THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT THE INFLUENCE OF YOUTH is causing major disruptions in the global policy arena. New climate change policies have hit the agenda of almost every government globally. The impetus for such policies increased in 2018 with the creation of Fridays For Future—a movement of young people committe to staying home from school to protest governments’ failure to act against the forces causing climate change. Starting in Sweden with Greta Thunberg, this activism soon spread around the globe. Young people hit the streets in Brazil, the United States, and even small island countries. This youth advocacy has instigated a tremendous political shift—but is advocacy the only platform readily available to young people? How will we integrate the next generation of young activists and leaders into our work for the long term?
Youth aged 24 and younger make up 40% of the world’s population. Young people are proactive and disruptive, and they want to impact society. They can expose incongruities and help the water sector identify and contront existing power structures and barriers to change. They are not afraid to test their innovative water ideas, which otherwise might never go beyond journal articles. Given young people’s capacity to change the world, investing in the talent of youth is worth a long term commitment.
If governments, nonprofits, and corporations fail to harness the power of youth and work to empower the next generation of sustainability leaders, it will be to the detriment of these organizations and institutions. Most agencies are on board with the idea of bringing youth into their governance processes and agenda. But often the desire for involvement stops there. Governments and agencies typically lack the capacity and vision to involve young people in their operations over the long term. This is the case in the global water sector.
Nonprofits Lead theWay, Governments Lag
Few government agencies have taken the initiative to think strategically about how they will shape their agencies to involve the next generation of water leaders in the long term. Short-term projects to help youth are convenient but provide no long-term avenues to help youth thrive and succeed within the water sector.
However, a few water entities— such as the Global Water Partnership based in Stockholm and the Swiss Water Partnership— are developing a youth strategy. And committed youth supporters in the water sector have taken some noteworthy actions. And as president of the World Youth Parliament for Water from 2018 to 2021, I saw the global water sector take other strides to increase involvement of youth in its long-term vision including:
- Waterlutions Water Innovation Labs provides immersion leadership training and capacity-building workshops to young people around the globe to help them jump-start their own water projects (since 2003).
- Young Water Solution provides training workshops, support, and mentorship to young entrepreneurs to help them conduct their own water and sanitation projects (since 2015).
- The International Secretariat for Water provides technical support to the World Youth Parliament for Water (since 2012) and technical support, funding, and mentorship for water and youth projects through the Youth Platform for Water and Climate (since 2018).
- The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has involved youth in developing the Blue Peace movement, focusing on transboundary water cooperation and its Blue Peace Index (since 2018). More recently the SDC hosted a platform for youth to engage in a dialogue on food security issues, with a significant focus on water. The platform Bites of
Transfoodmation has allowed youth and high-level policy makers to share their ideas on how they see the future of food systems. The activities and dialogues emerging from this platform will feed into the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit. - The International Water Resources Association has created a mentorship program and includes young professionals on its board.
- The World Meteorological Organization included two youth representatives on its Water and Climate Coalition Leader Panel in February 2019.
- The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) Stockholm World Water Week has awarded an annual Junior Stockholm World Water Prize since 1997 as a part of its Stockholm World Water Week.
- UN-Water has adopted the World Youth Parliament for Water as its youth partner, and the parliament, helps to implement the UN-Water work program (since 2015). Young people are proactive and disruptive, and they want to impact society. They can expose incongruities and help the water sector identify and confront existing power structures and barriers to change.
- The International Secretariat for Water and its partner, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, have provided significant focus and technical support to youth-related projects and networks around the world.
In fact, the nonprofits Waterlutions, Young Water Solutions, and the International Secretariat for Water base their work solely on
supporting youth in the water sector.
Another way water organizations have integrated youth is at major water dialogues—such as SIWI’s Stockholm World Water Week, the International Water Resources Association’s World Water Congress, and the World Water Council’s World Water Forum—which have developed a gold-star standard for diversity of panel members that calls for the inclusion of youth. For Stockholm World Water Week, the gold-star standard means that panels must consist of at least
40% women and at least one person under the age of 35. Many organizations have been sure to include young participants on panels to meet the gold-star requirement. While these young representatives are often knowledgeable about the panel discussion topic, in some cases it is obvious that they have been selected based only on their age.
Thinking Bigger
While the gold-star approach is a step toward inclusivity and empowerment, it is not enough. I’d like to see organizations, nonprofits, and government agencies take a greater leap toward empowering the next generation of young water leaders. Let’s start to think about long-term engagement for youth. The key is to bring youth into the leadership of water entities.
Perhaps my favorite example of including youth in decision-making processes around water comes from my experience with the Global Water Partnership (GWP). At the start of my presidential term with the World Youth Parliament for Water, I was invited to be a special observer of the GWP’s Steering Committee. In this role, I recommended that the Steering Committee adopt an official youth seat that would have the same voting rights as every other voting committee member. This proposition was accepted, and in 2020
I provided input on a position description for the youth Steering Committee member. The position requirement included at least two years of relevant work experience in water and climate (I would recommend similar standards to any organization considering youth engagement; there is no reason to involve a young person just because he or she is young enough to fulfill a youth requirement). Additional requirements included leadership in a local or global water or climate youth organization, as well as being under the age of 35 upon applying. In December 2019, by unanimous vote of the Steering Committee, the youth seat was approved and incorporated into the by-laws of the Global Water Partnership.
As a result of this change, the GWP can expect to bring on board a proactive leader with innovative ideas about programming and the governance structure of the organization. This example reflects an organization that is committed to youth and that values the voices and ideas of the next generation of water leaders. I recommend that corporations, utilities, cities, and
government agencies take similar actions.
Not ready to bring young people into the leadership structure of your organization? Then I encourage you and your team to start thinking about a long-term youth strategy. Here are some ways to start:
- Begin to think of areas of your organization and programs that could benefit from a new generational perspective.
- Ask: Does my team have a youth program or young professionals coordinator? If not, then does it make sense to have one?
- If your organization does not have the capacity to hire a youth coordinator, consider adding a youth task force to organically incorporate the input and vision of young people into your goal setting and programming.
- Integrate youth checklists to ensure that you involve interns throughout all of a project cycle. Showing your interns the ropes may not be intuitive at first, and a checklist of the processes in which they should be involved can make it easier.
In summary, youth is the future. Making only incremental efforts to support youth will set back our collective efforts to attain a water-secure world. Gold-star efforts are simply not enough; we need governments, nonprofits, and corporations to develop long-term youth strategies and to plan for how they will support the future generation of young leaders. In the end, the way you decide to engage, empower, and value the next generation of sustainability leaders will determine your legacy for a water-secure world.
Note: This article was featured in the July-August 2021 issue of the American Water Resources Association’s magazine Water Resources IMPACT.