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Shifting power to young people: How young people can lead and drive solutions in humanitarian action

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World
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ActionAid
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Executive summary

Today, half the global population is under 30 years old. With an increase in the frequency and severity of natural hazards, disease outbreaks and man-made crises, young people should be at the centre of how the humanitarian system responds to crises. But the impact of crises on young people, and young women in particular, is often overlooked, as is their power as capable agents of change during emergencies and protracted crises.

Engaging young people in humanitarian action is however not a matter of if but how. Through interaction with close to 400 young people across 54 countries, this report concludes that young people, and particularly young women, are severely affected by emergencies and protracted crises – and are key players in ‘building back better’ for themselves and their communities.

Drawing on lessons and best practice from crises and emergencies across the world, the report emphasises that engaging young people in prevention, preparedness, response and recovery will bring better, more localised and more accountable responses. However, this report also displays how young people face particular vulnerabilities and marginalisation connected to their age and identities, which may negatively affect their entire lives if not carefully identified and addressed as part of humanitarian action.

Our findings:

  • Young people can be doubly disadvantaged in protracted crises and emergencies and their needs must be considered through an intersectional lens. Young people are impacted by crises and disasters in many different ways depending on their relationship with power and privilege, and intersecting identities including race, gender, sexual identity, class, religion, physical ability and refugee status. There are some factors unique to young people – at the stage when they transition from dependence to independence – that combine to exclude them from existing power structures and prevent them from accessing support. To strengthen the response, needs assessments should therefore be intersectional and engage young people.

  • Young women should be at the centre of humanitarian action and be supported in their participation and leadership in responses. The humanitarian system is dominated by patriarchy and often fails to listen to, be accountable to, and be accessible to women of all ages, including young women. Strengthening young women’s participation and leadership at all levels before, during and after emergencies, is crucial to advance localisation in an inclusive and effective manner. Maximising the role that young women play in response means not just supporting them to design action plans, but also to lead on their implementation. Doing so ensures continuity in response and challenges existing perceptions on who is best positioned to lead action in communities, reinforcing the potential of young women and men.

  • Missed education, poor mental health and sexual violence are urgent challenges facing young people, and must be prioritised and mitigated. Young people in crises experience suffering, trauma and negative coping mechanisms that can have severe repercussions for their immediate and long-term wellbeing. Missed education, mental health problems and sexual violence (including a prevalence of early marriage) were found to be of particular concern, but often not considered priorities on humanitarian agendas. Young women are disproportionately affected by sexual violence and negative coping mechanisms including early marriage. To mitigate this crisis within a crises, young women’s rights and leadership, including women-led protection mechanisms, must have top priority.

  • Young people are first responders and must be included in decisionmaking and leadership positions at every stage of humanitarian action. Power dynamics too often exclude young people from decision-making spaces and reduce young people to being seen as mere labour or victims. It is essential to ensure youth representation on existing decision-making structures (for example community disaster preparedness committees), but also to support youth-led initiatives to be better recognised and integrated with existing decision-making processes and protocols.

  • Young people are uniquely placed to play a valuable and necessary role in citizen-led accountability initiatives, and must be put in the driving seat for accountability. Due to young people’s higher levels of education than the previous generation, as well as their networks within the community, eagerness to question the status quo and innovative approaches e.g. using social media and technology to campaign and raise awareness, there are significant advantages to young people taking forward accountability work to ensure open, transparent and effective governance in emergency and crisis settings.

When young people live through emergencies and protracted crises, their lives will be forever changed as opportunities are lost and life projections diverted. The transformative nature of emergencies and protracted crises must be channelled in ways that ensure this negative impact is limited as much as possible and allows young people to be involved in leading and driving initiatives that directly affect their lives.

Fortunately, young people are increasingly seen as key partners and leaders in emergencies and protracted crises, for example in the United Nations Security Council Resolution on Youth, Peace & Security and the Compact on Young People in Humanitarian Action signed at the World Humanitarian Summit (2016).

The time is now to build on this momentum and engage a wider group of practitioners and policymakers to create a more effective, responsive and accountable humanitarian system – and to support the world’s largest ever youth population to create more peaceful, resilient, just and equal societies.