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1. Formal Mechanisms of Consultation

2. Actors

3. Information on the extent of youth participation

4. Outcomes

5. Large-scale initiatives for dialogue or debate between public institutions and young people

Formal Mechanisms of Consultation

The participation of young people in decision-making is defined as one of four strategic objectives in the Youth Sector Development Plan 2021-2035 (Noortevaldkonna arengukava 2021-2035). The strategic position of the youth participation sustained in the Youth Field strategies since 2001.

Legal provisions

There are regulations on youth involvement. The involvement of young people in general and of youth councils is defined in the Youth Work Act. The involvement of pupils and students is defined in education institutions acts, and the participation of the children in the Child Protection Act.  

Forms and levels of consultations

There are plenty of mechanisms for the involvement of young people in public policy processes. In general, youth participation in public policy takes place within the general framework and practice of participatory governance in Estonia. In the consultation processes, the young people are addressed as a group of stakeholders, which means that generally young people are invited to the consultation as one of the consulted parties.

Collective consultation remains an important principle underlying the interaction between the young people and the state or municipality. This means that youth consultation and involvement occurs predominantly between a youth council, organization or association on the one hand and a state, municipal, third sector or business organization on the other hand. The consultation of unorganized young people is organized through opinion markets and other forms of participation.

At the municipal level, local youth councils are consulted on topics that are relevant to youth. In 2022, the municipal youth councils were active in 76 (out of 79) local governments. In addition, 15 county youth councils were active, one in each county of Estonia. Most of them are now dismissed as the county-level governments were also reformed. Most often the consultation is arranged with:

• local and regional youth councils – consulted at the local or regional level
• youth organizations – consulted at local and/or national level
• student and pupils councils – consulted partners at the local and national level
• participation café/opinion market – a form of consultation at the local level
• umbrella organizations of youth councils and youth organizations – consulted at the national level
• EU strategic dialog - consultation on a local and national level on EU issues.

Consultation methods

The youth consultation in the public policy processes occurs mainly in 3 contexts:

• drafting sectorial strategies and development plans;
• implementing sectoral strategies and development plans;
• design of the youth (work) services.

The main method of involving young people in drafting strategies is the participation of the representatives of youth organizations or umbrella organizations in different working groups. In these settings, the young people are informed of the developments and they can express their opinion on particular themes and partake in discussions leading to final formulations. Technically speaking, this involves the formulation of positions regarding concrete questions, participation in meetings, involvement in communication, reacting to other participants' opinions and proposals, input to official document drafts and other activities to be carried out during the process.

Regularity of consultations

The consultations take place regularly at national-level policy. As the responsible ministries for policy areas are obliged to report annually on the implementation of the policy measures, the youth representatives are also mostly consulted annually on these policy document implementation reports.

Consultations take also place case-by-case depending on the emergence of new legislation or policy proposals.

Actors

Youth actors

In general, the main umbrella organizations are involved in drafting policy programs and legislative acts as representatives of young people in Estonia: 

• National Youth Council (the umbrella organization of youth associations and youth organizations);
• Estonian School Student Councils Union (the umbrella organization of school student councils);
• Federation of Estonian Student Unions (the umbrella organization of college student councils).
• Youth Councils of the ministries (Ministry of Education and Research, Ministry of Environment)

In the implementation phase, local youth organizations, youth councils, and youth work organizations are involved in carrying out activities of a concrete policy program.

There are no specific target groups in general consultation mechanisms defined.

Main public authorities

• the Ministry of Education and Research: responsible for youth policy and education policy
• the Ministry of Social Affairs: responsible for labor market policy, but also for social protection and services including child and family policy
• Education and Youth Board, is a governmental institution responsible for the implementation of education and youth policy.

Additional stakeholders

• Estonian Association of Youth Centres, implementing youth work in youth centers;
• Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps Estonian Agency (youth programs center), a body established by the government under the Ministry of Education and Research, is responsible for implementing Erasmus+ and ESC.

Information on the extent of youth participation

There are some specific mechanisms of data collection and monitoring of youth consultation, e.g. Structural Dialogue, Ombudsman for Children reviews of the youth rights, youth monitor, National Electoral Commette, etc. There is no specific data collection system on the level of youth participation, but different actors collect information actively including Universities and Electoral Committee.

Outcomes

Participation of young people in decision-making has two main outcomes:

1. quality of the decision;
2. development of active citizenship.

Generally, based on the consultation, a draft law or policy document is revised. There is an obligation for the government authorities to provide information on every proposal whether it has been accepted and also the reasons, if not.  Policy documents progress report is generally required from the ministry appointed as a responsible body for the policy document. Usually, it is necessary to report to the Government every year the implemented activities, achieved outcomes and results. The yearly reports are bases for the Government to renew or to terminate the implementation of the policy document. The inclusion of interested parties to the reporting procedure is advised.

Large-scale initiatives for dialogue or debate between public institutions and young people

The most important government initiative to promote youth participation has been the introduction of the annual funding scheme for youth councils and youth organizations.

Estonian National Youth Council initiated a project “Osaluskohvikud” (Eng. youth participation cafes) to provide platform for local politicians, civil servants, professionals working with young people, parents, etc. to meet and discuss different relevant issues with local young people from schools, youth organizations, non-organized youth interested to take part at the event, etc. The cafes have been taking place in November every year in different communities all over the country and have involved more than 1,500 participants yearly.