Governance

Youth’s contribution to global processes of policy-making, implementation and follow-up, including youth cooperation at the global level, is not exclusively a youth policy theme (or any other policy area). The Flemish Government works via both horizontal and vertical consultation and planning to stimulate youth’s contribution to global processes of policy-making.

In the Flemish Youth and Children's Rights Policy Plan 2025-2029, links are made within the objectives relating to climate justice to the following policy areas responsible for bringing about change: 

• Youth policy
• Energy and climate
• Environment
• Domestic affairs, urban and rural policy
• Welfare

In the following we focus on the regional level and describe for each of the domains the relevant responsibilities.

Governmental authority

Flemish Government
The Flemish Government works together with other countries and regions in a bilateral context. The Flemish Government has bilateral cooperation for youth work and youth policy. The Flemish Government also participates in multilateral forums, such as the Benelux, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the United Nations and UNESCO. Discussions and political decisions at European level have impact on the Flemish Youth Policy.

Main public actors at community-level (Flemish Community)

Department of Culture, Youth and Media
The Department Culture, Youth and Media is responsible for the preparation, implementation, follow-up and evaluation of Flemish policy on culture, youth and media and for the follow-up of policy items that interface with other departments. Within the Department, the ‘Division Knowledge and Policy’ is responsible for developing knowledge and expertise to inform policy and practice, with ample attention to cross-cutting and international links.
The Division Knowledge and Policy is comprised of four teams of which Team Youth is responsible for the integrated coordination of the Flemish youth policy with a strong link with transversal and international aspects where the Team Transversal is responsible for the integrated coordination of culture and media policy with specific focus on transversal and international aspects. 

Department of Environment 
The Department of Environment was created on 1 April 2017 and combined the previous departments of Environment, Nature and Energy and Space Flanders. The Department has the following tasks: 

• the realisation of a high-quality living environment, in which various resources and the available space are used in a sustainable manner; 
• the development of an integrated environment policy (space, environment, nature and energy) aimed at policy preparation and implementation, broadening support, enforcement of regulations and policy evaluation; 
• cooperation with cities, municipalities and provinces for local environment policy. 

Department of Care 
The Department of Care strives for a healthy and caring society in which everyone can participate and pursues four core ambitions:

• Empowering people in their health and well-being
• Promoting a caring society in which everyone can participate
• Organising high-quality and accessible care provision
• Achieving this through a caring organisation and high-quality public service

Flemish Energy and Climate Agency (VEKA)
The Flemish Energy and Climate Agency (VEKA) is an independent agency of the Environment policy area and implements a sustainable energy and climate policy. Together with its partners, it strives for a climate-neutral and sustainable society in Flanders.

Department of Education and Training
The Department of Education and Training together with the Minister in charge of Education and Training is responsible for the advice, evaluation and follow-up on education policy in Flanders.
The Flemish policy on education of sustainable development is defined in Flemish policy documents, such as Flemish Parliament Act of Sustainable Development and cross-curricular attainment targets in education.

The Government of Flanders
The Government of Flanders consists of 9 ministers, who are in office for a 5-year term. 

Minister in charge of Youth
The Flemish Vice-Minister for Youth (Melissa Depraetere) is also the coordinating minister of the Flemish Youth and Children’s Rights Policy Plan. She has a coordinating role in topics related to youth, children's rights and the world. She is also responsible for Climate and Energy.
 

Other ministers linked to the above policy areas are:

• Hilde Crevits: Flemish Minister responsible for, among other things, Home Affairs, Urban and Rural Policy
• Zuhal Demir: Flemish Minister responsible for Education, among other things
• Caroline Gennez: Flemish Minister responsible for Welfare, among other things
• Jo Brouns: Flemish Minister responsible for the Environment, among other things

Main non-public actors

Non-profit organisations working on youth and the world
Several Flemish-funded youth organisations take part in the development of policies, programmes or actions related to youth’s contribution to global processes of policy-making. 

Many organisations have also initiated projects about sustainable development and have developed methods, instruments and campaigns targeting young people.
The Flemish youth and children’s rights policy also funds children’s rights organisations. These non-profit organisations take initiatives that raise awareness of children’s rights towards all people, including young people.

THE FLEMISH YOUTH COUNCIL: One of the aims of the Flemish Youth Council is to represent young people and youth work at national and international forums. By doing so, the Flemish Youth Council sends UN youth representatives to various (inter)national forums. The Flemish Youth Council takes initiatives in this field (e.g. participating in policymaking setting up projects about sustainable development, developing methods and instruments to reach out to young people, etc.) (see chapter 5). 

There is a youth representative for Europe that takes part in gatherings of the members of the European Youth Forum. There are UN youth representatives for youth and sustainable development who can speak on the behalf of Flanders in these forums. They work around global themes such as sustainability and human rights and they represent Flemish children and young people in international UN-forums such as the third committee meeting of the General Conference, the Commission for Social Development and the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

GLOBELINK: The youth organisation Globelink runs the simulation project ‘KRAS’. This is a discussion and role-playing game for third-grade secondary school students. Throughout Flanders, young people gather in their free time to debate global issues with their peers. Discussion and their own opinions are central to this. Every school year, a new annual theme with a global slant is used to introduce young people to the world of democracy and debate. The students take on the role of a certain country or stakeholder and debate a specific sustainable development topic (e.g. democracy in 2025 - 2026) from that perspective. At the end of the school year, the Flemish Parliament invites the students to a big closing colloquium.

THE AANSTOKERIJ: The Aanstokerij is a non-profit youth organisation that consciously chooses games as an educational tool. For more than 40 years now, Aanstokerij has been developing, producing, facilitating and distributing educational games. The educational games inform and sensitise children, youngsters and adults about different social issues such as democracy, intercultural learning, north-south problems, the environment and social skills.

JNM: JNM (Jeugdbond voor Natuur en Milieu) is a youth organisation engaged in environmental issues. JNM focuses on young people between the ages of 7 and 26 who are interested in nature. It is also a youth organisation for and by young people. Fun and games form a large part of the organisation.

TUMULT vzw: Tumult is a youth organisation and encourages young people to meet each other, across borders. Tumult learns young people to deal with conflicts in a constructive manner and stimulates young people to be critical. By doing so, Tumult wants to strive towards a peaceful world together with children and young people.

The general distribution of responsibilities

Relevant policies are prepared, implemented and monitored at the regional level (Flanders). Under coordination of the Department of Culture, Youth and Media, several departments cooperate to ensure effective contribution of youth to global policy-making processes. The Flemish government also funds several non-public organisations that take part in relevant development of policies, programmes or actions. On the other hand the regional level collaborates with the municipalities who are in charge of the local youth policy. Flanders supports them by means of monitoring tools, research, trainings, funding of Bataljong, an organisation that has the task to strengthen  children and young people, politicians and officials in pursuing more, better and broader local policies for children and young people. 

Cross-sectoral cooperation

As mentioned in 1.5 Cross-sectorial approach with other ministries, youth policy is a transversal policy. It is envisaged that each ministry takes its own responsibilities and defines tasks linked to the implementation of specific goals within the Youth and Children’s Rights Policy Plan, while the Minister for Youth is in charge of overseeing the process and reporting on the Plan’s implementation to the Flemish government as well as the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by the Flemish government.