Several major international political and economic events have demonstrated the impact they could have on the future of youth worldwide. The significance of the methods used for youth engagement and inclusion in development plans has become more obvious. This paper will look at methods for youth engagement and their influence on public policy, looking at the Emirates Youth Council example.

In February 2016, the United Arab Emirates reintroduced the role of the minister of youth to be taken over by a young person to represent youth issues in the cabinet and contribute to developing “plans and strategies for improving youth capabilities.”  It has more importantly set up the Emirates Youth council to engage the youth in policy planning.

This paper aims to look at example of the Emirates youth council and its role in engaging youth. It will look at the changes that were introduced into the UAE cabinet to bring more focus to youth issues, the situation before 2016 in UAE, and relevance to other youth councils worldwide.  The paper will look at the structure of the Emirates Youth Council, the tools that it uses to engage with youth and to find answers to policy questions.  It will also look at the Council’s role in conveying youth priorities to policy makers, and attempt to find examples of the impact of such methods on policy making.

Provided the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is true, what is the power of a multitude of pictures any film contains? The power of motion picture has been known since the beginnings of cinematography and films have become important tools for articulating specific political positions and initiating particular policies. As a consequence of a remarkable development of film technology, particularly its digitalisation in the last three decades, film as a form of expression has become more available than ever before. This ‘democratisation’ of filmmaking is especially perceivable among the young who often voice their problems and needs in contemporary society and propose particular measures and solutions to them in a most impressive way exactly by making films. Furthermore, the role of filmmaking of the young gives a key contribution to their mutual interconnectedness in a globalised world. Today more than ever before young people from all over the world can identify one with another and learn about others by reciprocating their different experiences. What a great number of young filmmakers have in common is the opportunity to influence the conscience about certain issues in society by selecting particular topics and addressing them in their own creative ways. These include, for example, violence, discrimination against minorities and devastation of the environment. The representation of these and similar problems in films by young authors are an example of the young generation’s important engagement in articulating important social problems and ways of working out the respective public policies. The best confirmation for that are international film festivals of young authors which are held throughout a year in a number of countries. One of the biggest among them is Four River Film Festival which is to be held for the tenth time in the Croatian city of Karlovac, celebrating thus its jubilee. Several hundred films made by young authors from every continent have competed in the festival so far. A great number of presented works have been socially engaged and dealt with precisely abovementioned topics. As far as Croatian authors and their films are concerned, several of them have raised awareness of particular problems in their respective communities and stimulated adequate social and political engagement. By comparing individual films made by young people coming from different countries, this paper investigates the extent of their impact on detecting key social problems and the role of film as a medium by means of which public policies and politics in general can be influenced. The research question reads as follows: In what manner is film, both as art and as a medium, an effective instrument for young people to sensitise society and political institutions with respect to specific problems and ways to resolve them?

Despite its relevance, local youth policy is still inadequately explored field of public policy. On the one hand, at the EU level, there is a proliferation of policy initiatives regarding local youth involvement, however academic literature on youth involvement at the local level and youth interaction with the municipal governments does not follow these policy innovations. The focus of this paper is to critically examine one policy initiative originated from the European Union, which aims to enchase local development. Namely, the paper examines Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) methodology, a tool which encompasses networking and cooperation among local-action groups in order to meet local needs and fulfill sub-regional potentials, and all that in the context of youth policy. The main research question this paper is: to what extend does the CLLD methodology support local youth development and how it contributes to local youth policy in general?

The CLLD methodology will be a mandatory part of development politics, strategies and plans in the whole EU since of 2020 and, according to its proponents from the EU, is considered to be an adequate tool for supporting youth voice in local decision-making. In spite of this, is stays unknown how exactly it affects young people. What we do know is that the CLLD methodology was developed within the regional policy framework with the goal to strengthen regional development where young people are just one of groups this tool effects. Thus, it is not clear if the CLLD goals are complementary with the goals of youth policy or is the CLLD’s contribution to local youth policy just a matter of rhetoric. Youth policy as such, aims to create enabling environment for youth participation and inclusion in society and politics thus it requires carefully designed and planned activities in order to meet these requirements. Due to scarce academic literature on the CLLD methodology, at this point we do not have a clear picture if it will enchase local youth involvement and if so, in what way. Based on the research conducted at the local level in Croatia where the CLLD methodology was experimentally used for the purpose of assessing its impact on young people, this paper offers theoretical and empirical contribution to the literature on local youth policy and the CLLD methodology.

“Participation” in policy-making is mentioned in nearly every prominent international, regional, and national strategy on youth (ex. African Youth Charter (2006), UN System Wide Action Plan on Youth (2014), Baku Commitment to Youth Policies (2014)), and enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, where the views of young people are to be considered in all matters affecting them, including public policies. Participation of young people in general, and participatory policy-making with young people in particular, is also theorised in a variety of frameworks and models, ranging from Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation (1969) to Wong’s Typology of Youth Participation (2011), and beyond.    

This paper examines at the various ways the “views” of young people were incorporated into the development of national youth policies, which as of April 2014, exist in 122 countries in the world (Youth Policy Press, 2014). Using research from Youth Policy Reviews (Youth Policy Press), which are national-level case studies focused on youth policy development, implementation, and evaluation in 12 countries (Colombia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mongolia, Nepal, Serbia, Swaziland, Tunisia, and Uganda), and reflections based on Youth Policy Labs’ technical assistance for youth policy development (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mongolia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea), this paper will explore the recent trends in participatory policy-making with youth, comparing and contrasting with theoretical forms and models of youth participation. How far has theory influenced how youth participation is “practiced” on the ground? Or how has youth participation influenced current thinking and models? Sources will include empirical research from the youth policy reviews, practice-focused reflections, and theoretical models and frameworks from both academia and grey literature (ex. think-tanks, NGOs/INGOs, international sector including the UN).

The European cultural policy programs, such as ECC (European Capitals of Culture), seek to develop new forms of civic cohesion through inclusive and participative cultural events. The cultural assets of a city elected "ECC" are mobilized to attract a wide range of new audiences, including young populations poorly integrated into local cultural life – and consequently distant from pre-existing cultural offers. In the current context of increasingly heterogeneous individual perceptions of Europe, the ECC program encourages young people to be active citizens and participate in society in order to ensure their involvement in the European democratic processes and cultural values.

The cultural offers of the cities elected “ECC” are conceived to stimulate integration and mobility and also create a legitimate and transnational ideal young European citizen type. As culture strengthens local communities and forges a sense of identity and belonging to the larger community of Europe, contemporary forms of cultural consumption promote cultural forms and institutions that should accelerate both territorial and cross-border European cohesion. However, cultural struggles and identity conflicts emerging in Europe, particularly in the current context of increasing immigration issues, raise new challenges for inclusive cultural policies to cope with inclusion and integration of young populations poorly integrated into local cultural life.

Our research is focused on the young people’s perception of democratized cultural institutions (theaters, museums, operas, etc.) seeking to get in tune with their expectations and cultural preferences. By analyzing the cultural dynamics in "European Capitals of Culture" from the south and from the north of Europe, cities recently concerned by the ECC political mechanism and cities that were elected ECC in the past, multi-centered cultural models vs. highly centralized cultural models, we aim to explore the interplay between the political vision of inclusive culture and the youth cultural needs.

The research on “Monitoring of Emiratis Youth: Socio-Economic Characteristics and Values” is a unique and very new idea of obtaining the information on Emiratis Youth (annual panel survey of 1600 respondents), studying the happiness and life satisfaction in relation to work, family and values, and use of the outcomes for the relevant social policy programs in UAE. Regular data collection under the developed issue-oriented methodology will allow to set up very good grounds for social science research development in the UAEU and outside. Moreover, it will become the main source for the scientific-based social policy programs and will create a high demand from the Government organizations for the continuous and expand Monitoring.

The project is focused on the following three issues:

1) the transfer from university/school to job and career development: what positions the youth take, what problems they face, how the education affects their first job choice and future career, is their shift for gender equality in the labor market, how are they compatible with expats in terms of wages and promotion and etc.;

2) values and beliefs, religion attitudes that are changing fast nowadays and their effects on personal achievements and their socio-economic status;

3) family values, family formation, fertility, family problems and divorces would another important issue to tackle under the study.

Finally, the important added value of the study is that these three issues will be studied to give an answer of how much each of the mentioned three issues affects the subjective well-being of Emiratis Youth. What makes them more or less happy: career, family or religion, and values? What should be changed in the society for the better to have healthier and happier Youth?

A particular advantage of the project which makes it extremely relevant to the current UAE development goals is the gender-oriented research. It means that all three mentioned above research lines will be taking into account the gender issues. Therefore, the project is having direct links with UAE vision and Abu-Dhabi development vision.

In the long-run perspective, the project might become a brand UAEU project and be used to attract sponsors, government and other professional groups outside.