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EACEA National Policies Platform
Italy

Italy

9. Youth and the World

9.3 Exchanges between young people and policy-makers on global issues

Last update: 28 March 2024

Global issues exchanges with policymakers at the domestic level

At a national level, the  Department for Youth Policies and the Universal Civic Service (DPGSCU) cooperates with the National Youth Council and the Italian Youth Agency on global issues.

Within the framework of global issues, the National Youth Council has three targeted youth-led commissions on the topics of External Affairs, Integration, European and International Mobility; EU Cooperation and Affairs; Active Citizenship and Civil Service. In its programmatic guidelines, the National Youth Council expresses the importance of implementing youth policies that are focused on the achievements of the SDGs, respect for human rights, through regular meetings with the General Direction for International Cooperation of the MAECI.

In addition, the National Youth Council is organized around different commissions that have both a domestic and international nature:

  • Sports, Culture, Legality, Health Commission
  • Environment and Agriculture Commission
  • Foreign, Integration, European and International Mobility Commission
  • Labor, Training, Social Policies Commission
  • Active Citizenship and Civil Service Commission
  • European Union Affairs and Cooperation Commission
  • Gender Rights and Policies Commission

Global issues exchanges with policymakers at the international level

Young Ambassadors Society. Within a global network, the Young Ambassadors Society aims to promote dialogue and cooperation between national and international young people and offers them opportunities to speak up and make an impact. Through meetings and events, YAS creates the conditions to learn and raise awareness on many issues related to economics, science and innovation. 

YAS recruits the Italian youth Delegations who take part in international Conferences and Summits, such as Y7 and Y20, the official engagement groups of G7 and G20 Summits.

The Y20 and Y7 summits are the official engagement groups of the G20 and G7 summits, bringing together young leaders representing the G7 and G20 countries. The conferences allow young delegates from these countries to gather to discuss ideas and put forth recommendations concerning the global agenda discussed in the G20 and G7 summits. The schedule of the youth summits parallels that of the leader’s summit; the outcome is a ‘Final Communique’ containing proposals from the Young delegates that is passed on to the leader’s summit to make the voice of young people heard.

Y20 Summit 2021 was held from 19 to 23 July 2021 online in Bergamo and Milan. In October 2021, Italy chaired the G20 for the first time in history and Youth 20 (Y20) is the official G20 engagement group dedicated to young people, chaired by the Young Ambassadors Society (YAS), in collaboration with the Sherpa Office of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Students from Italian universities were invited to participate directly in the events of the Y20 2021 Summit to talk about sustainability, innovation, the future of work and inclusion.

United Nations Youth Delegate Programme (UNYD), The UNYD recruits young people from 37 countries, including Italy, to become involved in the respective diplomatic missions as delegates of youth issues. In Italy, “the program is promoted and organised by SIOI, in cooperation with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and in 2017 for the first time allowed two young university students to take part in the 72nd Un General Assembly and to negotiate, under the supervision of the Italian Diplomatic Mission to the UN in New York, the Youth Resolution”.

Regional and inter-regional initiatives

The National Youth Council supports the lobbying and advocacy action within the European Youth Forum platform in cooperation with the Informal Group SYC - Southern Youth Councils and on Youth Work Development. Among its principal objectives, there is the establishment and strengthening of the National Councils of South-Eastern Europe. In the same way, it aims to resume the process of Euro-Arab-Mediterranean regional cooperation aimed at strengthening youth organizations, together with the creation of National Youth Councils in the countries of the area where they are not yet present.