Agency Youth Coordinator Sarah Sladen Discusses USAID’s Vision for Meaningful and Inclusive Youth Engagement

I was 22 when I took my first job in youth development as a counselor with a peace-building and leadership program. The participants, who were just a few years younger than I was, were brought together in the United States to engage across lines of often decades-long conflicts for three months of immersive dialogue and leadership training. Participants met face to face to discuss the root causes of their divisions and, through this process, build greater trust, respect, and empathy for one another—important tools to continue working for change at home.?

The role taught me valuable lessons about working with youth, especially when in a position of power: to listen rather than direct, to support rather than control, to create safe spaces where young people can connect openly and honestly. By building their communication, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills, we aimed not just to give youth a voice, but to help them to find and use the one they already had.?

Twenty years later, my philosophy as the new Agency Youth Coordinator continues to be driven by elevating youth voices and pushing for more inclusive spaces where they can be heard.

USAID has always supported young people through youth-relevant and youth-focused programming. However, our task is not only to provide the opportunities and skills for young people to lead, but to invest equally in youth leadership.

I am committed to preparing our Agency, our implementers, and ourselves to be ready, willing, and able to partner directly with young people, and operationalizing our Youth in Development Policy alongside complementary Agency priorities such as localization and inclusive development .

Through our recently updated youth policy, we have added a new category of youth engagement: youth-led programming. Our policy aims to identify, strengthen, and work directly with organizations and networks led by youth, including young people from marginalized and vulnerable populations. Instead of reinforcing barriers, we are trying to lower them.?

More fundamentally, we are challenging ourselves to evolve in how we approach decision making, inclusion, and power.?

I recently had the opportunity to reflect on how our Agency engages youth during a meeting of the Youth Democracy Cohort at the 2023 Democracy Coalition Forum in Brussels, held in the lead-up to the 2023 Summit for Democracy.

The Youth Democracy Cohort is a diverse network of more than 50 government, civil society, and private sector groups aiming to involve young people in advancing good governance and democratic renewal globally. It is co-led by two youth-led organizations—the European Democracy Youth Network (EDYN), which is funded by USAID, and Africtivistes—in partnership with the European Commission, the Governments of Nepal and Ghana, and the European Partnership for Democracy.

Speaking during the forum, Daryna Onyshko, president of the USAID-funded and youth-led European Democracy Youth Network (EDYN), said: “Youth inspire political change. They are the backbone of civil society, but … we [often] don’t see youth bridge from activism to formal political office.”

Youth networks such as EDYN and other civil society organizations in the Youth Democracy Cohort are integral to driving the collective power and youth inclusion in their countries. Take, for example, Monika Zajkova, a member of the EDYN North Macedonia Country Chapter. Monika, who is also an elected member of the Macedonian Parliament, established a parliamentary youth caucus and played a key role in drafting recent youth-related legislation. Jana Soukupova, an EDYN member from Czechia, led a get-out-to-vote campaign that helped increase voter turnout among 18-to-34-year-olds in her country from 52% to 63%.

The achievements of the Youth Democracy Cohort and its members, including EDYN, are a clear example of what can be achieved when we match young peoples’ leadership with supportive partners, resources, and a global platform. But as Daryna highlighted, the challenge remains that far too many young people, especially those who experience discrimination and marginalization, face barriers to inclusion in formal decision-making roles within our civic and political institutions. This is the challenge we must seek to address.?

USAID recognizes that youth inclusion is an essential component of sustainable, impactful development. It is a generational investment in the power of new ideas, in the possibility to communicate through conflict, and in the promise to creatively problem-solve. Above all, it is about building a society of ethical and democratic leaders.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sarah Sladen is the Agency Youth Coordinator overseeing the advancement of USAID's Policy for Youth in Development.