Young people across Bangladesh are eager to contribute to decisions that affect their lives, yet many—particularly those from marginalized communities—lack safe, trusted and effective channels to be heard. To address this gap, UNESCO has led a nationwide initiative to strengthen youth participation and embed it more systematically into public decision-making.
Working closely with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, UN agencies and national consultants, UNESCO coordinated an inclusive process to co-design a Youth Voice Mechanism (YVM) aligned with national priorities. The initiative moved beyond one-off consultations, focusing instead on building a structured, long-term mechanism for meaningful youth engagement.
The process brought together young people from all eight regions of Bangladesh through a national youth survey, five regional workshops and 14 focus group discussions. Particular emphasis was placed on including voices that are often excluded, including youth from ethnic minority communities, tea-estate workers, slum areas, young women, persons with disabilities and gender-diverse youth. Rather than simply responding to questions, participants actively shaped the design of the proposed mechanism.
The YVM framework is grounded in evidence generated directly by young people and informed by international good practices. It aims to ensure accessibility, gender sensitivity and accountability, while addressing barriers related to trust, institutional responsiveness and social exclusion. The mechanism offers a practical pathway for youth to raise concerns on issues such as livelihoods, safety, public services and dignity, and to channel these into formal governance processes.
By creating a consistent platform for dialogue, the Youth Voice Mechanism has the potential to reduce crisis-driven protests and foster more constructive, ongoing engagement between young people and state institutions.
The next phase will focus on piloting the mechanism across diverse geographic and social contexts to test its effectiveness in real governance settings. As implementation advances, UNESCO will continue to play a central role in ensuring that youth perspectives are systematically integrated into policy planning, service delivery and accountability processes—making youth participation a standard part of public decision-making, not an exception.
