Youth Engagement Index | URBEGO
YEI mission statement
Urbego believes that in the light of the recent events in the Arab States, Turkey, Brazil, India, Romania and other parts of the world the missing link in urban governance on the whole is the involvement of the young generations. For this reason, Urbego is developing a global Youth Engagement Index (YEI) that aims to assess the involvement of young generations (ages 18 to 34) in urban governance. The YEI with its collaborative process aims to unveil weaknesses and opportunities of cities in terms of engaging their youth in the city making and managing process, and highlight the value of having an active and participating youth in city life in general. The YEI looks at engagement at the social, political and economic aspects of governance, and the discrepancies in expectations of the various actors involved. It is these discrepancies that have led to social unrests spearheaded by the young. This shows that there is a willingness of the youth to participate in governance, but for one reason or another, there is an obstacle to their actual involvement. It is imperative to try to understand and overcome these obstacles. A mixed methods approach, the YEI methodology has been developed in collaboration with universities from cities around the world, and involves different stakeholders ranging from the local governments, to the middle-fround agents, to the civil society. Urbego believes that by brining municipalities, academia, non-governmental organisations and - of course - the youth to the table, cities that have been successful in establishing good and effective communication among these actors will encourage leaders in other cities to share knowledge and obtain new ideas to act on. 6