Youth voice for sustainable democracy

Welcome to this planning page - get involved!
This is the open planning page for engagement activity to support people who might face barriers as young people getting involved in using open government approaches to influence the decisions that affect them. Please edit this page with your ambitions and ideas, including suggestions for a better title!

What do we want?
Our ambition is to secure youth voice in open democracy

We don't want youth to be a barrier, we want young people to be taken seriously in discussions about decisions that affect people

We want to ensure a frank and honest sharing of perspectives on how young people can get a greater voice in their democracy

We want to ensure these ideas are shared and discussed between young people in Scotland and other countries

Our approach and ethos:
These principles reflect those for the Open Government Pioneers Project UK.
 * An open approach - activity planning co-produced by young people
 * Pioneering new technology to enhance participation
 * Collaboration with existing initiatives
 * Working agile

Summary of our approach

 * Partnership with young people facilitated through third sector youth organisations
 * Direct engagement between Scotland and two other European localities
 * Using Sustainable Development Goals as framework for organising youth perspectives
 * Young people lead on identifying topics they want to address

Our proposed engagements and milestones:
= Erasmus Funding = We are currently exploring how we might build on the work of the Open Government Pioneers Project over the coming year through Erasmus.

Who wants to support us? (Organisations)
Please add your organisation to this list, if you want to support this initiative as an organisational partner. You might want to help by providing funding, by helping to deliver, to support communication, evaluation, help with engagement etc.

Summary of how this fits together
Introduction

The Open Government Pioneers Project has been set up to give people the space and ways to reclaim their democracy, in recognition of the democratic deficit that exists across Scotland and the rest of the UK. The project is looking to give different groups the opportunity to communicate across different lines to develop a concrete picture of what must happen if we are to achieve that society we want to be. The Erasmus+ funding will assist us in supporting our partner organisations working in the area of young people in supporting people who might face barriers because of their age to get involved in the discussions and decisions that affect their lives.

Why this is important

We should live in a place where people can satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a good quality of life without compromising future generations to come. Unfortunately, this is simply not a reality across the UK today. From low wages and a lack of housing to food insecurity and poor health, we are a long way from being the society we would like to be. This bolt-on to the Open Government Pioneers Project will offer an opportunity for young people to come together with a stronger voice to have more of a say in how our democratic society works.

How this will work

Launched by the United Nations in November 2015, the 2030 Agenda – made up of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – move us a step closer towards that society we'd like to be. Encompassing ambitious social, economic and environmental targets, these goals require all UN members to take action to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality and manage their environmental impact. The 2030 Agenda provides an important framework to achieve social, economic and environmental change. In pursuit of the SDGs, governments in Europe and the UK will be adapting the goals and targets to our national contexts, prioritising outcomes and the distribution of resources. Our ambition is for the institutions that make these trade-offs to be open, responsive and accountable to citizens – particularly those who are typically excluded – to make sure our pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals responds to the needs of people and communities across the UK, in particular those most in need.

Yet very little is happening in Scotland to localise the SDGs – to make a high-minded global framework deeply relevant at the local level. Although they are an important tool, these goals can only be effective if all citizens are able to see their own lives recast by how pursuing these might work, and that they have had a say over the desired outcomes.

This part of the project will provide young people with the information and skills they need to participate in this discussion. But it will also provide a space for social interaction and building a community not only with other young people but with each of the other groups in society this project is seeking to engage with. The ambition is not to keep people in boxes - us vs them - but to bring conversations and people together to show where commonality and differences exist in the UK and other parts of the world.

Through using the SDGs as the framework to engage community stakeholders and residents to understand the issues that people care about most, we can begin to collaboratively problem solve how government must work to bring about change. Not only will this approach help us to understand what Scotland’s priorities should be in order to progress towards the goals, it gives citizens the space to understand the barriers in their way, from disempowerment or a lack of communication, to rigid structures and diminished resources. It also gives people a voice over how government and public services should work.

 See our events brief for more information 

Suggested framework
'''This framework recognises the difficulties of engaging people around such terms as open government and sustainable development. Rather than beginning conversations with what we want, it seeks to start with the issues that matter most to people before introducing why these concepts later on.'''

Discussions of this nature will not only help to support participants to develop new ideas and solutions to complex problems, it will allow us to collect powerful stories that can be used to help others come to their own conclusions and form their own opinions over the way forward. Research shows that real stories matter, and the conversations that take place here will form key persuasive evidence to shape future policy responses and next steps around Open Government and the SDGs. THE DISCUSSION

Developing a conversation around what matters to people in their community PARTICIPANTS

Both we and our partners must carefully consider the personal development aspect to this work, to ensure participants leave the room with the confidence and tools to engage further in this area.

We are also keen to ensure that the events we hold link up to one another to ensure that a conversation exists across the all of our outreach, and that different groups are not put in boxes. People end up speaking to people they already agree with, which is why we want to strengthen those links between networks.

Our partners will be best placed to determine how this could work. For example, success could be measured across the following areas: