On the 25th to 27th October, the Youth Forum took place in Tirana. Stefan Pejic, our youth officer from ReGeneration, attended the forum and wrote a report about his experience.

Youth4Health – Health and Well-being Forum for Youth

More and more we hear the words like “youth”, “inclusion”, “participation” being thrown left and right, but when it comes to meaningful participation and youth inclusion, where do we really stand? How can we put an end to youth tokenism? Are we on our way to actually making and holding space for meaningful youth engagement and leadership?

This year from 25th until 27th of October in sunny Tirana, Albania, the first health and well-being forum for youth was organized by World Health Organization, in partnership with the Albanian Ministry of Health and Social Protection, the Office of the Albanian Minister of State for Youth and Children, the Municipality of Tirana and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

The aim of the forum was to ensure that young people partner with governments and WHO to co-design policies and frameworks impacting youth health and well-being. According to WHO, around 500 young people from 30 countries participated in the forum along with almost 200 other delegates representing government, UN and civil society partners – what a time to be alive.

Covering topics from mental and public health, youth engagement, communication, (mis)information; to disability, sexual and reproductive health and rights, making heathcare inclusive, just to name a few. All forum panel sessions will be available from 18th November here.

For me, it was really nice to exit my harm reduction bubble for a bit, and to hear other (young) people’ opinions, views and challenges, but to also rethink our own approach to the topics mentioned during the forum. 

To be honest, going to the forum – I wasn’t expecting much. I was sure this was going to be just another “you wanted youth, here’s youth” type of event, and the first day felt a lot like that with all these officials taking a stand, and talking about how youth engagement is important. Almost none of them were young. What a shocker. Talking with my peers, we were all confused and had a lot of questions, mostly about why we’re there and how our presence would contribute to the aims of the forum.

Morning brought new opportunities, and we started our day by exploring the standards for youth engagement in the Region and how these translate into practice when providing opportunities for young people to engage in discourse on health and well-being issues and decision making. Nice save!

Interactive sessions on youth engagement, improvement of health of youth in the Region, gender and health, risk communication, although very short, were really fun, and I liked the hands-on approach, I just hope it will be translated into practice.

Were our questions from the first day answered? Yes and no. 

Our inputs from all the workshop sessions were summed in this statement 

What are the next steps?

To cite Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe:

“WHO/Europe is determined that we will help create the space that young persons need to be included in helping shape the decisions, the policies, the laws, that shape their lives and impact their health and well-being.

In creating Youth4Health, we are working with young persons to build a genuine network. 

We will be asking all our 53 Member States across Europe and central Asia to endorse it at our next Regional Committee in 2023 – WHO/Europe’s highest decision-making body, including of all ministers of health.

By governments endorsing Youth4Health, it paves the way for stronger, sustainable youth representation at the policy- and decision-making table.

Over the next year, leading up to the Regional Committee, we will work with the Youth4Health network to identify regional opportunities for youth representation – including on mental health, digital health and health emergencies.”

Even though I hoped for greater involvement of youth at a youth forum, more time for Q&A, and some tools we can actually use, it seems that this forum was a big step towards a more meaningful role of youth in decision making processes, so going forward, I will keep a close eye on WHO and Youth4Health Network in hopes that it will actually contribute to our better position, and not be just another tokenistic event. 

Thank you to Stefan for representing C-EHRN at the event, and for offering his unique insight into youth involvement.