Policy co-creation helps to ‘build muscles’ of policymakers to engage with citizens

In August, the first run of Singapore’s Youth Panels will be moving into the final phase of submitting their policy recommendations to the government, which will possibly be discussed in the parliament.

This follows months of capacity-building for youth in policymaking and design innovation, who have been deliberating alongside several government agencies in selected policy areas.

In November 2023, the National Youth Council (NYC) launched Youth Panels, an initiative to engage youths to develop policy recommendations in collaboration with the government.

Based on NYC's engagement with more than 300 youths, the top-of-mind concerns expressed by youths – which became the selected policy areas for the panels – were financial security, careers and lifelong learning, digital well-being, and environment and sustainability.

To GovInsider, NYC’s CEO, David Chua, said that capacity-building for policy co-creation is a two-way street involving both citizens and policymakers.  He also shared the agency’s next steps in engaging youths and government agencies in policy co-creation.

Prepping government agencies to engage citizens

Contrary to NYC’s previous engagements with youths, the Youth Panels have taken more of a capacity-building approach, rather than purely consultations.

Beyond serving as a platform to empower and engage youths, the initiative is also a mechanism to “build muscles” of the government agencies to engage citizens at a high level of co-creating and delivering the policies, he said.

“It is therefore a long-term work in progress, and we do not expect these muscles to build quickly, but our hope is that this ability to work with citizens will become more widespread over time,” he explained.

Instead of scaling the initiative some more, NYC plans to focus on strengthening the panel process and developing the capacity of a few more government agencies.

Surveys, focus group discussions and digital engagements to engage a wider mass of youths – beyond those already involved in the initiative – will be part of this process.

The upcoming Youth Policy Forum will also be organised regularly to involve a wider audience of youths in engaging with agencies.

“We are also cognisant that not all youths are interested in policy co-creation, and [we need to ensure that] those who are interested will participate at varying degrees of involvement,” he said.

Diverse youth representation key to the initiative

All four panels are led by youths and comprise about 30 members each, including secondary school and tertiary students, and working adults under 35 from private and public sectors.

The members were selected through an open call, and came from various backgrounds, with different experiences and skillsets.

“Policymaking involves considerations and tradeoffs that affect different segments of our population differently, and hence diverse representation is integral to the Youth Panels’ effectiveness,” he explained.

To ensure that the participants feel “adequate, equipped and prepared” to engage in policymaking, the panels underwent a series of workshops to equip members with the skills to better understand the challenges and contribute effectively.

The workshops were focused on context setting, policymaking, and design innovation to broaden their understanding of the policymaking tools and processes.

In Singapore, youths are defined as aged between 15 to 35 years old, which fall in a wide age range. As a result, NYC organises a range of programmes and initiatives to cater to youths at different life stages and different aspirations.

Some of these include engagement sessions that are co-organised with private and public sector partners, partnering with global stakeholders to further extend their networks and reach, as well as key studies like the National Youth Survey and the Youth Study on Transitions and Evolving Pathways in Singapore (Youth STEPS)

An example where youths' key concerns have been addressed from previous feedback is the affordability of housing.

As such, the Housing Development Board (HDB) introduced a new classification framework for public housing last August to ensure that homes remain affordable, distributed fairly, and have a good social mix.

Correction: The story has been edited for accuracy, as the Youth Panels initiative may not be limited to a one-year duration, and the key youth concern around affordability of housing was gathered not from the initiative, but from NYC's previous engagements.