Empowering youth in health emergencies: an implementation tool

Overview

Young people are critical agents for change in their active participation and engagement in health emergency preparedness, response and recovery. Between January and March 2023, the most recent work on youth engagement in health and humanitarian emergencies carried out by the WHO European Regional Office was reviewed to inform an implementation tool that offers practice-based tips for national and local health authorities, United Nation agencies, youth-serving organizations and other interested organizations on how to involve youth in all stages of emergencies. Strategies to develop this implementation tool included discussions with WHO experts at global, regional and national level carried out in February 2023. Further, a content analysis to identify themes that emerged was analysed, summarized and reported. As a result, the present implementation tool offers practice-based tips on how to meaningfully involve youth in emergency preparedness, readiness, response and recovery.