Social mobilisation and participation Participation formats at federal and Länder level – #MitMischenNRW and youth advisory councils

In a first project phase, young people formulated their demands for the North Rhine-Westphalian sustainability strategy and discussed these with the Land ministries. In a subsequent phase, young people acted as mentors to members of the North Rhine-Westphalian Landtag, state ministers and the Deputy Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia in a series of meetings. Programme design revolved around the transformative effect of participation. The aim was to enable young people to both pursue a sustainable lifestyle in their private lives and lobby effectively in the policy arena for sustainability concerns. Policy decisions that change unsustainable structures generate much stronger leverage than the behaviour of an individual.

At federal level, the concept of youth advisory councils such as the Youth Advisory Council of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (External link) (web page only available in German) has proven its worth. It is suited in principle to all federal and Land ministries. Other formats of youth participation, such as the youth political forums organised by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity, equally make tangible contributions to refining the German Sustainable Development Strategy.