UNICEF is glad to announce the launch of the ENGAGED AND HEARD! Guidelines on Adolescent Participation and Civic Engagement.

The 1.2 billion adolescents in the world today are a crucial resource and drivers of innovative change leading us towards a more equal and sustainable world. Throughout history, civically engaged adolescents have proven to be a powerful force for change, yet they still face unequal opportunities for participation and civic engagement. 

UNICEF’s Guidelines have been developed in consultation with young people themselves and provides programme managers and practitioners  with information on the ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how-to’ of young people participation and civic engagement. They also provide the principles for meaningful participation and engagement,  strategies to systematically support it throughout programming and advocacy work across sectors and shares good practices in engagement. 

We are also happy to mention that the Guidelines include sector specific guidance for:  Health, WASH, Nutrition and HIV; Education; Child protection, care and justice; Disaster risk reduction, climate change and environmental protection; and Peacebuilding and humanitarian response.  Additionally, these Guidelines are complemented by an Agora-online training.

For further information, please contact: Fabio Friscia at the Adolescent Development and Participation Section at UNICEF HQ. 

Hope that you find this resource useful to your work!

Dear Colleagues,

UNICEF's Adolescent Development and Participation (ADAP) section is pleased to share the Tip Sheet series on adolescent engagement (with tips for adults, and for adolescents). The Tip Sheets were developed in response to requests from country offices for easy-to-use, brief “tips” on supporting the meaningful participation of adolescents and youth in different settings (in conferences, advocacy events, campaigns, policy dialogues, public speaking and interviews, audio recordings and video productions, document reviews, networking, online engagement, and in youth advisory groups). The series builds upon UNICEF’s Engaged and Heard! guidelines.

The Tip Sheets are offered as a set: for each topic (i.e., youth advisory groups), there is a set of tips for adults, and a complementary/matching sheet for adolescents and youth. The Tip Sheets can be downloaded as a set or as individual tip sheets here.

The Tip Sheets were developed in collaboration with adolescents and youth, based on their real-life experience participating in various activities. We also thank and greatly appreciate the many colleagues who took the time to review and contribute to the series.

We hope you find these useful, and please feel free to share widely with your networks.

For further information, please contact: Marcy Levy at the Adolescent Development and Participation Section at UNICEF HQ. 

Hope that you find this resource useful to your work!