical factors: Recognize and take into account how sociocultural, institutional and logistical barriers and factors can affect the ability of different youth to engage in and benefit from a program. For example, if you plan to work with young women in a mixed gender setting, it is important to consider how cultural norms may prevent women from feeling confident or comfortable engaging fully and equally with men in the program. In addition, it may be necessary to hold program activities in the evenings or on weekends to encourage more youth involvement.

Learning to participate politically takes practice and the development of assets that support organizing and activism. Assets can include: knowledge of democratic principles, processes and government structures; technical organizing skills; and “soft skills” that guide personal interactions and judgements.  

Although the needs and interests of the young people will determine the specific array of assets a given program should aim to develop, the following recommendations provide initial guidance on how to approach this work:

• Be purposeful about soft skills building: NDI’s study found that abilities which are not directly tied to any one type of action or endeavor, but are more related to how young people approach opportunities and challenges, are equally important for sustained political participation and leadership. These abilities, which are often referred to as “soft skills”, include self-efficacy, self-control, higher order thinking (problem solving, critical thinking, decision making), social skills (or interpersonal skills), communication (including conflict resolution and negotiation), empathy, and goal orientation. These skills enable young people to effectively navigate their environment, work well with others, and deal with challenges and setbacks. They cannot be learned over the course of a single training or workshop, but are established over time through habit-forming practices. Both young women and men have reported building these skills through a variety of NDI program activities, including facilitated classroom interaction and discussion with peers, as well as the planning and practice of political organizing.

It is useful to bear in mind how the distinction between hard and soft skills relates with socially constructed gender norms. In many contexts, soft skills are associated with women and are perceived to be feminine traits, whereas “hard” or technical skills are associated with men and perceived to be more masculine in nature. Such norms can therefore impact the way soft skills are developed, perceived, received, and utilized by women and men in programming. For more information on how NDI programs build soft skills, see NDI’s Civic Update on this topic.

Young women and men will have their own motivations for wanting to participate politically. NDI learned that when young people are able to identify issues and causes that they care about, and then are assisted in taking action, they are more likely to remain motivated and politically active. This result can be amplified when the action is taken collectively, by groups of young women and men, or groups that comprise the young and old working together on a cross-cutting community concern. Opportunities to develop, join and lead networks and groups for political action is especially important for young women, who often lack access to the same networks as men (even young men). In many cases, it is important to also support young women in building a women’s network to support one another, and connect with other women who are politically engaged. This should be done alongside efforts to involve young women in existing network-building efforts with young men.

NDI has identified the following lessons for supporting youth-led collective action:

• Support incremental action toward self-selected goals: Youth may enter a program with ambitious goals, such as improving youth representation in the legislature or eradicating unemployment. Although it is important to allow youth to pursue their own interests, it is also necessary to manage their expectations of the time and effort that will likely be required to accomplish different types of goals. It may be useful for youth to start with smaller, single issue actions or campaigns at the local level (in a neighborhood, village, town or city), such as service delivery issues, which may be more likely to yield tangible results in a shorter period of time. Achieving some level of immediate influence or change in their community builds youth confidence and encourages continued action. As youth build their experience, skills and confidence, they will be better equipped to gradually take on larger scale and more complex efforts, such as national campaigns.

Democratic politics follows a perpetual cycle involving various institutions and actors, purposes and processes, and competing priorities and policy agendas. At the same time, there may be political cycles that transpire regularly at local, regional and national levels of government. Therefore, helping young women and men participate in politics does not have to be tied to a singular event or moment in time, since many different potential entry points may exist. Moreover, the ability of young people to advance a political issue or cause will normally require working across entry points to develop the necessary power and influence. An election, for instance, might present an entry point for individual and collective action that can set the stage for follow-up efforts aimed at engaging elected officials. This approach allows youth to strengthen a variety of skill sets and gain different experiences, while accessing and occupying different political  spaces. This shows that youth are active and interested in politics, and able to play a range of constructive roles.

NDI’s study identified the following recommendations for expanding youth participation across entry points:

• Promote the use of campaign-organizing approaches: A campaign is an effective way to structure political action toward a particular goal. This approach provides a framework for establishing objectives, identifying targets, allies and opponents, identifying political entry points and planning actions. For a better understanding of how to design and implement a grassroots campaign, you can refer to the Change My Community tool box.

• Introduce different actions: Assist youth in using a variety of actions and tactics to reach their goals. Actions may include contacting elected officials, organizing and participating in town hall or community meetings, circulating petitions, conducting research, and monitoring political processes.