- English
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its accompanying 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides as a comprehensive framework to address the world's most pressing sustainability challenges. However, with the 2030 deadline fast-approaching, progress on the SDGs remains woefully insufficient. At present, the world is only on track to achieve 17% of SDG targets by 2030. Since the 2030 Agenda encourages bottom-up participation as part of novel approach to global governance, some observers have called for expanding engagement from young people to accelerate progress on the SDGs. For instance, youth representatives recently called for enhancing youth participation at the Summit of the Future in 2024, leading to the adoption of the “Declaration on Future Generations” as part of the “Pact for the Future.”
These global calls not only resulted in a push for greater participation from young people at the international level. They have also led to youth representatives contributing to discussions over the SDGs at the national level. Yet, whether and to what extent these efforts have had a significant influence on national SDG planning remains poorly understood. In fact, there have been few studies that have compared youth engagement in the SDGs across multiple countries. This discussion paper therefore aims to offer a comparative assessment of youth engagement in SDGs processes in Denmark, Germany, Indonesia, Finland and Japan. The paper also intends to draw upon insights from this comparative assessment to provide recommendations for policymakers seeking to meaningfully engage young people in SDG processes.
This discussion paper is based in part on research performed with support from the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (JPMEERF20221M03) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency provided by Ministry of the Environment of Japan.
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