Government slammed for failing to support international youth participation

Francesca Danmole called on the government to provide more support to young people after she represented the UK at the recent Commonwealth Youth Ministers Meeting in Papua New Guinea.

Young delegates from 30 countries attended the meeting, which resulted in the launch of an autonomous Commonwealth Youth Council, to be governed by international youth representatives in a similar model to BYC.

Ministers responsible for youth matters from the member states also discussed a proposal to reserve special seats in parliaments and other governance structures for young people.

But Danmole said that support from the UK government was visibly absent throughout the week-long meeting.

“Youth participation is being embedded in the governance of so many countries across the globe through this new Commonwealth Youth Council, however, it was disappointing to see how little the British government is supporting youth voice overseas,” said Danmole.

“Most other countries I met have a clearly-identified youth minister who will be in regular and meaningful contact with their national youth council leader, on a shared agenda – both domestically and overseas.

“The UK did not send a youth minister to this youth minster meeting, and at a time when young peoples' voices were being included in international decision making, for most of the time our seat was empty and our voices were absent.”

Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister Hugo Swire attended the meetings in place of children's minister Ed Timpson, who is considered the government lead on youth policy.

Danmole also criticised the government for refusing to fund her trip to represent the nation, as it has done in the past.

“Unlike other countries, the UK government would not fund my attendance and we had to rely on the British Council for support,” she said.