The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) has provided a toolkit for young people to evaluate national youth policy.

The Participation of Children and Young People in Emergencies captures examples of children's involvement in the tsunami disaster response and recovery phases, as collected by UNICEF and a wide array of partners and UN agencies. While a large portion of the material in this guide refers to the December 2004 tsunami, the guide also includes examples of children's participation in emergencies drawn from elsewhere to show how their actions in the tsunami were not isolated.

A report released today (PDF at http://tinyurl.com/4f4j2p) has found that popular youth participation approaches - such as youth advisory boards - largely fail to engage with young people from diverse backgrounds. The report by the National Youth Affairs Research Scheme (NYARS), “Rewriting the rules for youth participation - inclusion and diversity in government and community decision-making”, was prepared by the Cultural and Indigenous Research Centre Australia (CIRCA) in conjunction with the Inspire Foundation (www.inspire.org.au) and Dr Ariadne Vromen.

This article in 'First Monday', v.12, n.8, 2007, by Mark E. Kann, Jeff Berry, Connor Gant and Phil Zager, looks at the contributions of American youth to online worlds, and how that participation functions as possible gateways to increased political participation.