Advancing children and youth’s participation in future making

Newcastle University and UNICEF have announced a three-year partnership to create inclusive digital spaces where children and young people can imagine, co-design and create pathways to advance children’s rights and work towards more just and equitable futures.

The University’s Open Lab and UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Open Lab is Newcastle University’s world-leading research group working at the cutting edge of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and ubiquitous computing, with vast experience in the space of Civic Participation and Civic-Tech.

UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and foresight drives change for children and young people by generating evidence, collecting data and offering foresight on emerging issues to inform global policy to uphold the rights of children, young people and families. Together, both parties aim to build novel digital engagements to enable children and young people to have a voice in decision-making, in collaboration with key stakeholders across the UN System, NGOs and Civil Society.

Creating meaningful space for the voices of children and youth

Dr Clara Crivellaro, Reader in Digital Social Justice, Newcastle University School of Computing and Open Lab, said: “We are incredibly excited about this partnership. Youth voices still play a minor role in policy, service, and technology design. This is problematic – especially since their perspectives can help shape policies and services that better meet their aspirations and needs as well as those of future generations.  Digital technologies and new computational advances bring significant opportunities to augment civic participation, but we know these technologies also bring complex ethical challenges. Through co-creation and responsible design, we can explore new models of digitally-augmented governance that is more accountable and responsive”.

Bo Viktor Nylund, Director of UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, said: “At its heart, this partnership is about advancing child rights by creating safe digital spaces for meaningful child and youth civic engagement. In an age of rapid technological change, we must ensure digital tools support - not sideline - their voices. This is why over the next three years we will work with Open Lab to build ethical and inclusive, child rights-based systems that recognize children and young people as vital contributors to shaping better futures for every child.”

A key focus area of the project is the co-creation and development of a first-of-its-kind child rights youth foresight digital platform, designed to scale UNICEF’s Youth Foresight function. This platform will support young people in influencing decision-making and informing policy in local, national and multilateral contexts.

The partnership will also generate research proposals on responsible uses of emerging technologies, such as Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to augment participation and develop AI literacy in youth-led foresight activities. A key goal is to leverage emerging technologies to create novel, participatory structures that address barriers to meaningful child and youth civic engagement.

Professor Dave Kirk, Director of Open Lab and the Centre for Digital Citizens said: “This collaboration will generate not only novel platforms to enable young people to participate in foresight and futuring activities, but will also have wider impact through the sharing of toolkits and knowledge that local governments and civil society organisations will be able to use to advance agendas for children and young people. More importantly the partnership will enable children and young people to help shape and participate in responsible technology development to support new models of participatory governance.”

Shai Naides, Chief of Youth Engagement and Strategy of UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, said: “When we create meaningful space for the voices of children and youth, we don’t just listen — we unlock bold ideas, strengthen civic trust, and co-create solutions that are more just, resilient, and future-fit. Together, we have the opportunity to shift power and drive true intergenerational collaboration that shapes the policies and systems of tomorrow.”

UNICEF Innocenti and Open Lab would like to invite practitioners working in the intersection of youth participation, inclusive policy design, civic-tech and/or emerging technologies, to engage with this work by filling out the form here.