Guiding principles for youth partnership

Experiences and learning from the Global Adolescent Nutrition Network (GANN) to guide engaging with young people in research, programming and governance for nutrition

There is growing recognition of young people’s role in achieving the Agenda for Sustainable Development and promising momentum toward youth-centred global health. Yet, the voices of young people remain absent in spaces where decisions are made about their nutrition and health needs and how to address them.

Recommendation 10 of the 2021 Lancet series on Adolescent Nutrition called for active partnership with young people to enable them to advocate for change. For many organisations that have, and continue to, engage with youth, questions remain on how to facilitate meaningful partnerships that provide young people with adequate opportunities to express their views, develop their capacities for leadership and influence decision making.  

Based on insights and active co-collaboration with young people and nutrition experts from the Global Adolescent Nutrition Network (GANN), we propose 7 Guiding principles for youth partnership. We hope that these principles will be used to inform more purposeful and meaningful partnerships with young people across all phases of research, programming and governance for nutrition.